DON'T do these 7 things if you want to feel amazing

If you've felt tired and defeated with zero energy, zero motivation, and are just sick and tired of feeling sick and tired...I have great news! You can change that. For real. Check out this list and I bet that if you start to address at least a few of these things, you'll start to see and feel noticeable positive changes in your life.

1. Eat a poor diet
   

There is a reason why this is #1 on my list. If you don't eat well, you are absolutely not going to feel well. Your body needs certain amounts of certain things daily. Think macros and micros. Nutrients, I mean. If all you're regularly consuming leaves you low on several vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional building blocks your body will not function optimally. Where to start? Try to get a wide variety of food in daily...fruits, veg, lean protein, dairy, whole grains. Try to get a variety of color, too, as certain colors can signal certain nutrients (orange=beta-carotene). Limit your consumption of very highly processed foods. They are usually high in calories and low on nutrition.

2. Be chronically dehydrated

Going along with #1, water is essential for life. So many bodily processes utilize water that again, without enough of it, your body cannot function optimally. A good goal for water intake is about half of your body weight in ounces daily. So, if you weigh 200 lbs, try for 100 oz of water spread throughout the day. I would try to consume a majority early on in the day so it doesn't affect your sleep. If you find your goal to be more cumbersome than helpful, there is nothing wrong with drinking water intuitively and going by how you feel and also just keeping an eye on your urine. It shouldn't be very dark. If it is light yellow/mostly clear and you feel well, you should be all good.

3. Don't move enough

Get up and go, please! Daily exercise whether in the form of walking or anything else you can think of is great for you physically and mentally. Not engaging in regular activity can lead to feelings of fatigue and can actually impair sleep (you're not tired enough from the day so you might have trouble falling asleep). If we're going to get technical, I'd aim for about 10,000 steps a day. About. Meaning a little above or below works, too. Look for active hobbies to participate in as well to make hitting those steps even easier (and more fun!)

4. Drink (too much) alcohol

Obviously, alcohol has a lot of negative effects. Other than contributing to a social experience, I can't think of anything positive about it, and even then many popular drinks can be made alcohol-free. It has calories and really no nutrition. It can lower your inhibition and make you actually eat more than you would have otherwise. It also impacts your sleep negatively, so you may not get enough quality sleep, which can affect how you feel for the next few days. This can translate into less effective work-outs or no work-outs at all because you feel so tired or "off". I would limit alcohol to only special occasions (weddings, etc) and avoid it on normal/average days. Or if you find no place for it in your life, feel free to completely avoid it.

5. Smoking and/or vaping daily

I think this one goes without saying, too. There are many negative health consequences to smoking. If you are a current smoker, I would tackle this habit first. There are many ways to try to quit smoking. Find which way would suit you best and find someone help keep you accountable. You'll feel so much better once you quit for good.

6. Be chronically sleep deprived

Here and there we may not get the best night's sleep. That's ok. It happens. But, to consistently get poor quality sleep will obviously make you feel tired and sluggish. Poor sleep leads to increased ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and you may overeat the next day. You also might not feel up to working out, either. Bad news all around. So, what can we do? Briefly, try to go to bed and get up around the same time daily. Try not to eat or workout close to bed time. Make sure your sleeping area is conducive for sleep (dark, right temp, and quiet) as well. Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep per night and you'll be set.

7. Be addicted to your phone

Last, but not least, THE phone. I need to work on this one, too. Too much screen time can be harmful in that it limits how much activity you do, but it also limits social activities or interferes with them. It can also create mental or emotional baggage (stay away from the comments!). I think there is so much stuff stored on my phone it gives me a reason to always have it close by. Calendars, schedules, grocery lists, etc are all on the phone. Plus apps and texts and pictures and you get it. There is a feature where you can turn your phone to quiet mode whenever you like. I do this from 2100 to 0530 nightly. It might be time to set certain restrictions so that you aren't checking it all the time. Take some time to look into this and see what works for you.

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Ok, kids, what do you think? Anything else you would add to this list? Or is there anything you don't agree with? If cutting out or improving upon all of these things sounds like a daunting task to you, just take it slow. Take one task at a time and then go from there. You'll feel so much better in no time. Just start. 😊