Lifestyle Habits – The Key to Success

What are lifestyle habits? In a nutshell, they are things you do habitually every single day. The term itself, lifestyle habits, is actually redundant. Your lifestyle and your habits consist of the same things…the things you do every day. So, what do you do every day?

You might be mentally running through your daily routine:

• Alarm goes off, hit snooze 2-3 times
• Get dressed
• Go to work
• Eat lunch
• Pick up kids
• Make dinner
• Watch TV/Social media
• Go to bed

Or something pretty similar, right? And you would fall in line with almost everyone else around you. The obviously missing items there are diet and exercise. We already know those are essential. Keep in mind that when we refer to diet, we’re referring to how you eat day to day (habitually), not a diet you start today and quit when you’ve dropped a few pounds.

Obviously, if you have unhealthy habits, like smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, you might want to start limiting those for obvious reasons. A glass of wine every now and then won’t hurt, but keep in mind that alcohol does have calories that aren’t really helping you nutritionally. They’re what we call empty calories and they usually position themselves around your gut (beer gut is a real thing).

Assuming you’re already eating healthy (including not skipping breakfast) and exercising at least three days every week, what are you missing?

A big one is sleep.

This is especially true if you have a high-stress job or stressful life in general. Both of those things (lack of sleep and a stressful job) release cortisol, the stress hormone. This hormone can sabotage everything you’re trying to do. First of all, it makes you want to eat. And the nasty bit is, it makes you want to eat carbs, high fat and high sugar foods. Sleep deprivation is a stress on your body and that’s why it also releases cortisol. Do yourself a huge favor and get enough sleep!

Some other things you can do to lower cortisol levels aside from sleep and exercise is meditation. If you don’t know how, look up guided meditations. Anything to get that nasty hormone to go down is a bonus! Even a 10-minute meditation can do wonders.

Are you drinking enough water?

Plain water, not water with flavor drops added to it. Not tea, because tea is actually a diuretic (it makes you pee). Tea is actually good for you , but you should be drinking anywhere from 80 ounces to a gallon (128 ounces) of water daily in addition to the tea (or coffee).

Humans are essentially 75% water. Therefore, it takes lots of water to keep our bodies running smoothly. Dehydration can cause:

• Dry mouth
• Lethargy
• Muscle weakness
• Dry skin/hair
• Sends false hunger signals
• Affects blood pressure and heart rate
• Lack of mental focus
• Inability to flush out toxins (due to less frequent urination)

Did you catch the false hunger pangs bullet point? Your body can send mixed signals causing you to mistake thirst for hunger. If you’re feeling hungry off-schedule, try drinking a glass of water before you eat anything.

A super easy way to tell if you’re getting enough water is to check out your pee. Yellow to orange? Definitely not enough! By the time you start approaching 80 ounces to a gallon of water, your pee is pretty light. And guess what? Constantly being in even a mild state of dehydration is another stressor for your body. Here comes that cortisol again!

Don’t forget regular doses of fun and recreation.

Whatever that means to you, do it regularly. Even if you have to schedule it in. For some, it might be gathering with friends. For some, a beach volleyball game. And yet for others, they’d prefer a quiet afternoon with a good book. Whatever it is that you consider fun, schedule it in.

It might help to create a daily log of all the things you do on a daily basis. This log will consist of your current lifestyle habits. It should cover all of the things you do from the moment your alarm goes off in the morning until you hit the pillow that night. What did you do? What did you eat and drink? List everything. Then analyze it and see where changes can and should be made.

Don’t try to change everything all at once.

That’s setting yourself up to fail from sheer overwhelm. Make changes a little at a time and it won’t hurt so much. Maybe start with going to bed earlier or turning off the TV, phone, or laptop an hour before bed. Studies have shown the blue light from devices prevents release of melatonin, which prevents you from getting sleepy. Start small and stay as consistent as possible.

When you manage to make and keep the new habit for a month, move on to the next item. Small consistent changes lead to big successes in the long run. The other crucial thing is to not beat yourself up if you slip once in a while. You’re human. We all make mistakes. It took you time to fall into the old habit. Don’t be surprised if it takes you some time to break them and create new ones.

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