Ready to finally start a healthy living journey? Here are a few simple ways to get started.

Drink lots of water

The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine determined that women should be drinking about 2.7 liters of water a day and men about 3.7 liters. 

There’s so many benefits to drinking water. It improves memory and mood, reduces sugar cravings and aids weight maintenance, improves your performance when you exercise, the list goes on!

Don’t forget your fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables help give your body the vitamins and minerals it needs, like Vitamin C and potassium. 

They’re a great source of fiber, too, which helps regulate gut health and digestion. But, if you’re diabetic, it’s important not to eat too many fruits as they are higher in carbohydrates and sugar.

Eat breakfast

Why is it called breakfast? Well, because breakfast is intended to break the overnight fasting period. It gets your body going again: replenishes your glucose supply, giving you energy and alertness, and kick-starts your metabolism.

Not to mention, breakfast improves your ability to concentrate in the short term. It can help with weight management and reduce risks of type two diabetes and heart disease. It’s also shown to lower levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol.

Get active

Regular activity helps lower your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, helps maintain a healthy body weight, and improves mental health. 

It’s okay to start slow! Even 5 minutes of physical activity a day has real health benefits.

Get a good night’s sleep 

The National Sleep Foundation recommends between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night for adults. While it’s true that sometimes busy schedules get in the way of a full night’s rest, here are five reasons to prioritize a good night’s sleep when you can.

A good night’s sleep can…

1. Boost your immune system
2. Prevent weight gain
3. Strengthen your heart
4. Improve your mood and memory
5. Increase productivity and exercise performance

Limit alcohol intake

There’s a few reasons it’s healthy to limit your alcohol consumption. For one, alcohol is a depressant, meaning it slows down parts of the brain and impairs cognitive function. It can also make you gain weight, as well as damage your liver. 

No smoking

Whether it’s cigarettes or something else, the bottom line is smoking of any kind has harmful health effects, especially to your lungs. Not to mention, when you smoke you’re putting others at risk by exposing them to secondhand smoke.

Be positive 

Positive thinking can actually provide real health benefits! These can include increased life span, lower rates of depression, and lower levels of distress.

How? Some of us have an easier time being positive than others. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, that’s okay! It’s possible to train your brain how to think more positively. Start by focusing on the good things. Challenges are always going to be a part of life. When you’re faced with one, look for the silver lining. 

Studies show that keeping a gratitude journal can improve a sense of optimism and well-being. Your gratitude journal can be as formal or informal as you want it to be, even if you’re just jotting down a few things you’re thankful for each day, it’ll help you feel more positive about your life overall!

Preserve a work-life balance

Work-life balance allows you to separate work and home, so that the stress of work stays at work and doesn’t preoccupy you outside office hours. Work-life balance helps manage anxiety and prevents burnout. 

Not sure how to establish better work-life balance? Here’s some tips!

1. Have set work hours and stick to them.
2. Invest in time-tracking tools. Time-tracking software allows you to build an understanding of how long particular tasks take, so that you can more effectively plan out and maximize your work days.
3. Prioritize your tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent or important. This will help you plot out what you really need to get done during your work hours, so that your home hours are unencumbered.
4. Be intentional in setting aside personal time at home. Make time for something you love!

Relax!

It’s good to take time everyday to relax and enjoy leisure activities! Doing something just for fun, or doing nothing at all, improves emotional well-being and happiness–and a happy you is a healthier you!

Need a little spiritual motivation to help kickstart your new health and wellness regiment? Well, we have some good news for you.

Faiths like Christianity consider taking care of your body to be an important way of honoring God.

This is true across many major religions and belief systems. Even Aristotle cautioned people against neglecting their bodily health while pursuing intellectual enlightenment.

The philosophical argument for good health

Aristotle described health in correlation with “the Supreme Good” for man. This “Supreme Good” refers to eudaimonia which can be loosely defined as happiness or human flourishing. In other words, Aristotle advocated that in order to achieve human flourishing, one must be healthy. 

Whereas Aristotle associated health with happiness, Plato associated physical and mental health with the virtues and in particular with the virtue of temperance. In the Platonic view, temperance characterized healthy-mindedness.

Today, it is well-known that exercise is good for both physical and mental health. Plato once said, “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.”

And Plato wasn’t the only Classical figure to advocate for exercise. Hippocrates, a Greek physician who remains one of the most remarkable figures in the history of medicine, said that “walking is man’s best medicine.” 

Hippocrates’ insight is now well supported by modern-day research, which confirms that walking for 20 to 30 minutes each day can have a notable positive impact on your physical and mental health.

God created man in his own image

According to Genesis 1:27 in the Bible, God created humankind in his image. The doctrine that humans were created in the image of God (imago Dei) provides Christians with the worldview that all people are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) on the basis of their image-bearing. 

The Image of God (imago Dei), which asserts that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, is a concept and theological doctrine in Judaism and some Sufism sects of Islam as well. 

According to imago Dei, we are created beings that exist as body and soul. As created beings, we should prioritize a healthy lifestyle, so as to honor the bodies given to us. 

Scriptural understanding of body and soul obligates us as created beings to be good stewards of our bodies. As such, we should eat well, exercise regularly, drink more water and avoid harmful substances.  

This view goes hand-in-hand with the Christian view that our bodies are not our own: they are God’s. So, our bodies are not to be taken care of selfishly, but rather in pursuit of honoring God who created them: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).

The body is a temple

Paul says in Corinthians that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so we must glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

This means that we should practice healthy eating habits, drink more water and exercise regularly to keep our “temples” in good condition. As follows, Christians should do well to avoid putting harmful substances (like tobacco, excessive alcohol and junk food) into our bodies to keep them worthy temples for the Holy Spirit.

It is the Christian understanding that our bodies are given to us to do God’s work. And because taking better care of our bodies means increased energy levels and better ability to accomplish our daily goals, a healthy body is likewise one better equipped to do God’s work.

As it says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

And there’s more…

Of course, Christianity is not the only worldview to advocate the spiritual importance of health. 

As mentioned, Judaism and some sects of Sufism also follow the doctrine of imago Dei. This lends Judaism and certain sects of Sufism the same motivations for good health we’ve already described.

Still not convinced? A diversity of cultures, faith-systems, and philosophies champion good health. Here is a brief list of quotes taken from around the world:

“He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors.” – Chinese Proverb

“The greatest wealth is health.” – Virgil

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” – Buddha

“Health and intellect are the two blessings of life.” – Menander

“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.” – B.K.S. Iyengar

“The groundwork for all happiness is good health.” – Leigh Hunt

A 2018 Marist Poll found that the most popular New Year’s resolution that year was to be a better person. Great right? But, what does that even mean? 

What’s morality?

Typically, people understand being good as being moral. 

The word moral is often closely associated with religion as the most prominent religions have been steadfast guardians of moral codes for centuries, if not millenniums. For some, organized religion is valuable precisely for this reason.

For others, a sense of morality comes from what’s learned in school, particularly within higher education. 

With the dissemination of the scientific community’s insistence on the necessity of separating what ought from what is, higher education became where people learned about how the world is and was but not how it ought to be. In many ways, education intentionally abandoned its moral teaching impetus. 

People have innate freedom to construct their own belief systems and make their own moral decisions and, while this is ultimately a positive thing, it can be daunting as well. 

The moral systems that come from the major religions or philosophical schools have been iterated on and improved for many centuries and therefore they tend to be battled-tested and hold-up well in most contexts.

Creating our own moral systems without the benefit of our ancestors’ wisdom is a sure path to frustration. In our short lifespans, we can’t hope to learn all that we need to develop a sound moral system capable of guiding us through life’s innumerable trials. That said, this shouldn’t discourage us from questioning inherited morality or seeking to build on humanity’s brain-trust.

The morality trap is the idea that your moral code comes from something or someone outside yourself. But, there is evidence to suggest that we all have some basic sense of morality. Social psychologists, ethicists and religious leaders show that, for the most part, we do agree on “the big stuff” no matter what walk of life we come from: being kind and being fair are good, murdering and stealing are bad.

If we agree on “the big stuff” then why are people unfair? Why do people steal? The reality is  the morality we practice in adulthood is significantly influenced by how we were cared for and socialized as children, and whether we often experienced love, empathy, and kindness.

Realizing your moral code

In many ways, it’s not a matter of discovering your moral code, it’s rather a matter of realizing what it already is.

A moral code is essentially a code of conduct. It provides a basis from which to determine your actions and their consequences: how they affect you, how they affect different areas of your life, and how they affect those around you. 

Your moral code will depend on your belief system as well as your emotional nature, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and goals. It must be consistent with your goals otherwise your morality will end up frustrating your efforts to realize your goals.

A moral code won’t encompass every possible situation. A moral code is only concerned with moral questions. Moral questions are concerned only with situations that bear large, moral consequences. In this way, the moral code is only called into action in the event of a true moral dilemma. 

Think here of the familiar trolley problem: do you save five people in danger of being killed by the trolley by diverting it to kill one?

It’s a hard, seemingly impossible decision. It’s a question that can only be answered using your moral code. The trolley problem distinguishes between two concepts of morality: in one, it is moral to choose the action with the best overall consequences (only one person dies); in the other, the idea that we should always adhere to strict principles like “don’t kill” (by diverting the train, you are choosing to kill that one person).

Still unsure about your moral code?

There’s endless thought experiments, like the trolley problem, that you can find online to help you figure out what makes your moral code tick. As you get a better understanding of your moral code, you’ll find it easier to make confident moral decisions.

If you’re struggling to discern your moral code, try a few Google searches that outline the moral codes of the major religions or philosophical schools. They might illuminate what is hidden within you.

We all have things that guide us and our decision-making, both tangible and intangible. 

A big contributor to the intangible camp is the way we think. What we think of a situation is sure to influence how we move forward in that situation. 

But, human thinking is anything but fool-proof. That’s where principles come in. While principles can’t necessarily give us the final answers for all the questions in our lives, they can save us from knee-jerk reactions, contradiction, and our egos. 

Principles are like ground rules

Principles provide a mode of operation for engaging in a wide variety of life situations. Simply put, principles help solve problems. Not sure what to do next? Look to your principles. Not sure how to respond in a given situation? Look to your principles. 

Principles don’t determine behavior, but they determine kinds of behavior.

Principles, like “don’t cheat” or “family first” for examples, are cut and dry. They provide you both a starting point and an intention for your decision-making. In doing so, they make decision-making more straightforward. That’s because principles usually remove courses of action from the equation, rather than adding them. They don’t tell you what to do, they tell you what not to do 

Principles draw out core insights

Principles like “don’t cheat” are generated from a combination of experiences, memories, and insights. When you make a principle for yourself or borrow one from a value system like Christianity, essentially what you’re doing is taking the core insight from all of your or your ancestors’ memories, experiences, and insights and adopting them as a rule going forward. 

Time and repeated use of your principles will only hone them more, making your decision-making sharper and more consistent.

Principles give us a sense of stability

If you live as a principled person, you can rest assured in the knowledge that your principles won’t be changing situation to situation. 

Day to day life can serve us any number of unknowns and for those who hold few to no principles it can be a slog, as they’re constantly having to measure things according to their immediate self-interest.
Principles remind us of our place in the world and why we are here and so helps us to find the narrow path through any given situation.

Moreover, principles are a tool that help ensure we are constantly evolving, improving, and if you’re looking for one reason to live by them, consider that every modern civilization has made it urgent work to codify and celebrate them. The fact is, civilization just doesn’t work without them and, as it happens, people don’t typically either.