We can all agree that it would be nice to have everything run on autopilot. Chores, exercise, eating healthy and getting your work done just happening automatically without temptations and everyday normal problems popping up putting us on the spot against our new goals and routines. On January first, did you want to eat healthier, increase your productivity at work, or live a more balanced life? Me too! I usually like to have a set routine, especially with having to balance my work and my life as a professional swimmer, with training and everything. Being consistent with good habits helps me feel more in control — and feeling more in control makes me happier overall.
Diet change, weight loss, healthier lifestyle, no fast-food, less sugar, etc, are amongst the most common New Year’s resolutions every year. According to a survey by Inc Magazine, those items are present in 71% of new year’s resolutions lists across the U.S. According to the same survey, “about 60 percent of us admit that we make New Year's resolutions but only about 8 percent of us are successful in achieving them.”
Building a new wellness/fitness habit starts with a sometimes massive behavioral change, which also brings up the question: Am I really ready to make a change at this point of my life? Everything we do, feel, and think relates to our well-being. In my opinion, wellness is considered a way of living, an integration of the body, mind, and soul. It’s not just about your looks, but your health as well: overindulging in unhealthy habits can endanger your life in more ways than one, and avoiding this situation is a must.
But as life starts to inch its way back to normal, you might worry about those healthy habits going by the wayside. In this blog I want to give you the perfect tips on how to hold on to these new habits you set this year!
1. Commit to Thirty Days: Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit automatic. You should always think of your wellness and well-being as a lifelong dynamic journey. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it becomes much easier to sustain. A month is a good block of time to fully commit to a change since it easily fits in your calendar.
2. Start Simple: Don’t try to completely change your life in one day. Although it might seem simple to make those changes, it is extremely hard to keep up with them. It is easy to get over-motivated and take on too much. If you wanted to read for two hours a day, first make the habit to go for thirty minutes or a chapter and build on that.
3. Keep as much as you can constant: While there are things you want to have change about your life (getting to see friends and family more, for one!), make sure to keep the specifics surrounding your workouts or cooking routine as similar as possible. When reality hits and we all get busy with our schedules, the first thing we tend to lose is the track of our diet. But what are the benefits of a healthier diet? Well, for this one I am assuming I don't have to extend myself too much. A healthier balanced diet can only bring us benefits in the short and long run in terms of having a better well-being.
4. Focus on how good your healthy habits make you feel: Have you loved how energized your morning walks have made you? Do you feel great after cooking a veggie-filled meal from scratch? Noticing those positive effects can make sticking with habits down the road a lot easier. Cultivating and growing your overall wellness builds resilience, reduces the risk of illness, and ensures positive interactions on a daily basis. Your well-being not only affects your life, it also influences others you are closely connected to.
5. Remove Temptation: Restructure your environment so it won’t tempt you in the first thirty days. Remove junk food (Don’t even go through the isle when you're grocery shopping) from your house, cancel your cable subscription, throw out the cigarettes so you won’t need to struggle with willpower later.
6. Focus on Longevity: The goal of longevity is also to live a better life, with improved mental and physical wellness, and the ability to be active and independent. Choosing minimally processed, real foods that provide maximal nutritional benefits is the main idea behind the switch to clean eating lifestyle focused on longevity. My biggest advice is to start slow and small, with one or two products you heavily consume already and then see how that goes and start implementing it with other product categories.
The main goal is to consume foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. Paul Millsap, 4x NBA All-Star and Hydra-Guard Partner has always made his nutrition and health a priority, which reflects his elite performance and extremely successful career in the NBA. Paul’s ability to maintain playing at the highest level has been nothing short of amazing. It's a professional career that every athlete strives for.
The key for longevity in any athlete’s career is to take care of their bodies first and that's something that Paul has obviously done very well. Hydra-Guard Sports Drink caught Paul’s attention in early 2019, when he officially partnered with them in efforts to bring the brands healthy benefits more readily available to more households across the country. "Being a professional athlete naturally encourages me and my family to live a healthy lifestyle. Hydra-Guard Sports Drink raises the bar to unprecedented heights with its beverage innovation. It’s packed with electrolytes, and being an all natural sports drink with low sugars is a game changer, this product is changing the industry," says Paul.
7. Do it For Yourself: Don’t worry about all the things you “should” have as habits. Instead tool your habits towards your goals and the things that motivate you. Weak guilt and empty resolutions aren’t enough.
Investing in your health and wellness can start at any age and is a lifelong process. The goal should always be to make tweaks to make the action become a realistic lifestyle for you. We must make time for things that are “necessary” but also allow this new behavior and new lifestyle to enter the conversation of longevity, well-being and necessity.
Remembering to always look forward by envisioning what life might look like if you stick to your new habits and make the changes necessary to live more healthfully and in line with your values and aspirations. These are the things that will keep your hope, motivation and enthusiasm for achieving your goals at a high level throughout the process of change.
People are always asking “Where do I start?” This may sound silly – but the place you want to start is with proper hydration. If you are not getting enough water and healthy fluids than every other system in your body is affected. Your body systems will literally become sluggish if you are neglecting this simple foundation.
Luckily, there are already healthier options of foods and drinks on the market that can help people get their essential vitamins and minerals without the extra calories from added sugar intake. Products like whole grain rice or pasta, oats, fat-free or low-fat dairy, zero-sugar yogurt are already available on any market and can drastically help with the switch to a low-sugar diet. If you ever feel like you don't have enough knowledge or time to adjust into a better nutrition schedule, I'd suggest finding a professional of that area to better help you achieve your specific goals.
In case you are like me and like to practice sports or physical activities on a daily basis, there are also electrolyte replacement products available that are low-sugar and low-calories. Hydra-Guard Sports Drink for example is a great way of replenishing your essential electrolytes after a workout but keeping the calorie count low and consuming only 5g of natural sugars per bottle.
Use the code JOAO10 for a special discount on their website, and I also recommend you to subscribe to their newsletter because they are always releasing special codes for even higher discounts on their products.