Good health is held up by four pillars - good sleep, lower stress, exercise and nutrition. What if you could improve three of these in just 30 minutes a day?
You can! When you get back from work, don’t fling yourself on the couch and watch TV or scroll through social media. Grab your children, friends, dogs, spouse and your takkies and go for a 30 minute walk outside. Or do it alone but stay unplugged and let your thoughts wander and unwind from your day.
You will be adding exercise to your day which lowers stress and ensures better sleep. This is true for when you walk alone but it has been shown that connecting with people lowers stress levels even more.
At first this will seem like a terrible schlep if you are new to the idea but you need to keep at it until it becomes a habit. Once it is a habit you will feel uncomfortable without it.
Everyone has a unique habit-building timeline—and no matter how long it is for any individual, repetition is the key to making it work, explains Phillippa Lally, a senior lecturer in psychology and the co-director of the Habit Application and Theory group at the University of Surrey in England. So keep at it!
Of course, if you do not have children and/or a spouse clamouring for attention you may like to do 30 minutes of yoga or pilates instead of walking, or maybe when the weather is not conducive to a walk. Again, this exercise will help to unwind from the day, lower your stress and lead to better sleep.
There are masses of YouTube videos for beginners in both yoga and Pilates that are 30 minutes. This is my favourite - even though it was formulated for runners you definitely do not have to be a runner. There are 26 sessions starting with the easiest and moving through to the more difficult and Coach Emily teaches really well.
And once you have added just 30 minutes of exercise to your day, lowering your stress and improving your sleep, you will find that making good decisions regarding your diet that much easier. It has been shown that high stress levels and poor sleep can make a person reach for junk food as comfort.
And to give you even more time for this new habit, how about letting TasteBox do the shopping and chopping for your evening meal - have a look at our dietician-approved meal kits here!