Five Healthy Habits That You Can Stick With for a Lifetime

When you’re serious about committing to good health, forget about the latest trends and focus on the fundamentals. Sunbasket’s Director of Nutrition, Lindsey Kane offers her suggestions on what matters most:

1. Eat Real Food

Real food is energizing, disease-protecting, anti-aging, and mood-boosting—everything we need to live a long, happy life. Colorful fruits and vegetables, fiber-rich whole grains, high-quality proteins, and healthy fats are perfectly packaged with all the vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and energy needed to thrive. Yet, studies show an estimated 50 percent of what we eat is ultra-processed food devoid of beneficial nutrients, and contain toxic, artificial additives.

2. Drink Lots of Water

The human body is 65 to 70 percent water, an unmistakable indicator of how important it is to our health. Water plays a critical role in supporting the function of every bodily organ, and yet research estimates a striking 75 percent of the U.S population functions in a chronic state of dehydration.

3. Get Plenty of Sleep

Sleep is our body’s primary opportunity to repair, rebuild, and recharge, yet most of us pay more attention to charging our phones than our bodies. Studies show over one-third of the U.S population is sleep deprived.

4. Get Up and Move

Our bodies are built to move but each year we become more sedentary. Studies estimate that American adults spend an average of 13 hours sitting each day. Regular exercise promotes sleep, strengthens cognitive function, improves metabolism, relieves stress, enhances physical performance, and supports healthier food choices.

5. Chill Out

Unplugging on a regular basis has been shown to improve productivity, creativity, energy, performance, health, and happiness. Whether it’s yoga, meditation, reading a book, taking a warm bath, sipping on tea, or doing a puzzle, taking time to relax and reset is critical to our health and happiness.