Do you feel that you are constantly on the go, making it increasingly difficult to take time for yourself and your health? We have identified four healthy habits that form the foundation of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, daily stress relief, and sound sleep. Establishing these healthy habits make it easy to take control of your health and overall wellness.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be tricky for a busy women who balances family, a career and herself – but you don’t need to sacrifice your health.
Health Habit 1: Exercise
The Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) says that women can increase health benefits to the bones, heart, muscles, and lungs with regular exercise. Just 30 minutes a day of aerobic exercise, like walking, swimming, or jogging, strengthens the cardiovascular system. Weight or resistance training, using light free weights or an elastic band system, strengthens and tones muscles. Don’t overdo weight or resistance training. Allow at least one day between sessions for best results.
Working exercise into a busy day can be difficult. Setting a time to exercise with a partner or signing up for a class at a set time increases your likelihood of following through. When you leave your exercise up to “whenever I have the time,” you will mostly sacrifice that time when you get busy. Making a set time or schedule increases your accountability.
Healthy Habit 2: Diet and Weight Control
Most women store more fat than men. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office, maintaining a healthy weight for your height, age, and body type reduces the risk of breast cancer, depression, adult onset diabetes, and heart disease. Establishing the habit of eating healthy foods every day, including whole grains, lean meats and fish, vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy, makes consuming unhealthy, cholesterol-laden fast foods or junk foods much more difficult. If you’re consuming fiber-rich, healthy foods, it’s easier to feel satisfied after each meal. The decision to make poor food choices is less likely when you’re accustomed to eating well and feeling fit. Healthy Habit 3: Daily Stress Relief
Busy women have many time commitments – and they often overlap. They work, attend to their family and their family’s commitments. Without healthy habits like stretching, meditation, yoga, or relaxing time with a friend, stress levels tend to increase. Too much physical or emotional stress can cause even the healthiest woman to feel exhausted and irritable. Unrelieved stress can manifest in skin irritations, depression, menstrual discomfort, or overeating. Making daily stress relief a priority can provide many benefits – including increasing your overall happiness and getting better rest at night.
Healthy Habit 4: Getting Enough Sleep
Finding enough hours in the day to do it all is a challenge. Sleep is frequently short-changed when concerns for work, family or other commitments are present. According to the National Sleep Foundation, memory or appetite control may suffer without enough daily rest.
Plan to take seven to nine hours each night to recharge the body’s batteries. Without adequate sleep, performing the next day’s to-do list is much more difficult.
