10 Habits for a Healthy Lifestyle

In a world where Western medicine and Eastern medicine (i.e., holistic healing practices like Ayurveda) collide, it has become an absolute truth that forming healthy habits is the key to living a vibrant and connected life. In almost 30 years as a registered diagnostic sonographer—and more recently as a Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC)—I’ve found there are 10 essential health habits that will help you achieve your health goals.

Here are the 10 healthy habits:

1. Eat an Earlier, Lighter Dinner

Eat dinner early and you’ll digest your food before bed. You’ll burn fat and will avoid waking up with a food hangover. Ideally, eat dinner before 6:30 pm. Then, close your kitchen. Brush + floss to avoid temptation.

2. Get to Bed Earlier

An effective bed time routine guarantees a good night sleep. Reverse engineer your deep rest and start the day on top of the world. After dinner, take a walk or do some active chores. Unplug earlier. To create a soothing bedtime routine take a bath, meditate, do yoga, foot massage, or contemplative reading.

3. Start Your Day Right

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a woman healthy, wealthy and wise. Night owls be-aware — you will age faster and fatter than you want. Wake before the break of dawn, hydrate with up to 1 quart of water, get 10 minutes of sunlight in your eyes, then poop. Now, you’re ready for action.

4. Breath Body Practice

Your energetic body needs to be aired out every morning, preferably before you hand it over to your mind. Take 20 minutes to move, breath and sweat. Get regular with movement before coffee and watch your stress decrease and joy increase.

5. Plant-Based Diet

I didn’t say raw vegan. I said plant-based. Eat more plants and you’ll feel more alive. Eat more plants that grow in your ‘hood and you’ll feel more connected in general. Diversify the species you’re eating and you’ll get more nutrient density which makes you smarter and better looking from the inside out.

6. Self-Massage

Give yourself a rub down with your hands. You can use oil or dry brush gloves or naked hands. Awaken your inner super healing powers. Insert this habit before or after your shower or bath.

7. Sit in Silence

Take a few minutes everyday to sit and do nothing. Let the world go by. Exhale your mind. You’ll feel less stressed. Don’t worry about getting it right. Just give yourself some room to let go of your worries. Catch a few moments of silence at the same time every time to build the habit. Try before bed or after breath body practices.

8. Eat Healthier

Are you eating 3 meals a day without snacking? Did you already nail habit 1? Then you can check this off. However, most of you, yeah you, are grazing through the day, gaining weight, feeling grumpy and unproductive. Stop. Fast on water between meals. You’ll shift into metabolizing your fats, stabilizing your moods, + syncing the other habits.

9. Come to Your Senses

Your eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nostrils all hold the potential for longevity. Start by scraping your tongue each morning, lubing your nostrils with oil once a day, and resting your eyes on the horizon or out the window throughout the day.

10. Choose Easeful Living Over Stress

Flip your switch from stress to ease. Choose to relax, exhale, and orient yourself towards ease through your day-to-day commitments, passions and Ik601. responsibilities. Ease is right there, behind the stress. If you can’t feel it – go back to Sit in Silence for a moment or two.

The Challenge of Forming Healthy Habits

Good habits are hard to form and bad habits can be harder to break. Habits—by their very definition—must become automatic actions you take without thinking.

If you are having a hard time forming good habits, consider joining my Body Reset club. I[ve designed this community-based program to help women break bad habits and form good ones.

It takes time, but with support and accountability from me and other members of Body Reset, you’ll learn to literally reset your body and vastly improve your life. Learn more.

If you would like to try learning how to form habits on your own, check out one of my favorite books, Atomic Habits by James Clear. (Note: I am not an affiliate marketer for this product, but it is one of the vest books I’ve read on the subject.)

As you digest my 10 healthy habits, you’ll likely identify one as a keystone habit—the habit most important and beneficial to you as an individual. Sleep is my keystone habit. Read more about The Importance of Sleep.

I started MountainLuv Wellness as a way to help others understand how to do this. Contact me if you would like to learn more about how I can help.

10 Healthy Habits Bonus

Download this handy graphic on 10 Healthy Habits. Print it out and keep it handy, to help you keep these great habits on the top of your mind.