HEALTHY HABITS FOR WOMEN OVER 40

11 min read/ 2009 words

Try these 25 tiny healthy habits for nutrition, hydration, movement, sleep, and stress without trying to change your entire routine.

How often have you told yourself this is the week? You’re gonna drink more water. Eat better. Walk every day. Get to bed earlier. Maybe finally use those dumbbells sitting in the corner.

And for a few days, you’re on it.

Then work gets crazy. You sleep like crap. Someone needs you to do something outside of the norm. Dinner doesn’t go according to plan. You miss a workout.

And suddenly it feels like you’ve screwed the whole thing up.

So you tell yourself, “I’ll start again on Monday.” Sound familiar?

Here’s the thing: feeling better doesn’t require completely overhauling your life, nor does it require some restart situation.

In fact, trying to change everything at once might be part of what’s keeping you stuck in the start-over cycle.

Instead, I’ve put together 25 tiny healthy habits you can choose from in five areas that matter to your overall health: nutrition, hydration, movement, stress, and sleep.

But before you start mentally adding all 25 to tomorrow’s to-do list…Don’t.

Seriously.

This isn’t a checklist of 25 things you’re supposed to accomplish every day. Think of it as a menu.

Look through the ideas. Find one that feels useful and doable right now.

Start there.

“You don’t need another Monday. You need a habit that knows what to do on Wacky Wednesday.”

25 Tiny Healthy Habits So You Can Stop Starting Over

5 Tiny Nutrition Habits

Healthy eating gets complicated really freaking fast. Count this. Track that. Don’t eat this. Definitely eat that.

No thanks. I’d rather start with something less complicated, thanks.

1. Add protein to your first meal

Instead of changing your entire breakfast, look at what you’re already eating and see if there’s an easy way to add some protein. Greek yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese, or another protein you enjoy can work.

2. Add a fruit you actually like

Berries, citrus, apples, bananas, peaches…whatever you’ll actually eat.

Notice I didn’t say you have to start buying some obscure superfood you’ve never heard of. Just fruit. We’re keeping this simple.

3. Choose a lower-sugar version of one favorite

Not everything in your kitchen. One thing.

Maybe it’s your coffee creamer, yogurt, cereal, or afternoon drink. Find one swap that you genuinely don’t mind making.

4. Add a healthy fat to a meal

Try adding nuts, seeds, avocado, or a drizzle of olive oil to something you’re already eating. No new recipe required.

5. Swap one food that doesn’t make you feel great

Pay attention to how you actually feel after eating. If there’s a food or meal that regularly leaves you feeling sluggish, uncomfortable, or unsatisfied, experiment with one simple swap.

5 Tiny Hydration Habits

If “drink more water” has been on your healthy-habits list since approximately 2003, you’re in good company.

Instead of deciding you’re suddenly going to drink a gallon every day, try giving yourself one easy cue.

6. Drink a glass of water when you wake up

Before coffee. After coffee. While the coffee is brewing.

It doesn’t matter when exactly, just connect that first glass of water to something you already do every morning.

7. Add electrolytes when they make sense for you

Especially on days when you’re sweating more, exercising, or spending time outside, adding electrolytes to some of your water can be an easy option. (Always check with your medical provider before adding any supplements to your diet)

8. Have an afternoon or evening herbal tea

Hydration doesn’t have to mean carrying around a giant water jug all day. An herbal tea can count toward your fluids and can become a nice little afternoon or evening ritual.

9. Keep your water where you can see it

This sounds almost too simple, but that’s kinda the point. It’s much easier to remember to drink something when it isn’t sitting three rooms away.

10. Give yourself one water checkpoint

Instead of obsessing over an exact amount all day, choose one checkpoint. Maybe you want to finish your first bottle by lunch. That’s it.

5 Tiny Movement Habits

You do not need a 60-minute workout for movement to “count.” One of the easiest ways to move more consistently is to stop thinking of exercise as an all-or-nothing event.

Try one of these.

11. Take a 5-minute walk

Around the block. Down the street. On your treadmill. Through the office. Five minutes still counts.

12. Stretch for 2 minutes

Two minutes while your coffee brews. Two minutes after sitting at your desk. Two minutes before bed. Done.

13. Take a movement break

Get up and do a few squats, march in place, stretch, walk around the house, just move your body for a couple of minutes. It doesn’t need a name or its own workout outfit.

14. Have a one-song dance break

Put on one song and move. Your technique is between you and your living room.

15. Step outside

Walk outside for a few minutes, get some fresh air, and move around. You don’t necessarily need to turn it into a “walk.”

5 Tiny Stress-Management Habits

“Reduce stress” might be one of the least helpful pieces of health advice ever given.

It’s like, “Oh, right, duh, obviously I should just reduce my stress, and then everything will be just fine.” “I’ll get right on that.”

You can’t possibly eliminate every stressful thing from your life (because many of these things are out of our control), but you can build tiny moments into your day that help you take notice of how your body is reacting to the stressor, then take a moment to give your mind and body a break from it.

16. Take five slow breaths

No elaborate meditation routine required. Stop what you’re doing and take five slow, intentional breaths.

17. Do a 30-second check-in

Ask yourself: How am I feeling right now?

That’s it. You don’t even have to fix anything. Sometimes noticing is enough to help you decide what you need next.

18. Put your phone down for 30 minutes

Set it somewhere you can’t mindlessly grab it every 42 seconds. The world will probably survive without you checking your phone for a bit.

19. Write down what’s stressing you out

Sometimes having seventeen thoughts bouncing around your brain makes everything feel bigger.

Put the biggest one in your notebook. You don’t have to solve it yet.

20. Do something you genuinely find relaxing

Take a hot shower. Listen to music. Sit outside. Read. Stretch. Meditate if that’s your thing.

Pick something that actually feels relaxing to you, not something Instagram has decided is relaxing.

5 Tiny Sleep Habits

You can have the world’s fanciest nighttime routine and still not do it if it takes 47 minutes and requires six products and the perfect setting.

We’re going smaller…much smaller.

21. Dim the lights before bed

Try lowering the lights in your house during the last hour before bedtime. It’s an easy environmental cue that the day is winding down.

22. Turn on Do Not Disturb

Set your phone to Do Not Disturb mode automatically at night. This will help you avoid being woken up by the latest Nespresso flavor drop at 3 am.

Bonus: you don’t have to remember to do it every day.

23. Have a warm evening drink

Try chamomile or another caffeine-free drink you enjoy. The drink itself isn’t magic. The little wind-down ritual is what we’re after.

24. Do a couple of minutes of gentle stretching

You can literally do this beside your bed or while you’re sitting on it. Again, we’re not trying to win an award for the best yoga pose here.

25. Go to bed five minutes earlier

Not an hour. Five minutes. Once that feels normal, you can decide whether you want to move it again.

So…Which Tiny Healthy Habits Should You Start With?

After reading 25 ideas, your instinct might be to pick six. I’m gonna save you some trouble.

Pick one.

Not necessarily the habit you think you should choose, either. Look for one that would make a difference in how you feel and seems realistic enough that you’re not already dreading it.

Maybe that’s drinking water in the morning.

Maybe it’s getting outside for five minutes.

Maybe it’s adding protein to breakfast.

Maybe it’s putting your phone down at night.

You don’t have to fix your entire life this week. One useful habit is enough to start.

But Starting Small Isn’t the Whole Answer

This is the part I didn’t fully understand for a long time.

I’d make a new plan, do great for a while, and then life would happen.

I’d miss something.

And instead of simply continuing, somehow one missed day became two…then four…and eventually I’d decide I needed another fresh start.

New plan. New notebook. New starting day. Same cycle.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know enough healthy habits. I had plenty of those. (and I’m guessing you do too)

The problem was that my plans were built for the days when I had the time, energy, and all the motivation to follow them.

And I’m not that person every day. Neither are you. No one is.

That’s why simply making a habit “small” isn’t always enough. You also need to know what happens to that habit when your day changes.

That’s Where the Messy Day Habit Plan Comes In

I created the Messy Day Habit Plan for those of us who are completely over the start-stop-start-over cycle.

Instead of giving you another giant routine to follow, it helps you take one habit and make it work with your actual life.

Inside, you’ll work through how to:

• choose the habit you actually want to focus on
• identify what that habit is really helping you protect
• build versions that work for different kinds of days
• recognize when your original plan needs to change
• decide what happens after you completely miss a day
• create a simple plan you can keep coming back to

Because the goal isn’t to never miss a habit. The goal is to stop treating every imperfect day like proof that you failed.

You don’t need another restart Monday. You need a habit that knows what to do on Wacky Wednesday.