The information on what constitutes ‘good’ health can be cumbersome and complicated. Even more so when you break down health into physical and mental, and everything in between. For these reasons, we have done the hard work for you and put together 3 strategies endorsed by experts that will help improve your overall health, and therefore improve your physical and mental wellbeing.

Sleep                               

If you feel like the importance of getting enough sleep is constantly drilled into you, it is because it is one of the most vital pillars of good health. Despite this, roughly two thirds of us suffer from sleep problems, which means many of us are not getting the amount of sleep our bodies need.

Sleep plays an essential role in your bodies anatomic processes which are responsible for many things such as your physical health, hormone regulation and mood regulation. All three of these things make up big parts of your overall health and can be severely impacted by not getting enough shut eye.

Getting enough sleep can be difficult. This is why it is so important to do everything in your power to help you get good, consistent and high-quality sleep.

Some helpful strategies include:

• going to bed and waking up at the same time every day
• not consuming caffeine approximately 9 hours before you go to bed
• having a warm shower or bath right before bed, cutting out ‘screen time’ an hour before bed
• avoiding naps during the day, especially later in the day

Diet & Alcohol

If you think about sleep as recharging your bodies batteries, then your diet and alcohol consumption are the fuel that powers those batteries during the day. The quality of fuel you put into your body very much determines the quality of output you will get.

There are plenty of expert opinions on what the ‘best’ diets are, and we don’t pretend to be one of these experts, however we have done some research and tried to summarise some general tips that can help guide you in the right direction.

For starters, balance is key when it comes to a good overall diet. A mixture of proteins, carbohydrates and fats are all essential to overall health. Including fresh vegetables and fruit into this make-up will help you go a long way to improving both your physical and mental health.

For specific and expert dietary recommendations, visit sites such as https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/balanced-diet and have a read about what the government experts recommend for each age group.

Alcohol, although commonplace in our society can be very harmful to your goals of good physical and mental health.

It is important to recognise your relationship with alcohol and identify if your consumption habits fit within what is recommended. Official recommendations can be found  at https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/how-alcohol-affects-your-health and https://drinkwise.org.au/.

It is also important to consider whether alcohol consumption aligns with your goals. If your goals are to lose weight and be healthier it might be worthwhile considering if consuming alcohol is something that you wish to do at all. This is okay and finding support around you that acknowledges this can go a long way to instilling positive habits.

Fitness & Exercise

Continuing on from the battery analogy, if sleep recharges your batteries, and your diet helps fuel them, then exercise is the oil that helps make all of these things work as smoothly as possible.

Having an active lifestyle can help make things such as getting adequate sleep and sticking to a healthier diet much easier. Exercise can also help with brain activity and even release endorphins that can help with positive moods. The benefits are agreed upon by many experts in the field.

What puts many people off is the thought exercise must be strenuous and difficult. This is a myth. 30 minutes of exercise a day can be plenty to help your body and mind. And this exercise doesn’t have to be hard. A brisk walk, cycle, or swim, or even activities such as Yoga and Pilates are all great ways to reach your exercise quota. It isn’t important what you do, it is important that you do something and that you enjoy doing it.

A relatively simple way to start setting and reaching excise targets is to buy a pedometer or download an app on your smart phone that counts your steps. Reaching a target of 10,000 steps a day will go a long way to helping you form importantly positive habits in improving your attitude towards exercise.

For more information on setting and reaching a step target, look at these websites https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/tips-for-getting-active and https://www.10000steps.org.au/.

Overall, working towards a more positive and healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be difficult. Small changes can go a long way to helping improve ones physical and mental health. We strongly recommend you consult a health care professional if you have any medical concerns, both physically or mentally. We also strongly recommend that you consider the support systems you have in place to make these changes. Strong support from family, friends, loved ones, or any other group will go a long way in ensuring the success of your lifestyle changes!