Most of us are so caught up in the seemingly endless rat race we don’t even have time to sit down and have a decent breakfast. So how are we supposed to shape up and start leading healthier lifestyles?
The answer is pretty simple actually: prioritizing like a boss.
Prioritizing a healthy lifestyle is all about kicking things off on the right foot early in the morning. Mornings are best for this since you have more drive at the start of the day, and even though your brain might still be slumbering a little, that’s okay. You’ll be able to trick it into cooperating before it even has the opportunity to put up a fight!
[tweetthis]For healthy lifestyle, early rise; #workout after healthy breakfast; #meditate; & keep journal. [/tweetthis]
A Simple 5 Step Plan to Stay Healthy in 45 Minutes per Day
(If you don’t have a full 45 minutes, just stick to the plan as best you can.)
Step 1 – Get Up Early
Waking up earlier is a small change that can lead to powerful results. Giving yourself more free time in the morning means that you’ll save yourself from stressful thoughts about how you simply can’t get everything done because there’s too much to do and not enough time. You can use those extra morning hours to plan out your day, go to the gym, get ahead on work, spend time with a loved one…whatever you find most productive! This will eliminate a lot of unnecessary stress, which puts you one step closer to better health.
Step 2 – Eat a Healthy, Balanced Breakfast
This is super important, and we wish that more people would take breakfast seriously – grabbing a muffin on the go just doesn’t cut it. Ensuring that you feed your body with a balanced, whole-foods breakfast is probably one of the easiest and most effective ways to ensure that you’re getting your fix of nutrients for the day. Giving your body the fuel it needs will also help you handle the hectic pace of everyday life, and if you take a multivitamin after having your breakfast you may even be able to ward off infections and disease.
Step 3 – Workout for 10 Minutes after Breakfast
Doing as little as 10 minutes of any physical activity per day can make you healthier and happier. That’s because exercise generates new neurons and it also helps get rid of mental as well as physical pain. Find something that fits into your schedule and commit to moving your butt for at least 10 minutes per day. We promise you it will be worth it over the long run.
Step 4 – Meditate for 10 Minutes
According to one Zen rule, we should meditate for 20 minutes each day – unless we feel like we don’t have time to meditate, in which case we should meditate for an hour! Realistically speaking, none of us have the freedom to meditate for 20 minutes each and every day, and we’ve got no chance of meditating for an hour. What we’re suggesting is a relaxing 10 minute meditation session straight after your morning workout, which can be seen as kind of cooling down period. Go ahead and look at the results from this study; you’ll see that mediation can boost both mental and physical health.
Step 5 – Keep a Diary
This will literally take up 5 minutes of your time every morning, and you can do it straight after a quick mediation session. Whether you choose to keep an electronic journal or go old school with a pen and paper, there’s no quicker and easier way to boost your mental health than keeping a diary. Make sure you reflect on the events of the week or the day before, make plans for the future (or even just for tonight). You can write whatever you’d like, as long as you let your mind drift for a moment… and allow it to heal itself in the process.
The Wrap Up
While there are probably thousands of ways that you can start living a healthier life in as little as 45 minutes per day, we like the idea of using these steps since they don’t really involve any major life changes, yet they’re still powerful ways to change your life around.
And don’t forget you can tweak your existing morning habits to take them up a notch, too. Try saying a few affirmations while you’re putting your makeup on in front of the mirror, adding a dry brushing session before you take your shower, or turning your regular coffee into bulletproof coffee.
We hope that this post has inspired you to start making small changes, and hopefully you’ll soon be able to see major benefits from these little tweaks in your lifestyle, so that you become the happiest and healthiest version of yourself.
About Author: Megan Thompson is a DIY health & beauty addict. She’s committed to making her itsy-bitsy apartment chemical free and her diet as unprocessed as possible. You can find her work at Gold Mountain Beauty where she is responsible for the blog, Instagram and Pinterest.
