There is very strong evidence to suggest that your mental health and fitness are linked. If your body is fit and strong, it makes sense that your mental wellbeing will also be fit and strong. The mind and body are joined together in a dualism that lasts our whole lives. Take care of the body, and the mind will follow. However, in the bust world, it is not so easy to take care of ourselves. The ease of fast food and sedentary lifestyles leads to unhealthy habits that take their toll on our bodies and our minds. The good news is that there are many ways we can improve our health and fitness, which can easily be inserted into a busy life. Here are a few tips:

Drink More Water

You may not consider dehydration a problem in modern western societies, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is estimated that as many as 75% of American adults are dehydrated. This dehydration can vary from acute to severe to slightly dehydrated, but either way, it will cause havoc on your health. Some of the side effects of dehydration include headaches, fuzziness, tiredness, and feeling dizzy or lightheaded. It can cause a reduction in your strength and stamina. It can cause your bowels to move more slowly, clogging up your insides and causing you to put on weight and high blood pressure. It can also irreversibly damage your kidneys too, and worse. It takes its toll on our skin too. Your skin may appear dry; wrinkles will grow and become more pronounced. But hydrating is so easy to do. Drinking more water is easy to add to your daily routine. One thing you could try is, instead of relying on coffee in the afternoons, swap it to water. This will, over the course of a few days, help you sleep more, feel more awake as well a well as hydrate you better. It will help you shift those extra pounds; it may even hydrate your joints, reducing any pain you may feel. It will help the body get rid of toxins. Your whole body will begin working better as all the pieces that make you up are lubricated and working more efficiently. If you feel and look better physically, this will help improve your mental well-being. 

Sleep

Sleep is essential to our health. Without adequate sleep, our bodies and minds become run down. You pick up infections more easily, you become irritated more easily, and you are likely to snap sooner damaging your relationships. The benefits of a good night’s sleep are far and wide. It reduces the amount of stress and anxiety you feel. You can better cope with problems, think more clearly, and make better decisions in the moment, which can reduce the chances of you becoming overweight or developing diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Sleep is also the time the body repairs any damage caused in the day and it is a time when the body removes toxins. There are so many advantages of getting a few extra hours of sleep. If you regularly go to bed late and get up early, then perhaps you need to take a look at this in order to feel better. Go to bed half an hour earlier, avoid alcohol and coffee near bedtime, and say no to that evening out, for example. If you do this, your mental well-being will improve as you think more clearly and have more energy for all the things you have to do.    

Face Niggling Health Issues

A lot of people have some sort of anxiety about their health. Unfortunately, many of these people push these issues to the back of their minds and let them fester. However, these issues do not go away, and you always end up worrying about them anyway. The good news is many of these issues are minor and can be dealt with easily. That pain in your elbow, for example, may need a short course of tablets. The pain will go, and your mind will be set at ease. If your teeth are painful or simply just bothering you, for example, they will reduce your quality of life. It may be time to invest in a dentist and get those clear aligners so you can smile without embarrassment? The fact is our appearance and mental health are linked. The better you look and feel about yourself, the happier and more confident you will be.

Increase Movement

By becoming more physically active, you will find that not only will your health improve, but you will become happier too. Getting the blood pumping has a multitude of advantages, from removing toxins from the body, clearing your skin, and flooding your body with feel-good hormones that chemically improve your mood. Another great by-product of getting out there is that you will begin shifting that extra weight and fitting into those clothes you always wanted to. What could be better for your mental health than that? If you are not ready for those runs yet or going t the gym, you can begin by walking more. Go for walks in the park. Why not get a dog to encourage you to get out more? When you park up at the stores, park as far from the entrance as possible. Take the stairs, not the lift. All you need to do is start small, and then you can build up to hikes and marathons if you want to. 

Fruit and Vegetables

We all know about the health benefits of fruit and veg, but how many of us can honestly say we are eating enough of them? Not only are these natural foods packed full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber, which is great for our health by improving our internal functioning but having more of the good stuff improves metal-well being too. Eating these foods gives you a more positive psychological state and helps stave off depression. Again it is pretty easy to add these to our diet. Forgo the crisps and chocolate, swap these snacks for fruit, and do a little more home cooking.