Credit: Getty
Strong Women
3 really simple, low-effort ways to lead a healthier lifestyle
By Lauren Geall
2 years ago
4 min read
Save yourself some time and energy with these quick and easy tips.
If you’ve tried (and failed) to build healthier habits in the past, you’re certainly not alone. We all know what constitutes a ‘healthy lifestyle’ – regular exercise, eating lots of plants and staying hydrated are some of the most important aspects – but despite this, many of us struggle to do the things we know are good for us.
Why? The answer, it turns out, has to do with one key factor: our energy levels. That’s according to a new survey from YouGov and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), which found that tiredness is the reason 35% of people don’t feel able to make the changes they know will be good for them.
Among women, that number was even higher: with 40% saying they felt “too tired” to eat more healthily and exercise more often.
Other reasons put forward by the survey’s participants included a lack of motivation (38%), the cost of food (30%), a lack of time (26%) and a poor work/life balance (25%). The cost of exercising (25%), a lack of confidence (16%) and “not knowing where to start” (12%) also came up as reasons, with only one in four saying that nothing prevented them from leading a healthier lifestyle.
In an ideal world, we’d be able to take on less – saving more energy to make the healthy choices we crave – but we know that’s not an option for many of us . However, the idea that living a healthy lifestyle requires lots of effort isn’t as true as you might think it is, either.
Cooking a fresh meal from scratch every night of the week and going for a run every morning can undoubtedly prove draining – but there are smaller, significant changes you can make that won’t take up as much of your time and energy.
So, if you want to lead a healthier lifestyle but want to conserve your energy in the process, here are three low-effort, easy ways to make positive changes.
1. Get out for a short daily walk
If you left your walking habit in lockdown, now could be a good time to pick it up again. Countless studies have proven just how beneficial upping your step count – even by just a little – can be for your overall health.
In fact, one of the most recent studies out of the University of Cambridge suggests that as little as 11 minutes of brisk walking a day may be enough to prevent early death and disease. A previous study also found that 10 minutes of brisk walking a day has the potential to knock 16 years (yep, you read that right) off your biological age by the time you reach middle age.
According to the British Heart Foundation, a fast walking pace is around 12 minutes per mile (5 miles per hour), so 10-15 minutes of fast walking would only require you to walk about a mile around the block. If you slot that in before or after work – or perhaps even during a meeting – then it’ll be done and dusted before you know it.
2. Prep your breakfast
The idea of spending an hour or two in the kitchen prepping loads of meals may seem unachievable when you’ve got a busy schedule, but setting aside a small amount of time to prep a couple of meals will help you feel more organised and on top of things, all without wasting a whole evening.
A good place to start is preparing your breakfast the night before. Unlike prepping lunch or dinner, it’ll take you less than five minutes, and it’ll help you to start your day on a healthy note. Then, once you’ve got the swing of things, you could try prepping other meals, too.
Just remember: you don’t want to go out of your way to cook ‘healthy’ meals that you hate just because they last well in the fridge – if you do that, it’s likely you won’t eat it anyway.
3. Do some breathwork
Stress rarely gets mentioned when it comes to the basic ‘healthy lifestyle’ formula, but taking care of your mental health is just as important as your physical health when it comes to your wellbeing.
Not only that, but prolonged stress can have some serious effects on your body, including making it harder for you to fall asleep (something which plays a massive role in our overall health), lowering your immune system and making you more susceptible to illness.
Of course, tackling the source of your stress is the best way to counteract the impact it has on your body – but a quick and easy thing you can do to lessen that impact is to set aside a couple of minutes every day to take some deep breaths.
By slowing down your breathing, you’ll be able to slow down your heart rate and stimulate the ‘rest and digest’ side of your autonomic nervous system, leading you to feel calmer and more relaxed.
Try this 2-minute box breathing session to slow down your breathing:
- Breathe in for four seconds
- Hold for four seconds
- Slowly breathe out for four seconds
- Hold at the bottom for four seconds
Images: Getty
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