HOW TO TAKE PART:
Download and print out your habit tracker below.
Share at least 1 of your habits daily or weekly to your Instagram story with the hashtag #SOWELLFOR21 and tag @mitchells.nz and @sowell.coaching - We'd love to see your habits in action and how the habit changes are making you feel. The more you share, the more entries you'll have!
Remember to tag us and use the hashtag #SOWELLFOR21 so we can support you along the way and pick our winner! Winner of the $150 Mitchells Nutrition Gift Voucher will be drawn on Thursday, August 8th 2024.
Save your HABIT TRACKER to your computer and print out:
1. Daily Movement (30 min)
If we could put the benefits of exercise in a capsule, we’d all be taking it. Whether its a walk on the beach to break up your day, heading through the hills, or joining a group class, keeping active is fundamental to winter and year-round wellbeing.
Our challenge: Most importantly move, in whatever way feels best for you, at least 30mins/day. Ideally, this is movement where you can only just hold a conversation, if you were to exert a little more energy, you wouldn’t be able to keep chatting. Better yet, move with a friend. This serves not only as accountability but also a dose up on the goodness of good company.
2. High Protein Meal
One of the 3 macronutrients we need in large amounts to fuel our brain and body’s basic needs. To learn more about the importance of protein and some simple tips to prioritise and optimise intake, head to the blog 3 Simple Tips to Prioritise and Optimise your Protein Intake
Our challenge: Prioritise protein in all main meals of the day, but if this feels overwhelming, simply start with brekkie! Aim for a minimum of 25g/meal. Gentle on the gut, giving you a 100% naturally occurring complete amino acid profile, Mitchells Bone Broth Powder or Mitchells Bone Broth Protein Powder are great options to top up your protein intake either within main meals or soon after that daily movement!
3. Drink 2.5L Water
We don't have to tell you how good water is, it's a no-brainer! You're made up of trillions of cells and bacteria and every single one of them depends on proper hydration for you to feel and function, not only well, but ideally optimally.
Our challenge: Drink 2.5L every day. If you find this a little trickier through winter, sip on warm water + a few slices of ginger! Read the blog: The Importance of High-Quality Hydration
4. Gratitude
This one may seem a little squishy, but the benefits on both brain and body are proven by science! Focusing on what and who we feel appreciative for boosts serotonin and dopamine, enhancing our mood, willpower, and motivation.
We often forget to slow down, our body's intelligence keeping us in 'survival' mode, going places and getting things done. Often on autopilot. The concept "neurons that fire together, wire together" is a great prompt to consider whether we are actively balancing out the 'stress circuits' with some 'sweetness circuits'. The beauty of the brain is that it has a lifelong capacity to change and rewire itself in response to repeated experience or exposure. What are you exposing it to?
Think for a moment about how easy it is to notice only the negative or how hard it can be to break a not-so-healthy habit. Those neural pathways are really well travelled. However, the same can happen when we shift our brain's focus to gratitude and appreciation.
Our challenge: tack this one on to waking up in the morning or going to bed at night. Just 5minutes to tip your thoughts towards the things, people, places, resources, and rituals that you are grateful for.
5. Cold Immersion
Incorporating cold showers, winter swims or an ice bath into your routine has a wide-spread benefits for your whole health. With a focus on mid-winter mental health, consciously choosing to expose the body to temperature extremes activates our body's stress response - exposing us to a big dose of our stress hormones. Upon exposure, we breath, regulate, and essentially restore ourselves back to balance. Overtime, this can build our readiness for and resilience to the inevitable everyday stressors we face in life.
Our challenge: Have your normal shower, then flick to cold for 1minute, Or if you have access to the ocean or an ice bath, jump in for 2-5 minutes. The key here, as with all these habits, is consistency.
6. Morning Light Exposure
Light exposure and darkness are the essential keys in regulating your circadian rhythm, or sleep-wake cycle. Photons, from the light, travel through to our eyes into a little area of the brain (suprachiasmatic nucleus) that is essentially like our master body clock. Not only does this set our sleep-wake cycle but regulates the rhythm of organ function throughout the day!
Our challenge: As soon as you can, on waking, step outside and look to the brightest area of the sky (for at least 5min on clear days, and ideally longer on overcast days). Great paired with a morning cuppa, or, of course, your movement practice.
7. Switch it Off!
Exposure to blue light before bed can disrupt your sleep by suppressing the production of melatonin, the hormone that not only regulates sleep-wake cycles but has been shown to have a number of anti-inflammatory actions. On the topic of mental health, recent research had made an undeniable link between inflammation and depression, with inflammation not only being a possible pathway to depression, but also a perpetuating factor.
Side note: serotonin, that molecule we've dosed up on from our gratitude practice is a 'precursor' to melatonin. In other words, serotonin gets converted to melatonin at night-fall. So, having sufficient amounts of serotonin around is not only good for our feel-good factor, but also our sleep! It's all interconnected!
Our challenge: Try switching off the TV or phone around 8pm and swap this habit out with a soft activity like knitting, writing or reading.
8. Read or Journal (15minutes/day)
This one lends itself to some similar benefits to that of the gratitude practice, and also may seem a little squishy, but with the overwhelming amount of stimulus, information, and input in our modern lives, a moment to pause, reflect, set some clear intentions and/or read also has a ripple effect on your wellbeing, life, and relationships!
Our challenge: set aside 10-15minutes/day to either write or read. Perfect done at the end of the day to switch off. A writing practice can simply include: a brain-dump of tasks and to-dos from today and/or for tomorrow - clearing the mind before bed, a mind-body check in, and some moments of the day you enjoyed or appreciated.