A Guide to Taking Better Care of Your Health in 2020

Want to make 2020 your best, healthiest, brightest year yet? It’s easy to be a healthier version of yourself by revamping your health habits in a few basic ways. Here are just a few of them.

Develop Healthy Habits

When you develop healthy lifestyle habits, you reduce the risk of developing problems later in life such as obesity, high blood pressure, heart failure or diabetes as well as a lowered risk of developing mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety.

Establishing healthy lifestyle routines or breaking unhealthy habits in your teens or 20s is better than later. Some people say, “I’m a teenager, I’m still 20, I can do whatever I want. I will stop it later in life.’ Yet the fact is that it’s a very hard thing to do. You’ve no doubt heard the saying ‘Old habits die hard’, and this is especially true for bad habits.

So, the time to develop good health habits is now, not later.

Exercise More

One of the best things you can do for yourself and your mental health, no matter how crazy your day is, is to take out a piece of time to exercise. This is going to not only keep your physically fit and health, but it is going to have benefits for your mental health.

Exercising is a great way to help you deal with a condition such a depression as t promotes changes in the brain such as neural growth, reduced inflammation, and new activity patterns that promote feelings of calm and well-being. It also releases endorphins that help to energise you and make your feel good. It also serves as a distraction from negative thought cycles.

Keep on Top of Your Health

Speaking of your health, it is important that you are keeping on top of your overall physical and mental health. This is true at any age of your life, but especially when you are younger as taking care of your health in your 20s, for example, sets you up to take good care of your health as you get older.

In the UK it is easy enough to keep on top of your health through regular check-ups with your local NHS GP. However, if you do not wish to wait in long waiting lists or have any potential problems looked at, you can always opt to take out a private health insurance plan instead.

With a private insurance plan, you will have access to things such as fast tracked private appointments, specialists and consultants and a second opinion. Before taking out private health insurance, be sure to consider the cost of these plans, what they cover, and if it is something you are likely to need in the future.

Reduce Your Social Media Consumption

Social media platforms are great tools for allowing thought expression, improved communication and creativity and generally keeping up to date with friends, family, celebrities and the outside world. However, when you spend so much time immersed on other people’s social media feeds, you can start to feel inadequate. Many people begin to compare their life to those they see on social media, and this can have adverse effects on mental health.

This happens because people often forget that what we see online is not an accurate reflection of real-life as often people only cherry-pick the best moments of their life to edit into an almost’ highlight reel’ for social media. This leaves people feeling like their life isn’t as perfect as someone else’s.

So, if you feel like social media is having a negative impact on your mental health or how you feel in general, then make time to step away, have a social media detox and take some time away from your screens to focus on yourself and your own life.

It’s not easy to make conscious, informed decisions every day. Give yourself a little room to make mistakes., learn from your mistakes and make a smarter decision next time.

Remember, every little step adds up to making you healthier in 2020 and beyond.