4 Small Changes To Become A Healthier You

I hope if you’re reading this, you’re feeling optimistic about becoming a healthier you. Maybe you don’t know where to start or maybe you’ve tried a bunch of times and always end up back at square one. Either way, consider this the first steps or beginners guide to starting your health and fitness journey. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as you’ve probably experienced. In fact, I’d even say those who have been successful in transforming their lifestyle, will tell you its so much simpler than they originally thought.

I wanted to share 4 small changes to becoming a healthier you in the hopes of giving you some guideposts to follow that will help you beat the overwhelm of information that often comes with a health and fitness change.

4 Small Changes To Become Healthier:

1. Drink Your Water

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Drink water. Drink water all the time. My daily goal is half my weight in ounces. You cannot expect to start a workout regimen or withstand the energy to make it through a work day and workout when you are dehydrated. Have a headache? Drink water. Bloated? Drink water. Hungry? Drink water first. I find the easiest way to do this is with a Yeti cup or something comparable. It keeps my water cold for a long time and its 30 oz so it’s easy to track my intake.

It’s is undoubtedly the simplest thing you can do to become a healthier you. Like I said before, we overcomplicate health and fitness. Start here. Don’t change a single other thing about your routine except adding in enough water each day. Once that begins to feel like an easy enough habit, add one of the next small changes to your lifestyle.

2. Daily Movement

When you’re ready to talk weightlifting and workout plans, I am your girl. I am happy to share everything I know and refer you to the best. That being said, think smaller and simpler when you are just starting out. Start taking daily walks or another form of simple movement. Set a small goal of taking a 30 minute walk 5 times a week and when that becomes habitual, you can begin to add or adjust your exercise routine for more specific fitness goals.

I’ll be the first to tell you, when I was starting out on my own journey to health and fitness, I thought walking was too easy and wouldn’t bring me any results. Now, I am proud to tell you how wrong I was. The biggest example of this was when my husband quit his job as a stock clerk at Publix and became a digital marketer. All of a sudden the same diet and exercise he had been doing wasn’t enough to maintain his weight. The only thing that changed was that he was no longer walking for his job. I could not believe the difference it made in the amount of calories he burned daily.

And my own experience, during the peak of COVID-19 quarantine when my gym was closed, I did driveway workouts with the minimal weights I had. But I also added in daily walks, anywhere from a mile to 3 miles. Most of my good nutrition decisions went by the wayside during quarantine. But I know for sure, making daily movement a priority helped me tremendously. I only gained a couple pounds which is impressive given I was at my leanest before quarantine. And more importantly, daily movement was the only thing that kept me sane!

No, you’re not going to grow huge muscles or gain a six pack from walking. But you’d be surprised what daily movement can do for your health, weight loss if that’s your goal, and your mental relationship with exercise. Start with 20-30 minute walks with your dog or a podcast and work up from there when you can.

Walks are the simplest form of daily movement but if you want to have a 30 minute dance party or go swimming, that works too! It’s important that you do not hate the exercise right now. Eventually when you add on different or more intense forms of exercise, you may not enjoy every workout but you can’t hate it or you’ll never stick with it. For now though, it needs to be simple and relatively easy to make into a habit.

Related posts: Upper Body Exercises For Beginners; Cable Only Leg Exercises; Dumbbell Only Leg Exercises; 6 Tips For Growing Your Glutes

3. Add in a fruit and/or veggie

So much in the world of health and fitness involves taking things away (i.e. losing weight and limiting foods.) But instead of taking something away, trying adding in some health. Don’t change a thing about your diet except adding in one fruit a day for a week. And then one vegetable a day for a week.

It’s true, this process will take a little longer to show physical results than just jumping both feet in. But, what if this could really last? What if it becomes so habitual and sustainable that you finally see a real lifestyle change? Consistency is the goal. Set a manageable goal, something that will bring you a little closer to a healthier you, and crush it. Cue all the mental gains. Keeping a promise to yourself, even a small one like this, will make a deposit in your self-confidence bucket. And slowly but surely you’ll have acquired a whole new set of healthy habits.

Related posts: Counting Calories and Macros: Why it works; A foodie’s guide to macro-friendly eating; 5 Easy Macro Friendly Meals To Make This Week

4. Be careful what you consume

I’m not referring to food. Be conscious and intentional about the media you consume. A healthier version of yourself includes the inside too! Half the battle of making a healthy lifestyle change is making mindset shifts. On social media and even what you watch on tv, assess and detox as needed. Social media is full of clickbait, quick fixes, and fake news to prey on your desire for results. Not to mention the constant comparison game we can all fall victim to at times.

Follow people online that promote healthy, sustainable habits and inspire you by the words they say and the life they live. Not solely by the way they look. You can have some of these people too but reassess how seeing certain body ideals on your feed really makes you feel about yourself. If you need a good place to start, check out some of my favorites here: Fitness Instagram Accounts You Must Follow.

Additionally, be conscious of the shows you watch. I am not saying cut out all your guilty pleasures, but be aware that watching certain shows might be influencing you to drink when you’re stressed, overindulge in the name of “self care”, or promote false ideals of what healthy looks like.

Related posts: 13 Tips If You’re Feeling Discouraged By The Scale; 6 Reasons To Work Out That Have Nothing To Do With Looks

I know aesthetics and physical appearance are often our initial motivator to getting healthier, they were mine too and that’s okay. But there has to be more. Physical appearance is not enough to keep you going. It’s not sustainable motivation. Take my word for it, you won’t believe the transformation and mental “gains” you’ll make by consistently showing up for yourself.

I hope you’re feeling inspired to start instituting these small changes and begin growing your healthy habits a little at a time. Once you’ve mastered all 4 for a few weeks, you can begin to transition to a nutrition plan like tracking calories/macros and decide on an exercise regimen that works best for you and your schedule. If you ever need some accountability or cheering on, feel free to connect with me via email or over on Instagram, @TheRelatableRed! I am happy to be your hype girl.

-The Relatable Red