Horrible But Healthy Habits
Who wouldn’t want to be a little bit healthier? Doing a few little things each day which have a benefit can add up to make you happier, healthier, and fitter.
Unfortunately, not everything which is good for you is pleasant! My mother tricking me into eating broccoli springs to mind (
This week I’m going to give you a few tips on things you can do to improve your health and fitness. But you really won’t want to!
Cold showers
We’ll get started with what most of you will probably think is the worst. You might think I sound like a Drill Sergeant. You might think I’m making it all up just to see how many of you are silly enough to do it. But get in that cold shower!
It can increase your alertness, improve the health of your skin and hair, improve your immune system and blood circulation, stimulate weight loss, speed up muscle recovery, and ease stress.
It will be a bit of a shock at first, but I promise you will get used to it (you might even look forward to it).
Unplug your devices
Most people in modern society are fairly attached to their phones, tablets, computers, or whatever. Why wouldn’t you be? It’s got all the stuff you need right there, plus you can fire birds at a tower of pigs.
But more and more research is being done about technology addiction, and there could be a lot of benefits to ditching your devices for a few hours a day.
“Text Neck” or “Tech Neck” is a term generally used to describe the awkward position you put your neck in when using your devices (usually you head is pushed forward a bit). This can lead to various muscular and postural problems which could massively impact your life.
It might seem harmless to quickly check your emails. But it can take up to an hour to refocus on a task after a distraction. So by constantly being able to check what’s going on across all your platforms can really hurt your productivity.
Try turning the devices off for a few hours every day and you’ll definitely notice the benefits.
Wake up early
The death rattle of the alarm at 5am would send shivers through most people’s spines. But there’s quite a lot of benefits to waking up a little earlier.
The most obvious is productivity! If you wake up an hour or two earlier, that an extra hour or two you have to get stuff done. Whether you’re working out, writing a book, or learning an instrument – extra time is vital! Everybody get the same 24 hours. So why waste them sleeping?
Lots of people end up rushing in the morning, which leads to missed breakfasts and heightened stress levels. This in turn leads to poor eating habits throughout the day, decreased brain function, increased fat storage, and generally being grumpy.
Feel free to gradually introduce your earlier wake-up time. Just get up 15 minutes earlier every week. Before you know it you’ll be waking up with the birds.
Eat insects
At this point, you almost definitely think I’m just pushing my luck to see what I can get you to do. But here goes nothing – you should be eating insects.
It might sound weird to us, but actually more than 2 billion people eat insects as part of their regular diet. And they are super good for you!
For example, 100 grams of crickets contains around 121 calories, 12.9 grams of protein, 5.5 grams of fat, and 5.1 grams of carbohydrates.
This can make insect eating a fantastic way to combat obesity, reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, and increase protein intake!
You’re probably still a bit squeamish at the thought of tucking in to a bowl of bugs. But what if I told you that you’re probably already eating insects, you just don’t know about it. Insects are regularly harvested alongside various crops and inevitably this ends up in your food.
Yes these things are a bit unpleasant, but I promise they’re good for you! So tomorrow make sure you wake up at 5am, have a nice cold shower, tuck in to your crickets, and turn off your phone!
