In today’s world of quick fixes, learning how to be healthy naturally is more important than ever before! In this post, you’ll learn 10 tips to help you to live a healthier and more natural life.
Health isn't one size fits all!
Health isn’t a one size fits all kind of thing; it’s a broad term that can look different for each person.
Let’s look at a simple example that highlights this. While nuts are often labeled as a healthy food, they wouldn’t be healthy for someone with a nut allergy right? So remember that just because something works for me, doesn’t mean it’s right for you. The tips below are pretty general so they can be applied to most people, but this is still a good reminder.
The tips I’m sharing with you are meant to help give you inspiration on ways to live a healthier lifestyle. Always assess what’s best for your unique needs, whether that’s by consulting your doctor, tuning into your intuition, or simply building a deeper connection with your body.
10 Tips To Help You To Be Healthy Naturally
1. Add Resistance Training Into Your Fitness Routine
The first tip we have when working to be healthy naturally is to add resistance training into your fitness routine.
I could have said to move your body or exercise for this tip, but I thought that was too general and too boring. Resistance training offers numerous benefits for your physical body. So much so that the CDC recommends that adults perform muscle strengthening activities 2 or more days a week.
Muscle mass decreases as we age. There have been multiple studies that have shown that resistance training can increase muscle mass. And doing resistance training doesn’t mean that you need to train to get ‘big muscles’. It’s about maintaining and improving muscle mass which is extremely beneficial in keeping our quality of life high as we age.
Resistance training also helps to improve bone density and reduce bone loss. This is especially important for women because women are at risk for significant bone loss during and after going through menopause.
Check out this ‘Beginners Guide To Weight Training’ to learn more!
2. Choose Foods That Are Close To Their Natural Form
When possible, choose minimally processed foods. This means eating foods that are closest to their natural state and limiting foods that have additives.
We’ll leave this tip simple today because this is a whole topic within itself. You can find more information about it in my “Clean Eating” post!
3. Make Water Your Primary Drink
If you are someone that normally goes for something like soda or sweetened tea as your drink of choice, try to start to switch that over to water.
The point of drinking a fluid is to keep you hydrated, so water should be your drink of choice. It’s not that you can’t enjoy other beverages but make water your primary go to.
4 . Research Products That You Are Putting On Your Body (Or Breathing In)
Think about the products that you put on your body like your lotions, sunscreens, and deodorant. These are being absorbed by your skin, at least to a certain degree. This means it’s important to know what ingredients are being used in your products.
This also goes for things like cleaning supplies. While these hopefully aren’t really coming in contact with your skin, you are still breathing them in to some degree when you use them.
I like using the EWG database to check products. It’s a great source that makes it easy to understand which products are better than others for our health. This is an important point to remember when working to be healthy naturally.
5. Remember That Perfection Isn’t The Goal
Remember that it is impossible to be perfect, so just do your best and make informed decisions.
A perfect example of this is the coffee debate, is it good for you or is it bad for you? When things are really two sided, I like to just take a moment and ask myself how I feel with them. How do I feel when I drink coffee? Am I jittery and anxious after? Or, do I feel great after having it with no side effects later in the day? Am I drinking 5 cups to get me through the day or just having one cup in the morning that I enjoy with my husband? That last one is me, so I choose to enjoy my coffee.
Things are rarely straightforward so don’t let it stress you out. Learn what you can to make informed decisions and then just be curious about how you feel and use that to guide you.
6. Find Movement Throughout The Day
If you are pretty active during your day, then don’t worry about this tip.
If you have a sedentary job or you’re sitting for most of the day, try to incorporate movement beyond your workout time.
Even a quick 5 minute walk or 5 minutes to just move around can help break up the pattern of sitting for hours on end.
7. Remember That Your Health Is More Than Just Your Physical Body
If you’re aiming to be healthy naturally, you have to remember that your health is much more than just your physical body. You need to remember to also nourish your mind and spirit.
This could be meditation or getting out in nature, really this is going to be personal to you.
For more inspiration on ways to nurture your mind and spirit, check out this post: What Is Holistic Living?
8. Be Aware Of Where Your Food Comes From
Be aware of where your food is coming from and try to incorporate this into your decision making when it comes to what food purchase.
These questions may look like this:
- What type of farm is this food from?
- What do they use on their plants?
- What do they feed their animals and what are the living conditions?
- Where is the food coming from? Is it local? – It’s not that you have to eat local all the time, but it is great to increase the amount of local foods within your diet.
9. Get Enough Sleep
We so often remember diet and exercise when it comes to how to be healthy naturally and we forget about sleep health. Sleep is an important part of living a healthy lifestyle!
Adults should be getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night!
10. Don't Take Life Too Seriously
As adults we often feel the weight of life’s responsibilities so strongly that we forget to allow time for ourselves to connect with our playful side.
Allowing your inner child to come out from time to time can be extremely revitalizing!
Sources:
Benito, Pedro J, et al. “A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Resistance Training on Whole-Body Muscle Growth in Healthy Adult Males.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 17 Feb. 2020, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068252/.
Watson, Nathaniel F, et al. “Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society.” Sleep, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 June 2015, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4434546/.