Taking steps to improve your health is something that might often feel more easily said than done. Losing weight, for instance, may sometimes feel almost impossible. No one enjoys dieting and feeling hungry all of the time, and it’s hard to find the motivation to exercise when you come home from work feeling exhausted every day. If you’re a smoker, it’s likely that you’ve already tried to quit and failed. You expose yourself to harsh chemicals because you want to keep your house clean and have a very limited amount of time in which to do the work. How in the world can you live a healthier life when you can barely manage to find the time to cook your own meals?
Although improving your health may seem like a lost cause when you’re always struggling to find extra time, you can actually enact major changes in your life just by making a few low-effort substitutions and employing a little high-tech assistance. The name of the game here is making healthier choices without making yourself feel as though you’re working harder or missing out on life’s pleasures – and believe it or not, there are more opportunities to do exactly that than you might think. Here are some high-tech and low-effort ways to begin improving your health right now.
Switch to Vaping
We’ll begin this article by discussing the world’s most insidious vice and the leading preventable cause of death: smoking. If you’re a smoker, there’s a good chance that you’ve already tried to quit; almost every person who smokes would like to stop. Unfortunately, cigarettes are so powerfully addictive that most people who try to quit aren’t successful. The problem with quitting smoking is that the traditional nicotine replacement products just aren’t satisfying enough to calm cigarette cravings fully. Most people try products like nicotine gum and only end up managing to decrease their cigarette consumption slightly before ultimately giving up.
Vaping is a far better way to give up smoking because it allows you to absorb your nicotine in the fastest and most satisfying way – by inhaling it – instead of using a traditional nicotine replacement product that uses the much slower oral route. The fact that vaping allows you to inhale your nicotine is only part of the magic. The other part is the vape liquid itself. While a cigarette can only ever taste like a cigarette, vape liquid is available in hundreds of different flavors. Vaping is simply a better experience in every way – and that’s what has enabled tens of millions of people around the world to switch successfully. With all of the different types of vapes on the market today, you’re certain to find something you’ll love.
Make Healthy Food Substitutions
Losing weight is – on the surface, at least – a very simple thing. All that you need to do is burn more calories than you consume, and you’ll eventually drop those extra pounds. In practice, though, it often turns out to be very difficult to get the results you want. It’s tough to get through the day when you’re feeling hungry and irritable – and good luck finding the motivation to exercise when the only thing you can think about is food.
To lose weight and improve your health through your food choices, you should think of dieting in terms of making healthy substitutions rather than simply eating less. By choosing foods and beverages that are higher in fiber and water content but lower in fat, sugar and cholesterol, you’ll naturally improve your health and consume fewer calories – and if you make the right choices, you can do it while still feeling completely satisfied at the end of the meal. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
- Drink plain carbonated water instead of soda. Don’t just switch to diet soda; there’s a growing body of evidence suggesting that diet soda doesn’t actually help with weight loss.
- Eat plant-based protein instead of meat.
- Minimize your consumption of pasta and rice. Instead of pasta, try spiralized zucchini. Make lasagna with sheets of thinly sliced eggplant. Instead of rice, try grated and steamed cauliflower.
- Start your meals with salad instead of bread. The water and fiber content of salad will help to prevent you from overeating during the main course.
- Eat your meals at home instead of buying takeout meals. Try making several meals in advance and freezing them. That way, you’ll have something you can reheat quickly when you don’t feel like cooking. A vacuum bagging machine is one of the greatest pieces of technology that you can own for this purpose. It’ll allow you to store your meals longer without freezer burn affecting the taste and texture.
Find Ways to Increase Your Activity Level
One aspect of losing weight is reducing your caloric intake – but if you really want to maximize your results, you also need to exercise. The trick, though, is finding ways to increase your activity level without actually feeling like you’re doing extra work. Devoting an hour a day to exercise, after all, isn’t easy if you feel as though you don’t even have an extra hour to spare. Here are some simple low-effort ideas for increasing your activity level.
- Take the stairs instead of using the elevator. It’s a great way to get your heart rate up.
- Park as far from stores and from your workplace as possible. The extra steps that you’ll take each day will add up over time.
- Use the fitness tracking features of your phone or smartwatch to maintain your motivation. Your smartwatch can monitor your heart rate and estimate the number of calories that you’re burning with all of the extra walking. Although the extra calories you burn won’t exactly replace regular workout sessions, you may find that the weight loss motivates you to find the time for a more serious exercise regimen.
- Try taking up a sport to make exercise feel more like play. Golfing qualifies as exercise – especially if you’re walking instead of riding a cart. If you don’t enjoy golf, try blowing off some steam at the local batting cages. Even going to a basketball court and shooting some baskets can go a long way toward helping you shed a few extra pounds.