Make Your Bed
Wildly simple and easy but perpetually overlooked, making your bed can be an important starting point for really getting your wellness on track. Retired Admiral William H. McRaven of the United States Navy is the main proponent of this idea, saying “If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day [...] By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.” Making your bed essentially sets you up for minor victories that, together, create a successful day. It is the reinforcement of good habits and will make it easier to accomplish loftier goals.
Pick an exercise, any exercise
Pick one relatively comfortable exercise. It can be anything from sit-ups to running to pushups, but just ensure that it is feasible. Then pick a challenging number of repetitions or time limit and, here’s the hard part, do it every single day for one week. Once the week is over, repeat. Soon it will become an effortless habit and you’ll want to expand the workout to something more challenging and effective.
Key Recovery
Fitness beginners and regulars alike can learn a lot about recovery. In the same way that a beginner can choose an easy workout every day and stick to it to build good habits, so too can more experienced people choose a recovery method every day and build good wellness habits. Stretching, foam rolling or cool-downs are all effective and simple ways to ensure proper recovery from a workout. These habits can also increase your immunity to extreme muscle soreness by easing your muscles in and out of workouts. A comprehensive review published in the International Journal of Sports Therapy found that foam rolling produces short-term increases in range of motion, helping make workouts safer, reducing that strain joints go through, and increasing performance.
Home cooking
It doesn’t have to be an extravagant feast. Your daily handmade meal can be a few eggs over-easy with salt and pepper, chicken and steamed broccoli, or even something as simple as boosting a protein shake with some Living Juice Green Vitality. All that matters is that your hands are doing the work. Like making your bed, cooking your own food instills a small sense of pride within us. That feeling is encouraging and can compel us to engage in similar healthy behaviors that make us feel good. On a more basic note, cooking forces you to examine every ingredient you put into your body, allowing for a healthier and more aware eating experience.