How To Maintain Healthy Habits At Home
Routine is key
There is no doubt that many Australians’ lives have changed as we practice social distancing and stay at home, and that’s why keeping up a regular and healthy routine is just as important as ever.
According to the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, the key to creating a healthy lifestyle comes from the habits you develop every day. Essentially, it involves a balance between eating nutritious foods, participating in regular physical activity as well as getting enough consistent sleep each night.
Not only do these three things have an impact on your physical health, they also influence your mental wellbeing as they stimulate your mind and encourage positivity throughout your daily life.
Ways to Keep up Your Healthy Habits
Creating or maintaining healthy habits while you spend more time at home can be easy, it may just take a few tweaks to your daily routine. Here a few examples of what you can do day-to-day:
Exercise often and eat well
According to BeyondBlue, it’s recommended to do at least 30 minutes of ‘vigorous’ exercise five times per week. But this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have your own personal indoor gym.
While doing online home workouts is a great way to stay fit, if intense exercise isn’t your thing, there are other options to get the heart pumping and your body moving. You could start doing yoga, Pilates, go for a regular walk, do some low impact exercises while watching tv or even get up and move while doing household chores, like vacuuming the house.
And what goes hand in hand with exercise? Healthy eating!
Having the extra time to cook at home means there’s even more reason to eat good food. So why not buy groceries that you know are nutritious and get creative in the kitchen?
Get plenty of sleep in and limit your screen time
Getting a solid amount of sleep each night, as well as keeping up a routine of when you go to bed and wake up, can do wonders for your overall wellbeing.
In fact, the Sleep Foundation says that sleep regulates mood, enhances learning abilities and memory functions as well as stimulates overall physical and mental health. So, ensure that your sleep patterns remain as regular as they can, even if that means setting yourself regular reminders or alarms.
They also found that consistent use of screens like laptops, TVs and phones, especially late at night, can disrupt your natural body clock. While it may be tempting to use one or two electronic devices while you are at home, as much as you can, try and leave the screens for productive work and take the extra time you have to read or book or even learn a new skill.
Focus on the positives around you
When it comes to health, the mind is just as important as the body. Cherishing the small things and keeping a positive attitude while you are at home will keep you motivated to keep up your healthy habits.
It’s important to take a moment out of your day and reflect on the good going on around you, and steer clear of dwelling on any uncertainties you have. Putting time aside each day for prayer, meditation or reflection can be a great way to break up the day, open your mind and help drive the rhythm of your daily routine as well.
