10 Tips To Feel Better Every Day

You can’t make it more than five minutes through your day without being bombarded with advice, solicitations, and recommendations on how to live the perfect, healthy life. With so much information coming in at once (and sometimes from questionable sources), we’d like to provide you with a simple, easy to follow list of EASY changes you can make in your life to feel better.

1. Sleep More: This is the single most important thing you can do for your health every single day. Try to keep the same bedtime hour daily. Don’t be on your phone until just before you go to sleep. Your brain needs to wind down for an hour before bed. If you can, grab a 15 min nap during the day. Rest is essential for overall health.
2. Drink More Water: This should be your main beverage throughout the day. Yes, I know coffee is a necessity--but really, water is vital for our bodies. Don’t leave home without your water bottle.
3. Get Outside and Walk: Our bodies are not meant to sit all day long. We are meant to get up and walk around. Long before we had gyms, our ancestors roamed the earth, slow walking for hours a day. Most of us don’t have hours to walk, but I bet we could all fit in 30 minutes in our day to get outside, breathe the fresh air, and walk. Can’t make it to the gym for your usual ab workout? A quick walk around the neighborhood is much better for your core than sitting home and watching Netflix!
4. Eat More Veggies: Think about half your plate being filled with veggies two out of three meals, daily. Shocking to some but the single most important dietary addition to your day.
5. Eat Real Food: Our bodies don’t recognize the chemicals in processed foods. Our digestive systems haven’t evolved that much over the last few hundred years. A rule of thumb; if your grandma wouldn’t recognize what you’re eating, skip it.
6. Find An Exercise You Love And Make It Your Passion: I’ve worked in gyms for 20 years and have seen some miserable people on various pieces of equipment. If you hate it, don’t do it. There are so many choices for exercise these days--try them all and find one that you truly feel passionate about. Zumba, high intensity interval training, rock climbing, crossfit, yoga, pilates, group classes--and the list goes on and on. Don’t say you don’t like exercise. Keep trying and find friends to join you!
7. Find Your People: Having friends or a tribe counting on you to show up daily can keep you accountable and active. With social media, it’s easy to call out your friends for missing class. It’s more fun with people who have the same interests as you.
8. Plan Out Your Day: For the most part, we all know what our day will look like. Pack snacks, lunch, bring extra water; plan for success. If you have an apple in the car, you’ll eat it when you get hungry and be satisfied. Going a long time without eating and being dehydrated leads to disaster.
9. Don’t Reward Yourself For a Workout: A friend once said, ‘I’m not a dog, I don’t need a treat.’ I go to Starbucks almost daily and see so many people negating their ab workouts with one drink order. Your reward is feeling like a badass the rest of the day for a job well done. For making yourself and your health a priority. That’s a fabulous reward.
10. Be KIND To Yourself: You are awesome!!!

In summation, you can skip the miracle diet. Don’t worry about the snake-oil cures or the ‘miracle’ equipment that’ll help you get flat abs just by sitting on the couch. The secrets to feeling better, getting in shape, and leading a fulfilling life are easier to find than you might think. These 10 tips are a fantastic place to start looking!

For Pam’s tips on getting in shape while working out at home, check out this great blog post.