Tips on staying healthy.

My best tips on staying healthy is to set yourself up so that you have little chance of making a decision you are not quite happy with. Ok so what is it I’m talking about?

The theory is that you form a sort of contract with yourself to help with decision making. How to make it easier for yourself to make the right decision for you. We want to prevent “bad” behaviour. When we are at our best, not tired after a long day at work etc we can make sound decisions and resist temptations better. We know we are not supposed to do certain things. We also know we are supposed to do certain things. Most of us know that at certain times of the day or a specific thing will make that decision harder. Because we know this we can make plans that will help us do what is best for our health and help us stay healthy. 

Implement this tip to stay healthy in real life. 

My first example will be about exercise.

• Let’s say you know that you are always tired and lacking energy after a day at work. The plan you make is to try and do exercise in the morning or lunch time. That way you have less of a chance to skip your exercises that you know you should do.
• Another way can be to schedule exercise with someone else. A friend, trainer, partner, running group, tennis partner etc. You are less likely to skip your exercise because you have someone expecting you to show up. 

Next is about food and alcohol, this in my experience is hard but also where it can make a big difference. These are two broad examples just to make a point on how it can work. 

• Most of us know that we crave all kinds of things when we are hungry. Let’s say when you normally make bad decisions regarding food is between lunch and dinner or perhaps dinner itself. Knowing this we then need to make a plan to prevent you from becoming too hungry during that time. That will help you make better food choices and potentially overeating over dinner.  
• Regarding alcohol, many use it at the end of the day to relax. But how to make better decisions when it comes to alcohol. Let’s say normally you would open a bottle of wine or two. The next day you have leftovers and decide that we will just finish that off.. To help minimise the amount consumed you can decide to go for a smaller bottle so you don’t get leftovers to finish off. Or perhaps go for a bear instead. 

To make these plans you have to look at your routine. Where do you tend to make decisions that are not in your health’s favour? Then take a bit of time to come up with ways that will help you stay healthy.