Making Healthy (Small) Choices in Your Life
By Sara Butler
Your day is made up of thousands of small choices that may seem inconsequential at the moment but may make a large impact on your overall health. Here are a few of the small decisions you make every day that may have a much bigger influence than you think.
Health Foods
Perception is a big deal, and it has been proven that foods packaged with words that imply health and fitness on the label – or pictures - may result in your simply eating more of it. A study published in the American Marketing Association found that people given snacks such as trail mix with the word “fitness” on the label not only ate more of the snack, they also worked out less later.
So, the packaging of your healthy snacks may be working on you subconsciously. Understand that and don’t fall for fitness packaging and make sure you’re making good choices about what you eat all day long.
Caffeine Timing
If you immediately get out of bed and grab a cup of coffee you may want to think about changing that. About an hour after you wake up your body releases the hormone cortisol, which helps you to feel more alert. If you time that cortisol release with your first cup of coffee you’ll probably find it helps to keep you more alert. If you chug your caffeine before the cortisol release it may actually inhibit the effects of the hormone in your system and make you feel more sluggish in the morning.
Sleep Better By Cutting Out Clocks
You’ve heard it before – there are many things you should be doing to get better sleep at night. But one of them may just be getting rid of clocks you can see all together. This is because anything that reminds you of what time it is and how fast or slow time is passing is not an ingredient in a recipe for a good night’s sleep. If you don’t know how long you’ve been laying there then you won’t worry about it so much.
Just remember, every choice you make throughout your day has the ability to have a much larger impact than you may have ever realized. Think about what you’re doing and how you can improve it or make better choices. If something continues to be a struggle for you, educate yourself on how you can create a better outcome!
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Round Rock, Tex.