The great thing about life is that you are in charge of your own time. The only one who can control how your day goes is you.
Having control of your time means that your every movement is chosen by you. You can be in favour of your habits and rituals instead of letting time rule you. To do this, you can track your habits. Tracking habits will allow you to monitor the time you waste on non-important things. Thus, you will be able to use that time effectively on your health and wellbeing.
How you choose to spend your time is your choice. For example, you might want to invest in personal therapy or medical practices to maximize your health. Ensuring you invest time into the right help medically will maximize your health and reduce the risk of common types of medical malpractice.
How you spend your time and how you care for yourself is your choice. Spending time focusing on your health instead of being online or stressing yourself out at work will only offer benefits.
What exactly should you track?
Tracking small things such as drinking water every 30 minutes, sleeping, practicing yoga, eating your meals on time, going for a walk, completing a task are things you can tick off throughout the day and move forward with the next step. Completing one of your daily habits allows you to move on to the next one. Tracking is motivating.
Here are two things that you should begin your habit tracking with for the biggest impact on your health and wellbeing:
1 – Daily Movement
Movement every day is healthy. Movement allows us to express ourselves, our mentality, and our physicality. Whether you like to walk, run, do yoga, stretch or play a sport, getting in daily exercise is imperative for a healthy mind and body.
Practicing meditation every morning and doing a workout of choice at some point during the day is beneficial to your mind as much as it is your body. Exercise and movement allow you to give time to yourself, tune into your thoughts, and energize your body. It is invigorating and movement plays an important role in a balanced lifestyle.
Without movement, a sense of un-accomplishment may encourage you to slack off. Failing to add movement into your day may decrease your motivation, as well as your routine and everything you has worked hard for in order to live beautifully.
If you are someone who doesn’t move enough, then make it a priority. Starting small will help motivate you and tracking down your daily movement will encourage you to do it again the next day.
Right now, if you are a person who doesn’t get much movement due to your job (i.e. an office job which requires you to be at a desk all day), think of ways you can add more movement into your day.
For example, you can try an alternative way to get into work that involves more walking or cycling. Or, if you can dedicate certain days to lunchtime or after-work exercise classes then go for it.
Physical fitness is intimately linked to general wellbeing. Exercise has a holistic effect that will not only make you feel more balanced but more centered. Tracking and creating your habits can help you become a fierce advocate of simple eating, regular exercise, and a clean lifestyle.
Making time for yourself is so important if you have a career or lifestyle that takes the focus away from yourself the majority of the time.
2 – Health Habits
Habit tracking can help you make healthy habits a habit if you struggle with making healthy choices. Stress and bad habits are big attributes to poor health. Poor habits can have a negative impact on your body long-term. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to always care for your body and make it a priority. Small changes are a way to cultivate the seeds of good habits. Which, your body will thank you for.
For example, if you aren’t giving yourself enough water during the day or are lacking sleep, tracking this will help you recognize that. Noticing what you are lacking will help you improve. You should invest your time into making healthy habits.
Getting enough movement, water, sleep, and balanced food will soon become easier with tracking. Start today. Track your food, your exercise (if even it is walking to and from work), your water intake, and how much sleep you get. Tomorrow, you will see patterns. The next day, you will notice even more of a pattern.
You will immediately spot your unhealthy habits after a day or two and want to throw them out of the window. Good. That is the lesson you are looking to learn here. You will soon learn and want to make healthier food options, swap carbonated energy for water, turn your phone off earlier, and get more sleep.
Taking note of bad habits is important when you start. Don’t lie to yourself. Tracking your bad habits will motivate you to change them into good habits.
Where should I start?
An important health habit to begin the habit tracking, take on, and challenge yourself with is getting enough water. H2O is your best friend and your body needs water more than anything else in life. All live beings – humans, animals, and plants – need water to survive.
Water is something you should add to your daily schedule and remind yourself to drink every 30 minutes.
Why begin with water?
Dehydration leads to high cortisol levels, the stress hormone, which leads to high stress. High stress is one of the most detrimental issues for your health. It can take its toll on your mind, body, and soul. Nobody should wish stress upon themselves.
Therefore, a small habit like drinking enough water will decrease stress, hydrate you, aid digestion and so much more – the list could go on forever.
Once you are consistently tracking your water intake, you are ready to take on another habit you wish to add or change. This slow process of adding one thing to track at a time will make your transformation easier and effortless. We all know how trying to change everything at once turns out, am I right?
Start today and you will be pleasantly surprised at how much you can change in the next 90 days!