4 hobbies that will lead to excellent habits
As this year (slowly and painfully) draws to a close, you might be thinking of the ways you can improve your life in 2017.
Whether it be to eat healthier, exercise more, spend less time online, or save more money, there’s a little fire that’s ignited inside you as the new year emerges — a symbolic fresh start — and you’ve already promised to kick old habits and bad vibes to the curb. But the likely story, as it is every other year, is that most of you won’t stick to your resolutions much past January.
The reason? You haven’t made way for sustainable lifestyle changes that you actually enjoy. Instead, you’ll end up working out for three weeks straight, buying expensive organic groceries you don’t know what to do with, and deleting all social apps from your phone until that one great party that needed to be posted.
Not unlike the president-elect, you’ll over-commit without being prepared.
Instead, you should be looking to these fun little hobbies that will help rid you of those bad habits.
1. Want to eat healthier? Learn to cook
If your goal is to eat healthier, you should pick up a cookbook and learn about food. Cooking for yourself isn’t about buying frozen chicken fingers and ramen noodles — if you learn about food and how to make it you’ll end up making healthier choices at the grocery store. It’s literally that simple.
One study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research found that people who cook most of their meals at home tend to eat healthier, almost unintentionally:
“They consume fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less or not at all — even if they are not trying to lose weight.”
(study)
Understandably, cooking at home and planning meals can be time consuming — especially if you’re used to ordering in or grabbing take-out on your way home. Starting off by speaking with a nutritionist or taking a cooking class are good strategies to first figure out how to navigate the grocery store, your kitchen, or even restaurant menus.
Added bonus: once you have some knowledge about cooking healthier meals, you’ll also end up saving a lot of money.
2. Want to exercise more? Don’t go to a gym
Exercising at a gym requires an incredible amount of self-motivation, and it’s the reason why many of us will get a membership that goes mostly unused.
The solution: join a local studio instead. Cycling, kickboxing, boot camp, yoga — these often cost as much as a gym membership and are significantly more motivating to go to. Why? For starters, you don’t have to be responsible for the workout — you just have to show up. Your instructor or coach or sensei will push you from start to finish, and you don’t have to waste valuable brain power wondering how long to run, how many reps to do, or if it’s your turn on the rower yet.
Added bonus: you could pick up a hobby you end up becoming very good at or interested in, like practicing yoga or distance cycling.
3. Want to use social media less? Read a book
The hours we spend on the internet is often during our down time — in bed, on the commute, in front of the TV — moments that otherwise seem to be empty of things to do that we fill with mindless scrolling.
Sure, we can go and uninstall that one super distracting app, but chances are we’ll wind up thumbing our way through the next best distraction on the internet — and we all know there’s no shortage of those.
Instead, research a good book you want to read, get it, and then commit to reading it.
You don’t have to uninstall anything or boycott the internet, you just have to bring your book with you and be willing to crack it open in place of your social feeds during your down time. And if your book is good enough, you’ll want to read it instead of your Instagram. Scrolling pales in comparison to a killer plot twist or genius insight.
Added bonus: reading a book in bed in lieu of scrolling your social feeds makes for a much better sleep.
4. Want to achieve all of the above? Spend time outside
There’s nothing quite like a brisk stroll through the city, by the waterside, or down a hiking trail. Bad habits are often the result of laziness — that we do things because they’re easy and accessible (or avoid things because they’re not). But if you want to eat healthier, get more exercise, and spend less time online, going al fresco — according to this Harvard study — is an excellent way to achieve these goals and many other complementary benefits.
Walking, hiking, gardening, or even just finding a park bench to read your new book from are just some of the ways you can get outside and focus your attention elsewhere. Reserving time for the outdoors could even sync up with your newfound appreciation for food — you could go to farmer’s markets — or maybe your gym membership is replaced with the hiking trail in your backyard you haven’t touched in years.
Ultimately, whatever hobby you choose to adopt, adding an element of the outdoors is a great way to increase motivation and reduce laziness.
Enjoyed this piece? Please recommend and share.
