Adam Lee
29 February 2020
Are you wondering what healthy habits you should be focussing on, in the year ahead? Here are eight that I am really hoping to try and stick to in 2020 and that I feel are valuable for anyone to also adopt.
Morning routine
Number one amongst my healthy habits to start is to create a better morning routine. That is, get up at the same time daily, enjoy a healthy breakfast, allow for mindfulness or exercise. Basically a morning routine that is really going to help set you up to have the most productive and healthiest day as possible.
Of course, all our morning routines are going to be different based on our schedules, all our schedules are completely different but setting a couple of habits that you want to accomplish in the morning, whether that’s waking up at a certain time or going to the gym, is a really good habit to form.
Try to start the morning eating a protein filled breakfast, consider meditating in the morning, journaling, planning your day off, whatever it is, just be sure you have a productive and positive morning ritual.
If you try to accomplish this and do it every single day for 30 days, after the 30-day mark you’re going to start noticing that your morning routine is going to become like second nature. This is just really going to help you have a successful lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle and make you have the most productive day as possible.
Eliminate distractions
Another one of my healthy habits to start, is to work on eliminating distractions. If you ever find yourself just constantly on social media, scrolling around or you know on the computer or you’re on TV watching Netflix for six hours straight, watching all the seasons, binge watching, you should try and monitor those habits.
Change it up by swapping out some of your screen time for other offline pursuits. I’m talking actually turning your phone off, or not using your phone before you go to bed, whatever works best for you.
Maybe take baby steps because a lot of the time just mindlessly scrolling can really distract you from your goals. Social media often can demotivate and make you also compare yourself a lot, which can be really detrimental to your self-esteem and your self-confidence.
It is important to always work on yourself and a lot of the time spending too much time on the screens I find can be really detrimental to your overall happiness and your overall success in life.
Healthy breakfast
In third place in my list of healthy habits to start, is to eat a protein filled breakfast. You should always make sure that you are not skipping breakfast at all. I really believe that old quote that breakfast is your most important meal for the day.
It is really important that you are eating a breakfast every single morning but on top of it try to have a breakfast full of protein. A lot of us tend to eat our protein during dinner time, and not so much during the day, however protein is essential for maintaining and developing lean muscle.
If you’re not getting enough protein during the day, muscle maintenance is not at its maximum level, and if you wait to have all your protein at dinner time it is largely wasted because your body can only use so much at one time.
Try having things such as eggs or having almond milk, which gives you protein and yogurts. I personally like to have eggs every single morning. It’s an easy way for me to get my protein intake but I also really enjoy it, and another benefit of having protein in the morning is it’s going to help keep you full longer.
Start a side hustle
Another great healthy habit to start, is having a side hustle or part time business. This will help keep your brain healthy and it’s great to take that skill and turn it into a profitable business.
You should definitely consider starting a side hustle, whatever that may be, as a way to earn some side money and to keep your brain active and learning. Of course, your hustle is going to be different for all of us; we all have different skill sets.
It could be that you want to start your own little store on Etsy, or you want to freelance for writing, there’s just so many different things it really just depends on you but having a side hustle is not going to only help you grow personally, but also professionally.
That extra stream of income is going to make it a little bit easier on your lifestyle and as well as it allows you to use your creative muscles. There’s just so many benefits to starting your own side hustle.
Exercise breaks
Another great healthy habit to start or rebuild, is to regularly take an exercise break. Whether that means just doing things such as lunges or stretching, or maybe going out running or jogging for five times a week, before or after work.
It’s important to take that exercise break, and trying to take it at least five times a week and get that exercise. It really is not healthy to have no form of exercise in your routine, and whilst it may be uncomfortable the first few weeks, regular exercise is going to make you a much happier and healthier person.
Don’t make excuses to skip it, because it’s always important to focus on your health and work on your health and exercise is a big thing that is really going to help improve your physical and mental health overall.
Build good money habits
The next healthy habit is to encourage yourself to have good money habits. I definitely want to start saving more money for 2020, and I know a lot of you are feeling the same way.
You have to hustle harder, and you have to sacrifice a little bit and you have to try and save as much as you can with income that you’re getting. It’s important to be smart with your money because you’re going to regret it in the long run if you’re not.
You really can improve your financial situation in so many different ways and you could start off with baby steps. Here are a couple of ways that you could help your financial situation.
Set up a savings auto transfer. What I suggest is that every pay day, you take a portion out and go directly into your savings account and that’s money that you cannot touch. If you’re not really good at putting money aside yourself, definitely do something like this because I’m telling you it’s going to make such a big difference over time.
Even if you put a little portion of your wage, it’s going to build up over time and it’s going to add up to be a lot more than you think.
Plan your purchases and stick to it. If you’re going out and you know you’re going to make purchases that day whether you’re at the supermarket, chemist, etc, a lot of the time we become detoured and start buying everything we see.
Save your extra change that you find in your pockets. It does add up, you may not think so but all that little change lying around will really make a difference. Just put that aside to your savings or if you ever get a side gig or extra money from a work bonus, put all that money aside.
You’re used to living your life in the actual income that you have right, so having that extra income to just put in a savings account or a self managed super fund is a bonus.
Stop making excuses
I want to finish off this list of healthy habits to start, with what ties all these other healthy habits together, and that is stop making excuses. I feel like all of us at one point, make excuses. I know we’re not perfect, and a lot of the time we have made excuses and probably still are making excuses to this day.
You have to understand that a lot of the time, it is us, ourselves that are enabling our poor decisions. Things like I’ll do it tomorrow or I’m too tired, or I don’t have time – these are all common excuses that I feel like are thrown out on the daily from so many people.
Stop creating excuses and start owning your life. Start pushing towards those goals that you have and do the work that it requires. Believe me, things aren’t just going to fall into your lap. You have put the work in.
What other healthy habits to start do you have?
Write up a list, whether it includes some or all of the above, along with your own healthy habits to start this year, and pin it up somewhere obvious to remind you.
