Quick question. How’s the “living a healthy lifestyle” resolution that you made at New Year’s working out?

Going strong, on and off, or not at all?

If you’re anything like us, it’s safe to assume that you fall somewhere under the on and off and not at all umbrella. You’re not alone!

Taking care of your health is important. Living a healthy lifestyle makes a huge difference in your quality of life and while it may be hard to change years of bad habits, if you start small, you’ll be on the path to a healthier life in no time!

Here are a few hacks that can help you start you off…

Drink plenty of water

You are not alone on this one! It seems to be one of the biggest areas of opportunity for so, so many people! Don’t believe us? Run a search for apps that remind you to hydrate, or for the various ingenious ways you can be encouraged to fill up your empty water bottle.

Check out the different ways our Rakuten family keeps itself hydrated for inspiration:

If you can’t exercise, start moving more

If you’ve never exercised before, nothing will get you started today. Exercising regularly is a mindset shift that happens over time. But if you don’t get moving, your health will suffer.

You can, however, make small changes to move more. Start going for a leisurely walk. Use your smart or fitness watch to complete 10k steps a day. It can sound like a lot but the average person, who doesn’t exercise, takes anywhere from 5k to 7k steps a day. Taking an additional 3,000 doesn’t sound so hard, does it?

Get creative! Take an alternative route to work or home, get off a block before your destination and walk over if you’re meeting friends. Take the stairs whenever you can.

Lastly, try a non-traditional fitness class! Instead of hitting the gym, take a Zumba class, try out Pilates or yoga, follow a routine from Instagram or YouTube. The key is finding a form of exercise you enjoy.

Get an accountability partner

Making positive changes, like exercising and eating healthy feels a lot harder if you have to do it alone. Find a friend who is trying to get healthier too and keep one another on track. A few ways to do so include, plan your workouts and meals together so that it doesn’t feel like you’re in it alone. If you’re taking classes, join one together.

Make your goals achievable and trackable

Big, lofty goals are hard to envision and as a result, harder to achieve. Losing 20 pounds feels like an impossible task. But losing half a pound a week? Now that’s a lot more achievable.

Give yourself goals that are trackable too. Like drinking 8 glasses of water a day, completing 10k steps, completing a short at-home workout.

These are small things that will get you moving and give you results. Sure, you won’t see a huge transformation immediately, but in few months, when you need to tighten your usual belt? That’s the kind of change that’ll make your day.

Reward yourself

Small changes may feel like they aren’t making much of a difference but they eventually lead to big ones. Set yourself a long-term goal and decide on a reward for achieving it.

The reward will serve as your motivation on days you don’t want to move or are craving a food you know will derail all your hard work.

Make your reward something that will bring you lasting joy and sense of achievement. Could be new clothes to celebrate a loss of weight or a fancy piece of technology you’ve been coveting for a while. It could even be a day at a spa, a weekend at a local resort, or traveling to another country, something you’ve often thought about doing but always put it off.

Preparing for a healthier lifestyle

When you’re making all this effort to get healthy, you deserve to have all the tools at your disposal to make it an easier transition. Whether that’s cookbooks (Chapter’s Indigo), workout clothes (Sportchek, Lululemon, Lolë), running shoes (Altitude Sports), fitness tech (Amazon), a new juicer/blender to make smoothies (Canadian Tire), water bottles (S’well), health supplements or protein shakes (Well.ca, MyProtein), get whatever you need.

Your health is worth it.