Big changes are made up of the littlest of steps.
That is true about every area of our life and applies specifically to the area of health. We can often feel overwhelmed when faced with a challenging health issue or when we try to adopt healthier choices and practices. When we’re overwhelmed we tend to give up, thinking that our challenges are too hard or that our goals are too big.
The best way to approach overwhelm is to break down our goals into small steps that can be easily and gradually applied to our everyday life.
Our home can become our ally in our health quest. Making healthy choices visible, accessible, easy, and inviting is only a few quick changes away.
Follow these 10 Tips to Turn Your Home A Healthy Haven:
- Put a bowl of fresh, washed, and ready to eat fruit on your kitchen table. Apples, pears, oranges, peaches, bananas, and plums are all wonderful choices. When you need a snack, grab a fruit!
- Keep sliced vegetables in clear glass containers on the top shelf of the fridge. Sliced carrots, peppers, celery, cucumbers, and radishes are wonderful as snacks, with dips, and as quick ingredients in roasts, soups, and salads. Spend a little time washing and slicing your veggies when you come back from the supermarket. No time? Many grocers carry washed and sliced veggies for your convenience.
- Are there tempting, unhealthy foods in your fridge? Leftover cake? Creamy and rich meals? Snacks for the kids? Keep them in the bottom vegetable crisper. By keeping these foods out-of-sight and out-of-mind, you will not be tempted to eat them every time you open your fridge. Where to put your veggies? Front and center, so it’s the first thing you see. Added bonus: you are less likely to forget those greens and throw them out because they went bad.
- The same applies to your kitchen pantry, put the unhealthy foods like the cookies and chips in out-of-sight and hard to reach places like the top shelves and the back of the cabinet. Put the healthier foods like canned beans and whole grains front and center.
- What do you have hanging outside your fridge door? Your children’s art? Your bills and reminders? The fridge door is a wonderful canvas and you can use it to create a dream board for a healthier you. Hang images of healthy people, yoga poses, empowering words, pictures of healthy foods, and healthy recipes. Be inspired every time you look at it.
- Make cooking easy and fun by organizing your “cooking station.” Put pots and pans in a cabinet near the stove or hang them nearby. Get rid of toxic cookware, anything that is scratched, chipped, and broken. Arrange dry herbs and spices in an easy to use organizer within easy reach. Make a shelf for cookbooks or a laptop for pulling out quick recipes from a book or a website. YouTube has amazing cooking videos that you can cook along with.
- Fill your home with greens by creating mini indoor gardens with house-plants. They help clear the air and create a calming atmosphere that promotes relaxation and healing. Group a few together around windows for natural light or use an indoor plant light.
- If one of your goals is to be more active, hang your workout clothes and put your sneakers on a chair right next to your bed, that way, when you wake up, you will be reminded to get dressed and get active. If you go to the gym after work, make sure your gym bag is ready before you go to sleep. That extra preparation gives your mind a strong message that an active lifestyle is important to you. If you have exercise equipment at home, don’t put in in an unused room or turn it into an expensive clothes hanger. Make sure it’s clutter free, clean, and in a visible place so you will have no reason not to use it.
- Create an oasis of calm in your bedroom to promote restful and rejuvenating sleep. Your body heals and repairs itself while you sleep so help it along by giving it an optimal experience. Use calming colors like blues, lavenders, and creams as decor. Decorate your walls with art that creates a relaxing atmosphere. Keep electronics and screens out of the bedroom and stop using them at least an hour before sleep, two hours is even better. Read an inspiring or relaxing book before sleep.
- Get an essential oil diffuser and learn about different essential oils and the right ways to use them. You can use essential oils to promote relaxations, increase energy, boost concentration, and elevate mood. Many reputable essential oil companies create blends that can enhance many aspects of your life.
Which one of these steps are you going to try to turn your home into a healthy haven? Do you have any other tips that did not get mentioned above? Please share them with us in the comments section below!
– Rachel
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Rachel Kieffer is an author and an Integrative Nutrition health coach. She guides women to radiant lives, a healthy relationship with food and a loving relationship with their bodies through private consultations, online programs, and women health circles.
