8 steps to a healthier lifestyle

We all know we should be healthier. We hear the advice everyday – “take more exercise”, “eat a more balanced diet”, “get more sleep”, “cut down on the booze and chocolate”! We all know what we should do, but we also know it can be so hard to follow all that advice. One of the reasons is that we often try to do everything all at once. We wake up one day and say, “Right, today’s the day!” and we start out with all these good intentions, but trying to do everything at once can be overwhelming. By the evening we have already failed! Big changes are hard. We often don’t have enough will-power to tackle everything at once particularly as all our old habits prove very strong to break. That’s why I firmly believe that the secret is to make very small changes gradually and let them become part of our everyday life. If we take small steps and slowly build new, better, habits, our goal of a healthier lifestyle becomes much easier to achieve.

This summer I want you to join me in taking 8 small steps to a healthier lifestyle. We are going to focus on making one small change each week. I wont be giving you a long list of things to give up! I am going to give you positive things that you can add or change in your life which will start to improve your health. By focusing on one small thing each week, it will be easy for you to remember to do it each day and will give you time to adjust and start to turn it into a habit before making the next change.

So check back on my blog each week and find out what small step you can take this week on your journey to a healthier lifestyle this summer. And let me know how you are getting on by sharing your tips and successes on my facebook page.

Week 1 – Drink More Water

In this first week we are going to try and drink more water. The NHS recommends you drink 1600ml to 2000ml a day but if you don’t tend to drink much at the moment that can seem like a huge amount. So we are not going to focus on reaching that goal. I don’t want people drinking 8 glasses of water the first day, feeling like it is too much effort and then stopping! So instead we are just going to try to add 3 extra glasses of water to our diet every day.

Pick 3 times in the day when it will be easy for you to remember to do it, and when you can easily pour yourself a drink of water. I always make sure I drink a glass before a meal as it is really easy to remember. Before you eat breakfast or drink your first cup of coffee in the morning, drink one large glass of water. Stand at the sink and drink the whole glass in one go (if you carry it around and put it down, the chances are you will forget about it). Do the same at lunch and before dinner. Just make sure that this is EXTRA water on top of what you would normally drink during the meal.

If you can stick to it this week and continue to build the habit over the next 10 weeks, you will be drinking approximately 600ml more water a day than you are doing now and without even thinking about it – brilliant!