Hey everyone! 

Welcome to 2022! While waiting for the new year to come, it seemed like time couldn’t move fast enough, but now that it’s here I feel like 2021 kind of flew by. 

I’m sure that as you’ve thought about what you wanted for yourself out of this year, you may have created some sort of list of ways to achieve those goals. Maybe, you want to rest more and spend less time focused on  things you can’t change. Maybe you want to change jobs this year or start a new habit. Whatever your goals may be, I hope you get all that you can out of this year, you deserve it. 

To kick off the new year here at Nicole-Eva.com, I wanted to talk about 3 helpful, healthy habits I belive everyone should start this year. These are healthy habits that are important to make a part of your everyday life regardless of what your big goals are. These are things that will help you to feel better on the inside, and therefore help you to achieve more on the outside.

3 Helpful Healthy Habits to Begin This New Year

Move more | Many of us (not all) spend the majority of our days seated. Whether it’s seated at a school desk or table, seated in an office chair or seated in a bus or car, we can spend anywhere from 5-8 hours a day sitting down. This doesn’t include the time we spend relaxing, watching tv or playing video games at home or with friends. Our bodies don’t enjoy that. We need movement. 

Some benefits of regular movement 

• Movement helps us to release endorphins which helps us to relieve stress. 
• Movement gives us a mental break from the monotonous or stressful day to day happenings of our lives 
• Regular movement keeps your lymphatic system healthy which in turn supports your immune health
• Regular movement helps your bone health
• Regular movement enhances cognitive performance 

Drink more water | More than half of the adults in the united states don’t drink enough water and about 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated and don’t even know it (source: DripDrop.com). Water is so important to your body; It can help you loose weight, help you perform better athletically, it can help increase brain function, it lubricates your joints and helps them to work properly, and it delivers oxygen through the body. 

Need tips on how to drink more water? Check out this post. 

Sleep Better | Sleep is golden, and getting enough is so important to your overall health. Not getting enough sleep is linked to things like an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and increased inflammation. Getting enough sleep sometimes can be hard, maybe you have trouble winding down at night, or you just keep getting distracted with your phone. If that’s you try out some of these tips to help you get more sleep at night. 

• Develop a bedtime routine – a bedtime routine is a process you stick to each night to set your body up for a relaxing night of sleep. The benefit to this is not only that it takes the guess work out of what you need to do before going to bed, but that your mind will adjust to this pattern and soon will associate your routine with sleep. 
• Limit or eliminate caffeine intake – caffeine is great for keeping you awake during the day, but sometimes it does it a bit too well and can affect your ability to wind down at night. If you can’t eliminate the caffeine completely , try reducing the intensity of the caffeine you drink (i.e. replacing your morning coffee with green tea perhaps). You can also make a rule with yourself like no caffeine after 10 am to give your body enough time to flush it out. 
• Stick to a schedule – going to bed at the same time each night helps your body to understand when it should be getting sleepy
• Try some breathing exercises – these exercises have helped plenty of people relax their bodies before going to bed. 
• Put the phone away – Not only does putting your phone away help to eliminate distractions as your drift off to dreamland, but the harsh blue light from your phone can confuse your brain into thinking it’s supposed to be awake. 

These 3 things aren’t exactly earth shattering, no, but they are helpful. When I’m planning new things, like new goals or New Year’s resolutions, I always tend to neglect the “small” things that can make big differences. Remembering these 3 healthy habits, and taking the time to make them into regular routines you can rely on will help you to get off to a healthier start this year.

Have you decided to make any healthy changes for the new year? If so I’d love to hear about them!

Happy New Year friends, and thanks so much for reading! Talk soon.

xx Nicole Eva

p.s. Hey! Let’s connect with each other! Follow me on instagram (find me here) or twitter (find me here)! I’d love to hear from you and include you in all the new stuff coming this year.