Cultivating a healthy habits helps you kick off your day and why you should imbibe them have been listed below The outcome of your day starts from how you spend your mornings. When you start your morning feeling distressed or afflicted, it has a lurking effect on how the rest of your day will be.
That is why it is important to start your day right so the rest of the day can go on perfectly. Imbibing healthy habits into your daily life can improve your physical well being and mental health.
Healthy Habits To Help Start Your Day Right Include:
1. Japanese Water Therapy
It is known that water helps regulate the body’s temperature and renews body cells. Japanese water therapy, a healthy habit, which involves drinking room-temperature or warm water on an empty stomach after waking has been said to not only cleanse the digestive system but also regulate gut health, which according to advocates can heal a variety of conditions.
Warm water is advised by proponents as cold water is harmful because it could slow down indigestion due to solidification of fats and oil.
The Japanese water therapy includes the following steps that should be repeated daily:
- Upon waking, drink four to five 3/4-cup (160-ml) glasses of room-temperature water on an empty stomach and before brushing your teeth, and wait another 45 minutes before eating breakfast.
- Eat only for 15 minutes at each meal and wait at least 2 hours before eating or drinking anything else.
Water therapy is very essential to the body but if you find it boring or bland you can add a dash of lemon, which could aid in detoxification and adds to taste.
2. Regular Exercise
It seems obvious that we should be physically active, given the overwhelming evidence right? It also seems obvious that It’s essential if you want to live a healthy and fulfilling life into old age. You would be surprised at the number of individuals who do not exercise.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) study released in September 2018, showed that more than a quarter of adults across the world don’t get sufficient amount of exercise. This study also used data from 358 surveys across 168 countries and 1.9 million people to come to this conclusion.
Imagine waking up and taking 15-30 minutes of your mornings to workout with awesome music from your playlist, the energy it brings could charge up your day. Healthy habits like exercising, does not only improve your body shape but also give you a positive outlook on starting your day.
You don’t have to lift weights or run a treadmill just to exercise, you can go for a morning run, simple workouts at home such as jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups, squats and so on. When next you plan your mornings be sure to add exercise as one of the things to do.
3. Healthy Breakfast
Breakfast has been said to be one of the most important meal of the day. Nothing is more stimulating than having a healthy breakfast after a refreshing morning workout session. According to research, people who often eat breakfast are slimmer because they tend to eat less during the day.
A healthy breakfast should contain all the essential nutrients needed by the body in a balanced proportion.The best time to have your breakfast should be at 7 am or around the first hour of waking up.
Fruits and vegetable juice could be taken just before main breakfast in order to aid digestion and reduce the number of carbs consumed per day. A breakfast meal should be rich in protein such as eggs.
Studies have proven that including eggs in your diet helps you consume fewer calories in the next 3 hours. However, keeping in shape or losing more weight. Alongside your protein-rich diet, you can also choose to have a meal that is rich in carbs thereby balancing the nutrients in your breakfast meal.
If you’re short on time in the morning, think about ways to keep your breakfast choice simple, from energy-boosting “apple pie” and protein-rich scrambled eggs to a nutrient-packed green smoothie which provides something for everyone.
4. Daily Journaling
Journaling daily is one of the most powerful habits to imbibe. As much as technology has swamped our lives and is gradually ridding us of pen and paper, it doesn’t entirely erase how therapeutic journaling could be. Journaling has proven to have stress-relief benefits that help kick off your day to a great start.
Journaling could be of any form. It could be as simple as making a detailed list of things to do or putting your feelings to words. Journaling improves our mental health. Take a few minutes to reflect on how you spent the previous day, was it a day well spent? Are there goals you didn’t achieve the day before that you’d like to achieve today? Or are there things you are thankful for? Pen it all down and reminisce on it, it’ll make you feel better and more fulfilled.
5. Positive affirmations
The days were talking to one’s self could be classified as mental distortion or one needing psychological evaluation is behind us. Now, it is the best thing that can happen to anyone because the words we speak to ourselves reflects on our daily lives. Speaking positive things to one;s self has proven to not only keep you stress-free but also have a positive impact on your mental health.
This is the most important tip to start your day right, it drives the negative thoughts away and makes you mentally ready to start the day. However terrible your day may start or how grumpy you may feel in the morning, saying one positive and real thing to yourself is all you need to start the day because when you say it, you begin to feel it too.
If you’re thinking of how to start, not to worry, you don’t have to memorize an entire book and recite every day like it’s a chore. Here’s all you need do;
Stand in front of your mirror and say these few phrases to yourself:
- I have the power to create my happiness and write my story
- My struggles and tribulations do not define me
- I am more than what I perceive myself to be
- I am smart and more than enough
- *Insert your name* is going to have a good day
I would end this with one of my daily favourite quotes.
There is no reason today can not be the best day of my life
— Favour Ikwan
