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?

Bought a blood pressure monitor. Keeping an eye on my blood pressure. Noticing the correlation between getting wound up about things and blood pressure going up. Trying not to get worked up over things I can’t control and making a conscious effort to relax to calm myself down and deal with stress by exercising.

Yoga, but then (unrelated) my lumbar spine gave up the ghost, hence, these days meditation, and walking when I can.

Quit drinking for a year to reset my relationship with it. I used the app TryDry which 'gamifies' it a bit and encourages you to keep going. I now stick to around 7-9 units per week without having to actively restrict myself, and I get much more pleasure from it.

Meditation. Although I've fallen off the wagon lately. 20 minutes a day plus a few short check-ins makes a HUGE difference.

I unfollowed and muted a lot of Facebook and avoid polemic pointless conversations.
i eat now mostly plant based meals and got an allotment which gives a lot of satisfaction, although it’s hard work fitting it in. I was introduced to hiit by a physiotherapist last year and am addicted - it makes you feel great and believe me, nobody thinks there goes Alex, the exercise gal. Finally I’ve moved supper to much earlier and fairly regularly go to bed same time as my 8 year old and hang out with a book. I had a huge lifestyle change and live as frugally as possible. Feel stupid saying that when I know so many have to be. Am feeling better than I have in a long time.

And follow a stretching online regime

Daily mediatation( sadt guru)
Feeding the birds
Salad with protein
Walking exercise on yiy tube

Great Post @C1239 - thank you.

Can anyone recommend the following please:
A short, free yoga practice for knackered hips/knees & back
An introduction to meditation course (preferably free)
A decent turmeric supplement for the joints

Thanks 😊

Running
Intermittent fasting.
Eating more salad leaves
More gardening including growing my own veg.
Taking some time for me to read and make things.
Having therapy
Not being scared

Not giving a flying Fuck what anyone thinks about my body. And definitely making sure my social media excludes any fitness or diet shite

Going to gym - using the cross trainer specifically, and lifting weights. As a natural consequence I drink more water and eat better (not less though unfortunately).

I was on high blood pressure tablets and could hardly stand or walk without excruciating pain due disc degeneration in my back. Used to be in tears just from getting out of bed in the morning or putting my knickers on! Standing prepping dinner, waiting at the school gate or in a queue was torture. The only thing that relieved it was sitting. Just turning over in bed woke me up during the night due to the pain.

Pain medication didn’t touch it and hospital consultant said to try building up my back muscles before considering risky back surgery. I had no choice but to start going to the gym.

I went every day for two weeks straight and pain reduced by 75%! Within a month, completely pain free. Now if I don’t go for a few weeks (holiday or just caught up with work, DC) , I can feel it coming back so I’m motivated to get back in there.

I use the cross trainer for cardio as there is no impact on my back unlike walking or running and I’m convinced the motion is what has helped my back the most. I go backwards and as well as forwards. It felt weird at first but now I can do it with no hands at the highest level for minutes at a time. I can feel everything loosening and warming up. I also use the lower back weight machine as well as all the other weight machines and free weights.

The difference in my flexibility, physical and mental strength is pretty unbelievable.

I also came off the blood pressure tablets as I didn’t want to be in them and had side effects. GP agreed to monitoring over 6 months while going to gym regularly. He said he’d never had a patient come off them before like that. I still check my blood pressure every few months and it’s always in optimal range.

Going to a RAPID sports therapist when I injure myself at the gym etc . No more putting up with aches and niggles really improves every day

Daily exercise - any kind - 5k run/swimming/walking/cycling. Sometimes it has to be integrated into the commute. I feel rubbish - bad tempered, depressed - if I don't do it. It is such a mood changer.

I reduced my caffeine intake and started drinking tea or herbs etc. I feel calmer and my blood pressure is much better.

On Sunday I fill the slow cooker full of veg and lentil soup for my lunches for the week. So when I'm run off my feet there is a healthy lunch there instead of overeating crap because I've become starving or too busy to think of something healthy. And even if I eat shit for dinner at least of already had lots of veg!

No longer drinking caffeine and only drinking alcohol on rare occasions, upping my water intake, starting the couch to 5k app, joining the gym, doing Les Mills exercise classes, cutting out toxic people and no longer putting myself in stressful situations. I feel healthier and calmer which is something I never thought I would achieve!

Yoga. Dirty Keto. Resting. Gardening.

Waking or doing another form of exercise every day - just for 15-20 minutes, 30 if I have more time. Drinking water or herbal tea at work. More fruit and veg., less sugar and no meat. I feel so much better! The walking outside is the best habit - so lovely to breathe fresh air, doesn’t matter what the weather is like - really clears my head.

Eating something in the morning, it used to mess with my Ibs big time when I didn’t eat anything in the morning, most of the time I didn’t because I used to get up, go to work and it would make me feel sick to eat at that time in the morning. I eat something small now and it’s made a world of difference.

Filling a 3l jug with water every day and not going to bed until I've drunk it all.
Prioritising protein, vegetables and good fats.
Only having carbs once a day if at all.
Intermittent fasting.

Did Couch to 5k (at age 58, never done running before), then once I had finished it, started going to parkruns. Doing a parkrun on Saturday morning has been great - good exercise, gets the weekend off to a good start, and meet lots of people. Can also vary things by travelling to different parkruns, and by volunteering sometimes instead of running.

We’ve had an allotment for 9 years which has always been good but it’s also difficult fitting it in (I have my own business and often work every day of the week). Last year DH started a new job which involves night shifts so we were thinking we might have to give it up. But once the weather started warming up, I started going there on my own to dig out the weeds whilst he was asleep during the day. It’s been brilliant in so many ways - I usually do 4-5 hours and feel physically exhausted but very motivated at the end. We don’t have a garden at all so getting out in the fresh air, getting dirty and feeling like I’ve achieved something is really helping me. Plus all the allotment neighbours stop for a chat and give encouragement - and digging out the weeds is so similar to lunges that I feel like I’ve had a butt lift!

> Can anyone recommend the following please:
> An introduction to meditation course (preferably free)

Here in Cambridge I went to a meditation course at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, it was very good (I'm not interested in the Buddhist stuff, only the meditation). The payment was optional, and they have drop-in sessions as well as the regular course. I believe the same organisation (Triratna Buddhists) has centres in a lot of UK towns where they do the same/similar courses.

Walk when I can, for example, don't drive to the shop 1 mile away. Walk in my lunch hour at work etc. Not massive but makes me feel better.