We’re all familiar with the concept of spring cleaning when it comes to getting rid of physical items that no longer serve us and dusting off those fan blades we’ve ignored all year. But this spring it’s time to clean up something far more important than our homes. It’s time to “spring clean” your health to make sure you’re not neglecting your well-being.
When it comes to living a balanced life and feeling energized, it’s important to take stalk of your nutrition, your exercise routine, and your morning routine. If any of these areas are imbalanced, you can start to feel drained and your health may suffer as a result.
Let’s dive in to learn ways that you can “spring clean” your health to make sure that your mind and body feel shiny and new again!
Clean Up Your Nutrition
A great place to start when it comes to tuning up your health is becoming aware of what goes on your plate. Whether you’re looking to lose weight, gain muscle, or you just want to have more steady energy throughout your workday, nutrition is a powerful way to boost your overall well-being.
A good tool to use for assessing your nutrition is a food journal. Research shows that logging what you eat is an effective technique for helping you lose weight and for helping you become aware of how different foods make you feel.
Food journaling doesn’t have to look like using a traditional paper and pen. You could simply log your meals on your phone and jot down a few notes about how you felt afterwards. Or there are a wide variety of free apps designed to help you track your food intake including Fooducate! and LoseIt!
By becoming aware of what you are eating you can make intentional shifts that can influence not only your weight, but can enhance your energy levels throughout your day and help you better meet your fitness related goals.
Balance Your Exercise Routine
When it comes to your exercise routine, here are a few key questions you may want to ask yourself as you “spring clean” your health:
Is my current exercise routine benefiting me and helping me reach my fitness goals?
Am I working too hard or not hard enough in my current training routine?
Am I recovering within a reasonable time frame after my work out?
If you find that you are out of balance in relation to any of these questions or a nagging pain is influencing your training, it may be time to mix things up and consult a physical therapist. If you overtrain, you may experience excessive fatigue that impacts your quality of life and keeps you from reaching your fitness goals. On the other hand, if you under train, you may not be getting the full benefit of the exercise and may not be able to effectively lose weight. You want to aim for the sweet spot where you feel that you are working at an adequate intensity and recovering within at least 48 hours after an exercise session.
It's important that you don’t do a high intensity routine every single day because your body will not have enough time to recover. You want to mix in a combination of high intensity forms of exercise with low intensity exercise to prevent injuries and excessive fatigue. If you’re looking for a balance routine that is sure to help you meet your fitness goals, check out our class (hyperlink here) where you will have access to all types of exercise to help create balance in your body.
Spruce Up Your Morning Routine
Something we often overlook when it comes to our health is our morning routine. Your morning routine is what sets the tone for your entire day. If you’re in a rush every morning, you’re likely raising your cortisol levels first thing in the morning and setting yourself up to experience high levels of stress. Morning routines can be the antidote for all the chaos in our lives and can be as short or long as you want.
If you’re ready to start incorporating a morning routine to start your day off on the right foot, consider trying a few of these ideas:
5 minutes of meditation or deep breathing
Read 10 pages in an inspiring book
Go for a morning walk to increase endorphins
Create a gratitude list with at least 3 items
Write 3 reasons you are excited about the day down in a journal
Shake the Dust Off
It’s never too late to shake off the dust when it comes to your health. This spring take inventory in these three areas and you are bound to feel a renewed sense of vitality in your life.
If you need more guidance on how to effectively “spring clean” both your physical and mental health, reach out to us at Balanced By Katie for a one-on-one personalized consult today! Our mobile physical therapy services can come and work with you in the comfort of your home in San Clemente, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach or Carlsbad California!
References
Harvey, J., Krukowski, R., Priest, J., & West, D. (2019). Log often, lose more: Electronic dietary self‐monitoring for weight loss. Obesity, 27(3), 380-384.