Five Healthy Habits to Improve Your Wellbeing in 2020

Here are some small changes you can implement.

Let’s be real: sticking to New Year’s resolutions can be tricky. If you made a few, and you haven’t already broken them, we salute you.

Interestingly enough, when we called on our members to share their New Year’s resolutions with us on Instagram, the answers were overwhelmingly similar. The majority of our members shared that they’d like to focus on living a healthier lifestyle, exercising more and developing a positive mindset.

Of course, trying to overhaul your daily routine when you’re inundated with assignments, exams or work can be particularly challenging.

So, we asked health coach Karla Gilbert what realistic changes you can make, if you’re keen to be healthier and happier this year.

1. Pack your lunch instead of buying on the go.

Picked up fast food three days in a row because you didn’t pack lunch? We’ve all been there. As Karla tells Student Edge, it’s important to ensure you’re enjoying a variety of food groups each day.

"We want to fit the five food groups in a packed lunch," she says.

Karla encourages having a "rainbow of colours" on your plate, to make sure your body is receiving a variety of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

"One idea is a salad wrap with some protein on it, and some carrots or cucumbers," she adds.

"Vegans could lean more towards legumes. But if you do eat dairy, you could have some Greek yoghurt, and some chopped up fruit."

2. Wake up half an hour earlier.

Ideally, we’d all strive to eat healthier. However, that can be difficult when you’re dragging yourself out of bed in the morning to go to class. While time-management is an ongoing challenge for many students, if you can manage to wake up half an hour earlier, it will do wonders for your health.

With more time to spare in the morning, you’ll be able to eat a nutritious breakfast and fit some exercise in. "You should be getting an hour of exercise a day, but that doesn’t solely mean spending time in the gym," Karla explains.

“This could be taking the stairs instead of an escalator, riding your bike to school, or even playing a game of basketball with your friends after school. It adds up pretty easily if you throw those things in."

As Karla points out, being active is directly related to our mental health as well. Not only does exercise help clear our minds, but it also levels out hormones and improves memory function.

3. Try not to compare your body to others.

If you’ve committed to being healthier in 2020, it can be tempting to hop on Instagram and start comparing yourself to fitness influencers, bodybuilders or models. Nevertheless, this can have a negative impact on your mental health, especially considering the images people post on social media aren’t always realistic.

Karla suggests unfollowing any accounts that cause you anxiety.

"If we’re trying to be more positive and kinder to ourselves, we’ve got to take that stuff out of the equation," she says.

"As we know, it’s not a real snapshot of somebody’s life, it’s just the good parts. And it’s probably been photoshopped and angled to make it look a certain way. So, we have to raise our level of awareness."

4. Don’t change too much at once.

Decided to join the gym, cut out sugar and go to bed an hour earlier all in the same week? Yeah, it’s a lot. In fact, it’s pretty stressful trying to maintain drastic lifestyle changes. It’s better to set small and realistic goals.

"The best thing is to drop the all or nothing attitude," Karla says.

"The trick is to make small changes, like having a piece of fruit instead of a chocolate bar in the afternoon.

"It’s about creating a routine that we are going to enjoy. If we’re not enjoying it, we’re not going to repeat it."

5. Try to get your beauty sleep.

We are all guilty of accidentally scrolling through our social media feeds until 1.00am. Except, that means we’re missing out on valuable rest. Remember, consistently getting between eight to nine hours of sleep will help improve your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

"We cannot get away with not sleeping," Karla says, adding: "You know, it used to be a form of torture in medieval times."

Alternatively, she suggests turning off your device before you get into bed to avoid becoming distracted.

"If you’re looking at Instagram and it’s bringing up a lot of emotions, that’s not productive for sleep. Rather than that, grab a book and get off the blue light devices that tell our brains that it’s daytime."

Go forth and have a happier and healthier 2020!

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