Healthy Lifestyle Habits

During this unknown and unpredictable season of life, we want to help you keep on track and create healthy lifestyle habits! Here at Corrective Chiropractic, we do not expect our patients to be perfect. Instead, we expect you to be great! How does one achieve greatness? By taking hold of their health and the health of their family.

What are Healthy Lifestyle Habits?

It all starts with creating healthy lifestyle habits. We encourage you to create healthy habits that aren’t just here for a short time, but here for a long time! Living a healthy lifestyle is so much more than just eating a nutritious breakfast. It’s about setting yourself up for success. It’s about making a plan and sticking to it! It’s about taking time for your healthy practices. It’s about moving your body daily! It’s about giving yourself grace when you’re not perfect. It’s about choosing better options! It’s about taking small steps every single day towards a more mindful life.

How Do I Start to Make Healthy Lifestyle Habits?

You might be asking yourself, “Well, that seems like a lot. Where do I start?” Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! Take a moment to think about the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning. Once your alarm goes off… do you immediately roll over, grab your phone, and check all of your notifications? Do you find yourself responding to emails first-thing, scrolling through Facebook to play “catch up,” or ending up on someone’s Instagram page – just wishing you had more vacation time? If the answer is yes, it’s okay.

We’ve all been there. But be encouraged – there is a healthier way! For starters, consider your night routine. Do you sleep with your phone in the room? If so, try leaving your phone in the room outside your bedroom (or even the bathroom).  We want to allow ourselves to be able to go to bed without our phones. Not only will this optimize your sleep environment, but it will allow you to relax and prepare your body for sleep!

Put the Phone Away!

Another tip is to protect the last hour or two before your bedtime as a phone-free zone! LED screens (such as our cell phones & tablets) give off blue light, which is suggested to hinder the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and disrupt our circadian rhythms. While the reason is still not completely sure, it could be because blue light emits wavelengths that are similar to daylight. Moreover, our bodies can be deceived to think that it’s actually day time, even at night. Instead, enjoy some time reading a book, taking a bath to wind down, or even doing your recommended at-home exercises we’ve given you!

When you wake up, don’t let your phone rule your day! Instead, have a plan that will leave you feeling more filled! Maybe you will try waking up a little earlier to read, pray, or meditate? Maybe you will take 15 minutes to write down your goals / positive affirmations for the day? Maybe you will get in a 30-minute workout because you have a busy work schedule? Or maybe you will spend some time on your porch… sipping tea as you watch the sun start to rise? Think about something that brings your heart joy… something that grounds you… something that takes you puts you in a good head space. Now, that is how we want you to start your day!

Make It Happen!

Whatever you choose, we encourage you to make it happen! If you make a plan and tell yourself that you are going to wake up at 6:00 AM for a workout, but then snooze your alarm clock five times and procrastinate until it’s too late… the first thing that you are doing in your day is lying to yourself. Subconsciously, you start cutting corners and cheating yourself in other parts of your day. Make sense?

Creating a healthy morning routine is essential for your health! But please, don’t get stuck in feeling like you have to change everything all at once. We want you to slowly incorporate healthy habits into your routine. Remember – small steps will lead to a more sustainable lifestyle! For you, it might be turning your phone into “airplane mode” an hour or so before you go to bed. It might be sleeping without your phone right by your pillow at night. It might be adding in 30 minutes of exercise in the morning! It might be eating a healthy breakfast instead of scrolling through social media. It might be committing to the one thing you’ve been half-in on for awhile now.

There are a lot of people who say that the very first hour and the very last hour of our day are the most important hours of our whole day! Think about it… it really is so true! This week, try beginning and ending your day with small “wins” that are bound to help you be more productive and leave you more refreshed than ever. Ready, set, go!