4 Tips For Making Positive Lifestyle Changes

“4 Tips For Making Positive Lifestyle Changes” is a collaborative post. Please see the disclosure page for more information. Disclaimer – always verify medical information with your doctor or a professional.

When it comes to changing your lifestyle, we can often worry that it requires a huge investment and commitment from our parts. Life is hectic enough without adding extra pressure to make lifestyle changes. The truth is though that any lifestyle change that you want to make will require effort from you. Often the motivation to feel better and to live your best life is enough for you to make the lifestyle changes necessary. It can often feel like a huge task, when in fact there are simple changes that you can implement that can help you on your way to improving the lifestyle that you have.

With that in mind, here are 4 tips to consider.

Image source – Pixabay – CC0 License

Changing your diet

One of the first things that you may want to consider is your diet. The food that you eat can have a significant effect on your lifestyle and how you feel. For example, if you eat too many sugary treats, then you may feel energized for a little while then experience incredible lows as your body can’t handle the reduced intake. A healthy diet isn’t about denying yourself though, it is all about finding the right balance. One tip to a positive lifestyle change is to cut out at least one sugary drink each day. Try doing this until all of your sugary drinks are eliminated from your daily diet. If you cut out one 12oz soda a day, you will be intaking 39grams less of sugar a day! Small steps like this can steadily improve your health. Most importantly though make sure you do all that you can to enjoy a balanced diet, and getting all of the right vitamins and nutrients to nourish your body.

Exercising more

We all know there is huge value when it comes to exercise, and it is always worth it to add a little more activity in your life. Not just for the physical benefits, but also the mental health benefits as well. This doesn’t mean you have to join a gym and start vigorously taking part in exercise classes. It can simply mean being more active by walking, a light job, and enjoying workouts at home. This September I’ve started walking each morning after the kids get on the bus. It’s really helped me rebuild some muscles and also I’m not getting winded just walking up stairs any more. Yeah! Exercise can really impact your lifestyle in a lot of ways, and can definitely be a great thing to enjoy as well as see the positive benefits. Need more motivation? Check out this video…

Giving up some of your vices

Another thing you may want to consider doing is giving up some of the common voices we can all embrace every now and again. Often things like smoking or drinking too much alcohol can have a negative impact on our lifestyle instead of something that is a positive. Plus, it can cost some serious coin! This may mean you decide to kick the habit of smoking or consider sober living as an alternative lifestyle choice. These things could help to dramatically improve your lifestyle, and combined with a balanced diet and more exercise you will notice considerable changes in how you look and feel.

If you are like me and don’t drink or smoke any more, there might be other vices you want to get rid of. Are you a stress eater or late night snacker? You know, like you get upset so you reach for a donut or watch TV and mindlessly eat something. I consider these vices and yes could be categorized in the diet section above but really there is a mental battle going on with these habits. Try this tip… Keep a small notebook (like tiny) with you or write on a notes app on your phone what you are eating throughout the day and put a “why” reason you ate that food. Then the next day, look at your list and be more mindful of what food wasn’t good for you and why you were eating that food. This hopefully help you make better decisions in what you are eating.

Focusing on your mental health

Finally, a focus on your mental health is never going to be a bad thing. It might be that you want to try and bring some more positivity to your life, or it could be that you take actionable steps such as counselling or seeking out additional support to help with any mental health struggles that you have. If you are struggling with self harm or suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here to chat with someone right now.

Luckily, we live in a time where speaking up for your mental health struggles should not stigmatize you. Twenty years ago when I started realizing that I had mental health issues, I was too embarrassed and worried to tell anyone because I feared what society in general, family, and friends would think of me(and afraid of being locked up in a straight jacket lol). Now, there are so many resources available both offline and online that you can find help with mental health issues. Maybe what you face isn’t life threatening. Maybe you are just wanting to worry less or have a more positive thoughts than negative. Check out my article with one small tip to stop negative thinking by clicking here. Small changes can make a big difference.

Let’s hope that these changes can help to impact your lifestyle in the right way. Do you have any tips for making positive lifestyle changes? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!