Welcome to part 3 of How to be Unrecognizable in 3 Weeks. As promised, this blog will consist of some smaller changes you can make to your everyday life that will have a huge impact on your health and just how you feel. After all, the goal of improving your health is to improve your life; this means giving you the best possible experience your body can give you and setting you up to feel happier. I know that when I can maintain healthy habits, I don’t just feel physically better, I feel accomplished, productive, more motivated in school, social activities, and physical activity, and happier (: So let’s get into the small changes that will make a big difference.
Drink water. Constantly.
Carry a (reusable) water bottle around with you and when you’re in class, studying, watching TV, etc., take a swig every time you take a break, or look up, or get bored. When I do math homework, for example, I have to look up and take a 10 second mental break after each problem. I accompany this by drinking water until I feel fully satisfied. Sometimes I don’t even feel thirsty until I start drinking and can’t stop. Don’t count on your body telling you you’re thirsty (you can easily confuse thirst for hunger or not notice thirst), drink water every 15 minutes or periodically throughout your activities. The unanimously daily water need is about 2 liters, but this depends on your size, weather, and activity. 2L is the average Nalgene bottle filled up twice. Keep in mind this is a minimum value: I drink twice this much sometimes, even more when I go to the gym. DO NOT count water you drink at the gym in those two liters (you are just replacing water you are losing through sweat, not necessarily hydrating). You will see your acne clear up, a decrease in appetite, clearer neural function, more energy, better eyesight, weight loss, relief to digestive ailments, and so much more. Hydrate or diedrate!
Stay moving.
Vigorous exercise is really important, as I have said time and time again, but studies have shown that an hour of lifting or cardio can be effectively undone by staying sedentary the rest of the day. Things like walking, standing, taking the stairs, carrying bags, or even bouncing your knee are called non-exercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT. NEAT can account for hundreds of burned calories per day. The best way to keep up with your non-exercise thermogenesis is to check your health app or download a step tracker and try to get at least a few miles of walking in per day. That might seem like a lot, but just going to class and back, taking the stairs, and walking to the gym and home usually gets me around 6 miles per day and 20 floors – and that’s without my running distances! Just another benefit of a huge campus.
Take a probiotic.
I could go on and on about your gut biome (upcoming blog idea?), but the main takeaway is that your gut biome is unique to you and influenced by your genetics, diet, and lifestyle. There have been massive amounts of data gathered about how a healthy gut biome affects your immune system (its that season y’all – you wouldn’t want to get mono and fail CAS), energy, sleep, and overall wellbeing. In order to maintain a healthy biome, consider adding a probiotic to your daily routine! This doesn’t have to be a pill – I drink a kombucha every single day and have noticed amazing results! You can get kombuchas at Redifer and Louis on campus and they taste great with very low calories and sugar. There are also supplements you can buy.
Try to incorporate these tips into your daily life and reap the benefits!
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