18 Ways to Spring Clean Your Lifestyle
Do you need to regain that spring in your step? Unhealthy habits and lifestyle choices can lead to decreased energy, productivity, creativity, motivation and overall happiness.
Maintaining balance throughout all areas of your life can be tricky, but by making small changes, you can accomplish an overall harmonious, happy, productive and successful lifestyle.
Here are 18 ways to spring clean your lifestyle:
Nutrition
- Prepare your meals when you know time will be limited. This will reduce the likelihood of unhealthy food choices.
- If possible, assign a few hours each week to prepare meals for the next few days. This will free up future time that can be better spent with family and friends.
- If you are trying to lose weight, ensure you are eating enough to sustain your energy levels. Entering into a level of starvation will leave you feeling depleted, grumpy and ultimately reaching for an unhealthy snack to boost your energy levels.
- Cut out highly processed foods that are high in salt, sugar and fat.
Hydration
- Stay hydrated with 8-10 glasses of water every day – more if you are highly active. A 2013 study stated that drinking enough water leads to a 14% increase in productivity.
- Have no more than 4 cups of tea or coffee each day.
- Limit alcohol to no more than 14 units spread evenly throughout the week, with at least 2 consecutive alcohol-free days. Do you know how much you are drinking? Take this quick quiz to find out.
- Eating a healthy and balanced diet doesn’t need to be boring or make you feel as though you are going without. We have some delicious comfort food recipes on our website to get you and your family started.
Exercise
- Stand up and stretch at regular intervals throughout the day. This is possible for everyone. Whether it’s a 5-minute walk, or some simple stretching next to your office chair.
- Set a realistic exercise goal. This could be deciding that you want to be able to run 5km within the next 9 weeks. Break into down into bite-sized chunks. Try the ‘Couch to 5K’ for support!
Mental Wellbeing
- Try that new hobby or class you have been meaning to find the time for.
- Check in with loved ones and catch up with an old friend.
- Whenever possible, spend 10 minutes sitting in the sun each day to help boost your Vitamin D levels and mood.
- Clear your mind by engaging in some ‘me’ time. This can be in the form of meditation, yoga or mindfulness. You can join a class or follow an online guide.
- Make sure you don’t spend time on a laptop of tablet in the hour running up to bedtime. Instead, find a book to lose yourself in to really switch off.
- Be mindful of your financial spend. Little and often and quickly add up – how much could you save without having that daily coffee on your commute and what could it be better spent on to boost your happiness?
- Clear your schedule for a weekend shortly in the future and be answerable to no one. Now choose to do whatever you want with your time, go and explore, head to the beach, go to the restaurant you’ve earmarked for 6 months, or simply do nothing without applying and pressure and guilt to yourself – sometimes we all need to just shut off.
- Have a literal spring clean around the house by decluttering. It is true what they say, healthy environment, healthy mind. Arrange things into piles, keep, give away, sell and chuck. This can be extremely therapeutic. Think to yourself, have I worn or used it in the last 12 months? If the answer is no, it’s likely you won’t notice when it’s gone!
