22 Tips to Make 2022 a Happier, Healthier Year

The year is open for opportunity. For more health. More happiness. These 22 tips will help you make 2022 a happier, healthier year.

The thing about change, is that it doesn’t come about in an instant. It takes tens, hundreds, even thousands of moments added up over time to achieve that overnight success.

What I love about New Year’s Resolutions is that it’s the one time of year that we tend to look at our goals in terms of long term hopes and dreams. Instead of losing pounds in a week or month, what can we do in a whole year?

365 days.

That’s a lot of days. A lot of opportunities waiting for you to make the most out of them.

Here are 22 ways that you can choose to live a happier, healthier year in 2022.

22 Tips to Make 2022 a Healthier Year

These tips aren’t exactly resolutions. But if you have a resolution that lies somewhere on the spectrum of being healthier/happier/more product/have more energy…

Then each of these ideas will certainly help you achieve that.

Start Each Day with Gratitude

Close your eyes and think back on a moment when you were so thankful for something that you actually felt it in your core.

That thankfulness….that gratitude…is powerful. It affects your brain, your relationships, your sleep, your motivation levels. Gratitude changes your brain.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.”

Proverb

A daily practice of gratitude is a daily recognition that there is goodness in your life. Gratitude in any form reverberates emotionally and physiologically – and can show up in small sign in daily, physical life.

Beginning each day with gratitude can be as simple as keeping a notebook in which you jot down 2-3 things that you are grateful for each morning. Or it could be a journal that you spend 10-15 minutes with, contemplating what makes you feel thankful in the moment.

There’s no right or wrong way to practice gratitude. Practicing on a daily basis reminds you to acknowledge that despite a stressful day, despite worries, you have much to be grateful for.

Followed by a Tall Glass of Lemon Water

You know that you should be drinking 80+ ounces of water every day. But how often do you crush that goal? Water is essential to your well-being, to your health, and to your energy. And it’s a simple habit to help you create a healthier routine.

16 ounces of lemon water in the morning can go a long way in rehydrating your body after a long night without a sip. It’s also a good idea to hydrate before you consume caffeine. The lemon itself is a natural energizer, and just tastes clean and awake.

Give Yourself a Day Off Every Month

A full day off – from hard exercise, from work, from chores – can completely reset, and jumpstart, your motivation. Especially if it’s scheduled!

Think of this day as a complete Me Day (like Me Time, but larger in scope). A time to focus your energy and your attention on you. To rejuvenate. To organize. To rest.

Commit to More Movement

Movement is a key component to your health and happiness. Humans were never meant to spend 8-9 hours a day on our butts. We’re meant to move.

This year, commit to moving a little more.

• add a walk to your day
• increase your post-workout stretch and cool down by 5 minutes
• increase NEAT (non exercise activity)
• if you currently walk 6,000 steps a day, shoot for 7,000

As the year goes on you’ll build up more and more movement in ways that feel natural and attainable. That’s the kind of movement that sticks!

Shut Your Phone Off at Night

There are two main reasons that shutting your phone off at night improve your health and happiness.

First, your phone – and all electronics really – emits blue light. Blue light disrupts your body’s ability to prepare for sleep because it messes with the production of melatonin. It also affects the part of your brain that makes you feel energized and alert. While during the day that’s useful, it’s detrimental to your ability to fall asleep.

Second, most of the phone-activity that we log at night is social media related. There’s not much on social media these days that is calming, or soothing. Thumbing threw endless social media, absorbing the high points of another persons life…not relaxing hobbies. Instead your brain scrambles to keep up with what’s happening, creating feelings of FOMO and judgement that you just don’t need before you head to bed.

Consider shutting your phone off 2-3 hours before you hit the sack. Turn your attention to the life that is closer to your being.

If You Need to Rant, Rant (but make sure the rantee knows you’re just ranting)

This is a takeaway that I learned in 2021. If you just need to rant – like pent up energy get it off your chest don’t want feedback rant – you should get that out of you. So rant. But make sure that whoever you are ranting to (my husband, in my case), knows what you need out of this spill session. As long as that someone agrees to the “rules” and is comfortable with it, you’re golden!

p.s. I highly suggest returning the gesture.

Reach Out to Someone You Love Every Week

There are people in your life that make you smile. Hopefully, a lot of them live nearby so that you can see them in person. But inevitably, some of them live far away. Either way, reach out to someone you love – someone who makes you smile and feel good about yourself – every single week.

Learn Something New Every Day

Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.

Albert Einstein

The brain is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised every day!

Health and happiness are multidimensional. Learning something new every day keeps your mind sharp and your curiosity alive. The brain is like a muscle. Exploring a new skill, or book, language or hobby engages your mind – and possibly your body – in a way that perfectly supplements a healthy diet, exercise and good sleep.

Make Those Doctors Appointments

If you’re a healthy adult, you probably don’t need a lot of medical care. But if you’re anything like me and my husband, you put off doctors appointments because, well, it’s not fun.

But meeting with your doctors annually can go a long way in preventing issues that you might not know about, or that could otherwise come in the future. Take one hour this week to make a doctors appointment, a gynecologist appointment, a dentist appointment, and whatever other appointments you’ve been putting off!

Do Something That Scares You

Our fears and hesitations impact, often negatively, the choices we make and actions we take. They limit your power and your life. If you can find small ways to overcome your fears and face the things that scare you, your life will be fuller and happier for it.

Get Out of Town

A routine. I’m the first to admit how comforting and healthy a good, daily routine is. But…

For many of the same reasons you should do something that scares you, you should get out of your comfort zone. Explore a new place. Meet new people. Absorb a different culture. It will force you to grow and learn and challenge the walls up around you.

Mix Up Your Workout Routine

For the best physical results you should mix up your exercise routine every 4-6 weeks. Variety in your routine, the exercises you do, etc encourages your body to keep changing and progressing. Your body has to work hard to adapt to the challenge of change which avoids plateaus.

Plus, changing up your routine avoids boredom and keeps you motivated.

Add Something Nutritious to Your Diet (rather than cut something out)

Often, the choice to eat healthier triggers us to cutting foods or food groups out completely. Which often leads us to crave that food more. This year, instead of focusing on what you should cut out of your diet, focus on what you could add!

Adding healthy foods, and focusing on adding them to every meal boosts your nutritional health AND crowds out room on the plate where less healthy foods might otherwise go.

Celebrate Your Small Wins

Big goals aren’t achieved overnight. Big goals are built by the small, consistent wins that you build up over time. Don’t wait for the big win – which might take months or even years to accomplish – to reward yourself. Celebrating the small stuff will keep you motivated and inspired to keep pushing.

Come up with rewards that are not food related:

• a manicure or pedicure
• a new sports bra
• new socks
• a face lotion you’ve wanted for a while

Set yourself a goal (remember, you’re not looking for perfection). If you hit it every week or month, allow yourself that win and reward!

Try Meditating

The quiet practice of meditation boosts your mood and decrease anxiety. Creating a daily practice of even just 5-minutes can give you a sense of calm and balance in a crazy, busy world. It benefits your emotional well being but the results are physiological too.

Meditation actually boosts the release of endorphins. Your “feel good” hormones. You might find that you have more energy, more focus and that you are more productive!

Track Your Cycle

It’s time to treat your cycle not as the burden of the female body, but a blessing. Your cycle is caused by powerful hormones. By tracking your cycle and treating your body accordingly you can get more (energy, strength, body love), out of each day of the month.

Start by tracking the day your period begins and the day it ends. Do this for a few cycles. You can take that information and estimate where the phases of your cycle land: mensuration, the follicular phase, ovulation and the luteal phase.

If you really want to deep dive into this, there are ways to eat according to your phase, move according to your phase, and even socialize and make career moves according to your phase!

Practice Meatless Mondays

Practicing meatless, or meat less, Mondays is good for the environment and good for your personal health. Starting off your week consciously choosing to eat more vegetarian sources of nutrients than meat products offers numerous health benefits:

• improve heart health
• reduce your risk of heart disease
• help to maintain a healthy weight (especially when cutting out processed or fatty meats)

If you’re worried about protein, no need! Beans, nuts, soy, lentils, and tofu can 100% supplement your needs for the day.

Sit Less

We are not meant to sit all day. And yet most of us do. Between long hours spent at work, travel time sitting on our butts in cars, or crashing onto the couch after a long day – the hours add up. Moving more and sitting less might be the change you need to push your body up the health continuum.

Sitting less means increase your daily caloric expenditure by possibly hundreds of calories. It takes more energy to stand than it does to sit. More energy to take the stairs than the elevator. All of this energy expenditure is called NEAT: non-exercise physical activity. And it adds up.

Standing instead of sitting can fix a lot of posture problems and chronic pains, too. Standing forces your lower back and glutes to engage. You’re more inclined to pull your shoulders back. You’re more inclined to move.

Studies actually show that sitting less and moving more is beneficial for your metabolism, blood pressure, blood sugar and body composition. The simple act of getting up from your desk, or better yet investing in a stand up desk, can reduce your risk of chronic disease, too.

Practice Me-Time Daily

Make me-time a priority this year. Just a few minutes a day is all it takes to take a timeout for life and regroup mentally and physically. You want to take charge of your health. Be more productive. Lower stress. And have more energy. Those aren’t selfish desires. In fact, everyone in your life benefits from you being healthier and happier.

In just 5 minutes you could:

• write in a gratitude journal
• go for a quick walk
• get fresh air
• practice deep breathing and relaxing techniques
• log your meals for the morning
• refill your water bottle

These activities may feel small in scope but their cumulative affect on your health and happiness is enormous.

Take Your Vitamins, Seriously

Your body thrives on nutrients. Not just the macros – protein, fat and carbohydrates. But the micros – vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants. Think of micronutrients as the foot soldiers behind the calvary. They’re not talked about as much. And they are never voted MVP. But they are always, without a date, part of the big win.

Consider vitamins vital supplements to your balanced diet of real, high quality food. And let’s be real…most diets are not truly a balance of real, high quality food. That fact makes vitamins and minerals even more important.

A good quality multi vitamin/mineral, an omega 3, a powdered green mix and/or probiotic blend – these are the supplements I’m talking about. With ingredients that fill in the nutritional gaps and make up for deficiencies in your body do to diet, lifestyle, climate, etc. If nothing else, they will improve gut health, boost immunity, and keep you functioning at a high level.

*Please consult your doctor before starting/adding any supplement regiment to your diet. There are some vitamins and minerals that hinder that efficacy of certain medications, or can cause other complications when taken in tandem with certain health issues or other doctor-recommended regiments.

Get Some Vitamin Sun

Natural sunlight is essential to your health and well-being. A little every day goes a long way towards:

• generating the production of vitamin D
• supporting bone health
• lowering blood pressure
• preventing disease
• promoting good health

Sunlight boosts the production of serotonin – a natural hormone related to mood and focus. At the very least, aim for 10-30 minutes of natural sunlight exposure – protected with SPF, of course – a day.

Use The Word “Can” More

I can.

That phrase is filled with power. It’s also vulnerable, which is scary. But the more you say it, the more you start to believe it.

Say it.

I can.