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Tired of making unrealistic New Year's resolutions that are impossible to stick with? This year, scrap the whole idea of making sweeping changes, and focus instead on adding these 7 lifestyle tweaks that will make a massive difference in how you feel about yourself and your life on a daily basis. It is much easier to add a few positive habits than it is to overhaul your entire life. In this blog, I will cover how you can build the health routines that will give you the results you are looking for, in a realistic and totally doable way.
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Add Gut-Healthy Foods And Beverages To Your Diet
Everything starts with the gut. Your weight, immune function, heart health and brain/mental health are all impacted by the balance of bacteria in your gut. Instead of holding yourself to incredibly restrictive diets that, in effect, often do more harm than good to your microbiome, start adding foods and drinks that nourish the health of your gut.
Read more about the mind-gut connection here.
Incorporate More Fermented Foods
Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, and puehr tea contain beneficial probiotics that support the balance of bacteria in your gut. Probiotics contain the "good bacteria" (we're going for more good guys, less bad guys).
Puehr (also spelled Pu-erh) tea contains the health benefits of tea AND the benefits of fermented foods, so you get double the benefits!
Our Favorite Teas With Puehr: Gut Balance, Coffee Quitter, Campfire Chai, Bulletproof Breakfast
Eat A Diverse Range Of Whole Plant Foods
Don't start cutting out major food groups in an attempt to lose weight this New Year! Cutting out "carbs" is fine if you mean avoiding chips and donuts, but cutting out whole grains like barley, rye, whole wheat, buckwheat, oats and quinoa can actually hurt the health of your gut.
It is well documented that dietary diversity (meaning incorporating a wide variety of whole plant foods) has one of the biggest impacts on the health of your microbiome. In the United States and Western world, we don't have enough variety in our diets.
How do you get more variety? Buy more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes! Try new things. Go to a farmers market and pick out fruits you've never tried. You might be surprised at how much you like them!
Drink Gut-Friendly Teas
Drink teas with herbs like ginger, dandelion root, peppermint and tons of spices!
We brought the best of Loose Leaf tea blends for gut health together in the Gut Health Tea Bundle. Other gut-friendly teas include Stomach Soother, Smooth Jazz, Sleek & Slender, Bye Bye Bloat, and Coffee Quitter.
Move Your Body Every Day
Move Your Body Throughout The Day
Here's a crazy (and kind of scary) fact: researchers found that men who sat for 6 hours a day or more have a 20% higher risk of death than those who sit 3 hours or less, while women who sit for more than 6 hours have a 40% higher death rate (citation). In other words, you want to try and get up and move as much as you can throughout the day, even if that means taking a longer route to the bathroom.
We live in a world where movement is less required than it used to be to survive; our ancestors dedicated their much of their time to gathering food, migrating and running from predators. It's unrealistic in our day in age to be able to walk all day long (unless you have the means and job type where you can walk all day on a treadmill desk). Instead, get up from your desk on an hourly basis and do a few squats, jumping jacks, and stretches. Although this might seem small, it can make a big difference.
Incorporate 20 Minutes of Fun Exercise Every Day
If you never exercise, it's unrealistic to think that you're going to start going to the gym for an hour every day. Instead, get started by committing to a 20 minute dance workout on YouTube or go on a walk with your best friend. Keep it simple, and make it fun.
Read: How Exercise Makes You Smarter
One of the most important things to remember when getting started with exercise is to start slow and easy. Here is a set of lightweight dumbbells for beginners. You might also want to invest in a yoga mat like one of these; they are relatively inexpensive and come in 39+ designs.
Practice Deep Breathing For Stress Reduction
This is one practice that will get you through even the most stressful times of your life. Try this simple breath: breathe in and out through your nose slowly. Breathe in to the count of four. Hold in to a count of four. Exhale to a count of four. Hold for the count of four. Repeat several times.
Deep breathing is a technique that allows you to calm your mind and reduce stress hormones quickly. Stress can cause damage to the body, so incorporating de-stressing techniques and practices wherever possible can support a healthy mind and body.
Drinking certain herbal teas can help regulate the nervous system and help protect your body from the negative effects of stress. You can get our best stress-relieving teas right here in our Stress Relief Tea Bundle.
Read also: 7 Ways To Manage Anxiety Naturally
Try Journaling For Your Mental Health
Journaling is one of the most effective ways to manage your mind. It is one of the most therapeutic things you can do for yourself on a daily basis. Simply write out your thoughts without censoring yourself, and you will discover how cathartic this practice is. Journaling is also a wonderful way for insights and breakthroughs to happen.
Here is my very favorite type of journal by DesignWorks Ink
And here are my favorite metallic gel pens for journaling
Start Cutting Sugar Out Of Your Diet
Not only will you lose weight, you will gain a healthier, longer and more enjoyable life.
The American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 25 grams of sugar per day, the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of sugar. A can of Coke contains 39 grams of sugar, so if you’re a soda drinker, you’re already over the healthy limit after a 12 oz can. The good news: you can retrain your palate to not want sugar in 7 to 21 days. Try This Soda Alternative Hack and check out our 7 Day Sugar Challenge where, with the help of two amazing teas, the support of the community, and the power of your commitment, you can break free from sugar cravings and learn to live a healthier lifestyle.
Try these Loose Leaf teas to break the sugar habit for good:
- Sleek & Slender curbs the craving, while improving digestion and metabolism
- Sugarproof tea is more of a medicinal tea blend that blocks the sweet flavor and also gets rid of the craving with regular use
Get both of these teas together and save!
Make Sleep A Priority
Healing happens when we sleep. Build a healthy sleep habit by going to bed and waking up around the same time every day to retrain your mind and body into a regular sleep cycle.
Some things that might help you sleep better:
- If you have a tendency to overthink, journal it out before bed. Wrap up your writing with a definitive statement like this: “The day is done, I did my best, and I will do so again tomorrow. But for now, I'm going to rest.”
- Read a calming book. This might help you get your mind off your own life and allow your natural sleep hormones to do their job.
- Wash the day off with a hot shower or bath.
- Try herbal sleep teas. Drink Nitey Nite Tea before bed to help you unwind and get your body and mind relaxed and ready for slumber. Lush Lavender is less sedating, but also effective at helping prepare your body for sleep. Get both of these teas together in the Better Sleep Tea Bundle.
- Don't go to bed too full. If you grind your teeth while you sleep, experience gas and bloating, or wake up with a heavy feeling in your abdomen, your digestion might be the reason you’re not getting a good night sleep.
- Try good quality sheets. Here is a set of my favorite ultra-smooth and cooling sheets made from sustainable beech tree fibers.
- Try using a relaxing eye pillow. Natural melatonin is created in the dark; seeing light can disrupt your sleep. This eye pillow is filled with lavender and flax to soothe your eyes
Read more about the things you can do to get the sleep you need.
Get the better sleep tea bundle.
Drink Tea Instead Of Alcohol
Alcohol is addictive, highly toxic and can be destructive to your physical and mental health. From gut health to blood sugar levels, alcohol messes everything up. On the other hand, teas of all kinds are full of health benefits. Whether you drink traditional green or black teas, flavorful fruity teas, or healing herbal blends, tea is high in antioxidants, is hydrating, and supports the health of your body and mind.
Now, I'm not asking you to substitute your fun cocktail with a plain green tea on a night out. There are hundreds of tea mocktails that you can make that are not only healing, but also incredibly delicious.
Check out these 10 Amazing Tea Mocktail Recipes You Need This Dry January!
If you love making fun drink recipes, check out this Tea Brewing Essentials Kit that has all you need to make exciting tea recipes. And follow along with us on Instagram where we show you how to turn our monthly teas into delicious recipes like these!
Shop Loose Leaf bestselling teas
Thanks so much for reading. I wish you a happy and healthy New Year!
If you enjoyed this blog, check out 7 Natural Ways To Take Care Of Your Mental Health During Times of Stress.