Improving your health and lifestyle can be as easy as taking a few simple steps in the right direction. Whilst many of us assume we need to totally overhaul our regular daily life in order to notice a difference, even just picking one or two areas to work on, whether that’s building new habits or breaking old ones, can add years onto your life expectancy, helping you to feel your best and enjoy life to the fullest.
Read on for our top tips and advice for living healthier in Sussex through taking simple steps towards a better lifestyle.
Keep Moving
Modern day society spends so much time sitting, from working office jobs and having low energy due to a poor diet to TV and mobile phone addictions. Reducing the time we spend sitting and scrolling is imperative to a healthy lifestyle.
Reducing the time you spend sitting can be instrumental to ensuring you move your body every day in order to keep your bones and muscles healthy. Whilst walking 10,000 steps per day is a great ambition to strive for, and is an excellent goal for younger people, even taking a short fifteen-minute walk each day can help your health, mood, and sleep. Walking increases your heart rate and oxygen consumption which is proven to lower your blood pressure and cholesterol.
If you are interested in making scenic walks a new hobby to improve your health and wellbeing, consider working your way through some of the stunningly scenic long distance trails in Sussex.
Healthy Eating
Although we have all heard about the significance of a healthy diet, you won’t truly appreciate how incredible healthy eating can make you feel until you experience it. From physical benefits such as strong bones and teeth, improved heart health, and better digestion to mental benefits such as an improved mood and better cognitive function, eating a healthy, balanced diet can be truly life changing.
For most people, a healthy, balanced diet includes the following:
- At least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day;
- Meals based on fibrous and starchy foods such as potatoes, rice, or pasta;
- A small amount of daily dairy such as milk, cheese, and yoghurt;
- Sufficient protein from foods such as meat, fish, eggs, beans, and pulses;
- Small amounts of unsaturated fats from oils and spreads;
- At least 8 glasses of water per day.
The majority of the British population consumes too many calories, too much saturated fat, sugar, and salt, and not enough fruit, vegetables, oily fish, fibre, or water. Paying attention to the kinds of foods you are eating and aiming to consume a variety of foods from the main five food groups will ensure you are consuming a wide variety of nutrients daily. Consider consulting a professional nutritionist if you would like more structured advice and support with improving your eating behaviours.
Take Care of Your Mind
Different people seek therapy for a huge number of reasons, with all of these reasons culminating in the desire to make changes to better care for our mental and emotional health and wellbeing. Whether you’re facing a crisis, dealing with depression or anxiety, coping with a big change in your life, or you simply feel you would benefit from the support of a mental health professional, therapy can be a truly transformative experience, helping you to understand yourself better and identify the areas of your mental wellbeing that could benefit from more structured support.
There are so many rewarding benefits of therapy, from improving your communication skills and learning to resolve conflicts to helping you to build stronger relationships and develop coping skills and strategies to better handle life’s challenges. If you are interested in working on your mental wellbeing, seek therapy in Brighton to receive the very best mental health care that Sussex has to offer.
