Six easy, non-extreme steps to start improving your health

Most of us do not have to overthink our health. You don’t need to follow fads and keep up with every new study. Really, it is just a matter of following some tried-and-true wisdom that has been around a long time.

Here are my six steps to good health that will not wreck your life.

1) Get engaged

Better health starts with a decision, but a decision is not enough in itself. Once you decide to start improving your health, decide what your plan is going to be, and then, make sure you have a way to monitor your progress.

Remember: the metrics you decide to watch are the metrics that are going to improve. 

You simply cannot play around with this and just do healthy things when you feel like it. Rather, it has to become a regular part of your life.

2) Start moving

You don’t have to overdo exercise. You don’t need hour-long workouts. If you feel you have no time to exercise, just find ten minutes a day to do something relatively intense. The important thing is to get started. Ideally, you will eventually exercise closer to 20 minutes/day, but in the beginning, just get started with something.

3) Begin eating better

Don’t punish yourself or make yourself dread upcoming meals. Forget extreme diets and don’t eat foods you don’t like. Rather, just start making intentionally healthier choices about what you eat. Identify unhealthy foods that you can live without and replace them with healthier options that you like too.

4) Make sleep a priority

Identify reasons why you are not sleeping enough and fix them. You might need a more regular schedule or you may simply need better curtains in your room. But, research has shown over and over that sleep is vitally important to your overall health. You can’t ignore sleep quality and stay healthy.

5) Control your media intake

Your emotional/mental health will affect your physical health. Don’t read/watch things that make you anxious, bitter, or angry. Find ways to replace subpar media with great media that will improve your mind. Read well-written fiction, history, or classics. Or, try the Great Courses (my obsession).

6) Don’t beat yourself up 

You will never be perfect with your plan. Some days, you will not feel like exercising, and some days, you will eat junk food. You won’t always sleep well and sometimes you will binge junky media. When that happens, just acknowledge it, move on, and resolve to do better the next day.