When someone is described as “healthy”, most people probably envision someone skinny, fit, or muscular, or maybe just someone wearing exercise clothing walking around drinking a kale shake. But the truth is, that’s not all it takes to be considered healthy. Sure your appearance is a big part of it, but appearance is just what other people see. Being healthy starts from within, and should truly only focus on physical feeling rather than looks. 

That’s something I had to understand before attempting to be “healthier”. It couldn’t only be about appearing healthier to others, it had to be about the things that were going to start feeling different for me. A lot of these things didn’t only come from exercise or diet either. 

Common things people don’t take into consideration as being unhealthy as often as they should include getting enough sleep at night, caffeine intake, water consumption, and even phone usage. 

One of the biggest switches in my daily routine was incorporating drinking matcha rather than coffee more often. And while many don’t think there’s much of a difference in doing this, you definitely need to try it for a few days consecutively before really feeling a difference. 

Matcha definitely doesn’t taste as good as a Starbucks latte does, but it’s a much more sustained form of caffeine. Most matcha actually contains a little bit less caffeine than coffee or espresso does. 

The biggest difference is the fact that matcha doesn’t come with the intense round of symptoms that coffee sometimes does, including headaches, shakiness, and stomach pain. Matcha provides you with enough caffeine in smaller amounts over the course of the day to keep you energized throughout, while coffee’s effects take place all at once and then burn out. 

While I typically have a fairly busy schedule since it is my junior year and I usually have a lot of homework to do on the weekdays, getting an extra hour or two of sleep has improved how I feel on a daily basis a lot. Even if it’s hard to do.

My body got used to surviving off of a 6 hour sleep schedule on school days, sometimes even less depending on my agenda for the day before. This month I attempted to be in bed 2 hours earlier each night, giving me 8 hours of sleep instead.

I can’t always be consistent with this, because not every day is the same. But the nights I get 8 hours of sleep lead to days where I don’t feel like I need caffeine to get through my morning classes, and it’s easier for me to wake up in the morning. Most health professionals recommend 8-10 hours of sleep a night for 13-18 year olds. 

Another small switch that made big changes was simply drinking more water. I’m a common offender of drinking more caffeine or juice in a day than I do water, so this was something that needed to change regardless. I actually invested in a water bottle that had a straw, because people aren’t lying when they say straws make drinking water easier.

Drinking water has a large amount of benefits including improved brain function/focus levels, digestive harmony, better body temperature regulation, and obviously, hydration levels. 

And obviously the most common changes that people make to their lifestyle when trying to be healthier are diet and exercise. Something that many people don’t realize is that you don’t need to drive yourself crazy by making yourself not eat as much, even when you’re hungry. Just don’t eat as much sugar, processed, or fat-rich food and you will quickly notice that even just your stomach will feel a lot better. 

It’s important to seek out food that provides you with long term energy, rather than an hour of energy that many foods like ice cream or chips will give you. Some of my favorite “healthy” snacks include avocado toast, rice cakes with toppings, yogurt with granola, peanut butter, and so many more.

Exercise doesn’t need to be a struggle either. Simply start going on a 30-minute walk everyday and even that will make you feel more alert and refreshed. Once again, it’s better to focus on feeling healthy rather than looking healthy, so walking will help you get more fresh air on a daily basis, as well as help you sleep better at night from the amount of energy you’re burning on your walk. 

Regardless of the habits you take on, it’s important to do what feels right for you. Everybody’s body is different, so the same schedule likely won’t work for everyone. Baby steps are better than no steps at all.