Introduction to Healthy Living at Home
Until the last year, people spent roughly 50% of their time at home, depending on their work hours and how often or where they chose to socialize.
It almost seems counterintuitive. Coming home is where we relax and rest, but if you know how to be healthy at home, you will be practicing a healthy lifestyle even as you sleep.
9 Tips for Healthy Living
1. Keep Beneficial Houseplants
There are a surprising number of plants that you can keep in and around your home to improve air quality, provide moisture control, and repel some pests.
Certain ornamentals and flowers such as English ivy, mums, peace lilies, bamboo tongues, and more absorb varying amounts of harmful gases and break them down with microbes in their root systems, creating a better space for breathing and cornerstone of healthy living.
They may also increase humidity indoors or provide moisture control to reduce dust mites. Other plants to aid pest control[1] include herbs and shrubs to repel and, in some cases, kill ants, roaches, spiders, and other insects like mint, basil, rosemary, and eucalyptus.
This can reduce the spread of some germs and diseases associated with rodents and insects.
2. Healthy Food Is Also Useful Food
A healthy diet is important, whether you are dining out or having meals from home. Foods for healthy living can contribute to a healthy lifestyle more than what we eat.
Eating fruits and vegetables is perhaps the largest key to maintaining a healthy weight and energy levels and reducing many health risks.
Still, some foods may also be environmentally friendly options for cleaning in and around the home, reducing unwanted pests and rodents, and even affecting mood.
Many are no stranger to the cleaning properties and health benefits of citrus fruits like orange and lemon peels or the pest repelling properties of lemons or certain fresh herbs. Citrus fruits are also antiseptic and anti-bacterial in many cases.
3. Aromatics Affect Mood And More
While essential oils and scented candles are popular because they smell good, they can also be used as natural cleaning agents to move through the day’s routine more easily.
For example, when cleaning your mattress or vacuuming your bedroom, mix lavender oil and baking soda to induce a sleepy feeling. In areas where you need to feel more alert, citrus smells brighten the mood and make the senses feel refreshed.
Healthy living at home may be easier with the motivation of a change of scent in the right areas of the house.
4. Use More Charcoal
Perhaps one of the most underutilized items in this list, charcoal or activated charcoal[2] can be used just about everywhere in the home, from the medicine cabinet as poison control to water filtration to absorbing moisture to keeping tools from rusting.
A small amount of the black commodity can balance the moisture in a damp basement or be used in the form of sticks to create art and liven up your living space.
It can also help the decomposition and boost the nutritional value of your compost. It is a valuable addition to any healthy living lifestyle.
5. Let The Sunshine In
Natural light is free and good for you[3]. Healthy living at home should include going into your yard for fresh air and sunshine for the readily available benefits of both. Still, when you can’t step out into the sun, it is important to let it into your home using windows, glass doors, and other available options or renovations.
Natural light can provide vitamin D, reduce seasonal disorders, improve sleep, help manage natural rhythms of the body and its processes, and more.
6. Stay Active
Don’t automatically equate being inside to being stationary. While the couch, television, and sedentary activities seem tempting, it is still important to meet recommended standards of activity to maintain weight, flexibility, posture, range of motion, muscle tone, and overall health.
There is truth to the adage, “If you don’t move it, you lose it.” Remember that activities such as cleaning count toward staying active, but it is better to include exercises and movements to keep the body functioning optimally.
Healthy living at home should include exercise and activity of varying intensity three to five days per week for thirty minutes to an hour.
7. Get More Than Adequate Sleep
Good sleep is essential for healthy living. At some point, we lose the habit of bedtime and wake up routine that we had as children, but routine can be the best medicine for the body and mind to heal and recover.
As touched upon briefly in the sections above, smells and a clean environment can help create a calmer sleep space and help one wake up feeling energized.
Getting the same amount of sleep each night at a consistent time can also keep your body in the habit of wanting to sleep and sleeping more deeply and soundly. This allows cells to conduct the reparative processes they need properly.
8. Maintain Connections
Healthy living at home doesn’t have to mean living healthily alone. In fact, for the sake of your mental health, it really shouldn’t.
There are numerous apps to keep us connected and on our healthy journeys together. If you prefer to keep the space on your devices free, there are more traditional means of contact like calling and sending letters.
Even if it is only an occasional few-minute of small talk with a neighbor while checking the mail or walking around the neighborhood, a sense of social connection is vital to mental health.
9. Don’t Stress
With many facing extended periods in quarantine, it is important to remember to control stress levels. While it seems, things combine to be more stressful, stress snowballs and spirals to affect other aspects of life – almost creating a stress cycle.
Succumbing to the tension can affect sleep, appetite, mood, and overall health. To maintain a healthy living lifestyle, try creating times and places in the home specifically to manage stress either with color, smells, or daily reminders to tackle stress management activities. Health begins with the mind.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have already stocked your home with foods for healthy living, ensure you are drinking adequate water, and staying hydrated.
Many people confuse hunger and thirst, so try a glass of water before reaching for a snack. Also, make sure you monitor what you do, drink, and eat, to be sure you are eating and moving as much or little as you believe you are.
There are many pitfalls to healthy living at home that can result in an increase in calories consumed and a decrease in calories burned, such as thoughtless snacking and longer periods of inactivity or sitting.
When considering how to be healthy at home, it is good to keep it simple and have a few versatile tools in hand.
As a home workout, you can do a lot with a little if you have hand weights and a jump rope. In the kitchen, lemons and citrus fruits with peel are versatile in cooking, cleaning, and pest control.
They keep well and are accessible in most areas, so that is a great start. Not to mention, the aroma is mood-lifting and awakening to the senses. They are easy on the waistline and packed with health benefits.
The best foods for healthy living are surprisingly multipurpose in their use, in cooking, and around the home. They can offer an eco-friendly solution to stains, disinfecting, warding away insects and rodents, and much more while being added to a healthy diet.
The biggest thing will be finding a routine and amount of time that works for you. Determine whether ambient noise or complete silence works for you.
Most medical professionals in sleep studies recommend not eating or drinking too close to bedtime and being in a dark environment designated for sleeping. Soothing sounds and aromas have proven to work for some as well.
Remember, healthy living at home begins with the one thing we get most often at home, a good night's sleep.
Remember the need for natural light in healthy living at home. Our spaces tend to feel more open when we literally and figuratively open them up.
If you open up your space by rearranging furniture to allow rooms to feel more spacious, brighten your space by opening the blinds or curtains for more light, or open the window for a breeze, you may begin to feel better.
You can also incorporate more outdoor activities such as gardening and other suitable projects.
Conclusion
Healthy living does not have to mean being on the go, eating at healthy food places, and living at the gym. Right now, many of us are learning how to be healthy at home.
For some, it is a drastic change. But it doesn’t have to be.
However, if we break the challenge of healthy living at home into smaller, achievable habits and goals, we can make the new normal a healthy place of comfort. Perhaps we can do it affordably and naturally