What a healthy habit you started which improved your life?

[C1239]

Looking for some inspiration - what is a good/healthy habit you started and noticed and improvement in how you felt from it?

I’ll add weights to the responses.
During lockdown I brought some secondhand ones off FB marketplace. I sit in front of the telly each evening with them and just lift them in my arms 😆That’s it. The difference it has made! Ok I do an hour each evening and I’ve moved up from 1lb to 2.5kg over time but my arms look so toned even if I do say so myself.
Even my stomach feels tighter. Sometimes I even sweat. Just moving these weights up and down.
Simple but super effective. Bye bye bingo wings. Hello sleeveless tops!
You've inspired me too! As a total beginner with weights, would buying a 2kg pair be manageable to start with?

Getting 2 spaniels and realising that I was gong to walk 10k steps a day whether I wanted to or not and regardless of the weather.

It's so ingrained that I'm vile if I don't get my hour to myself twice a day

can I ask which class you were doing?

During lockdown I started doing 20 mins of yoga or circuit training (alternating) every morning at home and I almost never miss it. It's only changed recently when I started going back to the office once a week, and going to the gym twice a week, so I miss out some mornings because I'm going to the office or I know I'll go to the gym later. Restarting the gym after over 2 years this had clearly kept up my fitness as I didn't find the gym more strenuous despite the gap.

Stopped drinking alcohol. I lost weight, sleep better and have more energy.

I’ve started having a hot water and lemon first thing in the morning which I feel is definitely better for me than coffee first thing as I had such an urgency to go to the toilet not long after my coffee. I’ve also started not eating anything after I’ve had my dinner, which is usually around 5.30/6, until the next morning/mid morning.I’ve only just started this and it’s a bit like intermittent fasting, but this isn’t why I started it, I just realised I used to snack quite a bit in the evening and quite often on chocolate, so I’m hoping this will help me! I used to get very bloated during the day and have noticed that I’m feeling less bloated since I’ve started both these things, so seems to be having an affect.

I have stopped people pleasing. I have made a point of saying yes to things I want to do and an absolute no to things I don't.I feel quite empowered by it and the cheeky fuckers have gone .

Meditation. Took a course online during lockdown, which coincided with a life-threatening accident. I was in agonising pain and stress due to children and elderly folk in my family affected by COVID-19, which struggling to access health care services. Then my parent died suddenly and I was having four rounds of surgery. The stress seemed never ending, and meditation was what kept me going. Ten mins a day takes the stress away...

HRT!

Love this thread.

No phone or internet in the morning for an hour or so has been good for me.
www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2021/04/02/why-you-should-stop-checking-your-phone-in-the-morning-and-what-to-do-instead/?sh=5ca3c5dd2684

Two things for me:
1- getting a dog and so having to walk her every day. Makes such a difference to my mood getting out just as the sun rises and the air is cool, and if I do both her walks in a day instead of splitting them with my husband I've done all my exercise for the day.
2- stopped dieting and embraced the idea of eating whatever I want. Once I did this. I found I could stop at 2 biscuits rather than eat half a packet, and when I actually thought about what I wanted to eat the answer was often something like avocado on toast or yoghurt with fruit. Sometimes it was burgers or a curry too, but giving up the concept of 'good' and 'bad' foods entirely led me to eating a much more balanced diet instead of restricting myself for a while and then binging. I've never felt better about my body and find I'm able to eat fairly sensibly and guilt free when I listen to what I actually want.

Going to AA…no booze - life changer ! And met loads of funny, lovely people including my husband !

Ditched caffeine and decaf drinks, I feel more on an even keel and it’s helped anxiety.

Never owning a car. I realise this won’t be a popular one. I live in London and never having the option to get into the car to go shopping/ to kids’ school/ to the dump etc has helped keep my weight down through my 30s, 40s and now in middle age.

Mindfulness:)

Went vegetarian just before Christmas 2020. I feel so much healthier it’s unreal. Better skin, more energetic & just don’t miss eating meat at all. Love the tasty dinners I make now, been experimenting with lots of different recipes & the meals I’m cooking are very nutritious.

Can I ask which one please?

You should look into vitamin k too, it helps your body to use the calcium properly! Vitamin K2 I believe, rather than K1

Yoga each morning. Not an actual class, but go through a few poses. It’s a nice way to ease into the day.

Reading for a minimum of 20 mins every evening

I started using recipe box service. I order exclusively vegetarian options and although I am not, and never will be, vegetarian I have almost eliminated meat from my diet. I really love cooking now that I have the cards to follow and all the ingredients at my fingertips. I am also seeing a huge reduction in waste - although there is some involved in packing each ingredient individually this is far less than I was producing before - and no food waste at all. I am really enjoying the variety and the flavours.

I really want to do more cycling but I live in a very hilly area - currently looking at e-bikes.

Agree, such great fitness.

Love this thread, and feeling inspired.

Stopped taking sugar in coffee and started eating 10 portions of veg per day plus 5 fruit.

Keto diet, not only am I finding it easier than any other (down to the pure fact that calorie coijnting allowed me to have naughty things in as long as I "counted them into my calories" which meant the temptation was there constantly), its working and the weight is coming off and I find myself in less pain most of the time than i used to be from my very bad back and bad knee from walking to accommodate the bad back.

It's also meaning I drink more water than I ever have done in my life daily and kicked my cola habit away completely.