Lifestyle Changes To Help You Feel Your Best in 2021

The New Year is just around the corner, and with it will come the inevitable New Year’s resolutions, many of which center around losing weight. Losing weight, for many, means dieting, and there’s certainly no shortage of diets to choose from, be it Paleo, Keto, Raw Food, Zone, or any other. But rather than dieting, which has been proven to be unsustainable time and time again, the team here at Hubbelt dug into our collection of ebooks and audiobooks to bring you the following lifestyle changes that will have you feeling your best in 2021.

Exercise regularly. Exercise brings about so many more benefits than just the obvious physical ones. But while exercise alone can’t make up for a poor diet, it’s nothing short of essential for maintaining good overall health. Resistance training and cardiovascular exercise are extremely beneficial, but they can be worked up to by starting slowly. For starters, consider walking instead of driving or public transit, or taking the stairs for a couple of flights instead of the elevator.

Keep an eye on calories. You don’t have to meticulously count every calorie you consume, but it never hurts to take a look at nutritional labels and portion sizes before you eat. After all, there’s a considerable difference in calories between a rounded tablespoon and a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter. Being mindful of what we’re consuming can go a long way towards making healthier choices, which will have us feeling better in the long run!

Get a good night’s sleep. Sleep is how the body repairs and regenerates, and without it it’s only a matter of time before we cease to function. Prioritizing sleep, and getting at least 7-8 hours a night, will do wonders for overall health and have you feeling good before you know it.

Want to keep up with the latest health trends? Visit our online library at Hubbelt for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

Surprisingly Sugary Foods to Avoid

We’re often told we should be eating less sugar, but with sugar making its way into a surprising number of foods it can be tough to do. Here are three surprisingly sugary foods worth taking note of, they may inspire you to start checking labels next time you’re grocery shopping.

Breakfast cereals. It’s how many of us start our day, and often advertised as part of a nutritious breakfast, but many of our favorite breakfast cereals are loaded with added sugar. Some, in fact, will contain as many as many as 15g of sugar per serving. It’s well worth checking nutrition labels before buying your next box.

Barbeque sauce. For many, BBQ sauce is an absolute necessity for the summer, but while it’s a staple of summertime foods, it’s also packed with plenty of sugar. With ingredients that typically include corn syrup, brown sugar, molasses, or honey, each serving of BBQ sauce can contain roughly 10g of sugar, a number which can quickly add up considering the average serving is anywhere from a mere tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half.

Fruit juices. While fruit juices may seem like a healthier alternative to sugary sodas, commercially processed juices often contain just as much sugar per serving. Even though some juices claim to be 100% natural and only contain natural juices, they can still contain as much as 30 grams of sugar per 10 oz serving, which is a considerable amount to consume in one sitting.

Looking for some health related reads? Visit our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

What You Could do if You Spent Less Time on Social Media

Spending too much time on social media? Here’s what you could do instead:

Exercise to improve your energy and your mood. Exercising regularly comes with a whole host of benefits, but it also takes time, and that’s a big ask of anyone with an already busy schedule. But those who spend more time on social media than they realise could be using that time to exercise instead, which will lead to increased energy throughout the day, a better mood, and increased productivity. You may even end up with a bit of extra time to spend on social media too!

Read books. Don’t we all wish we could be better read? But instead of picking up that book that’s been sitting on the shelf for months we’ll endlessly scroll through posts instead, doing plenty of reading, but ultimately not reading anything useful. Less time on social media could mean more quality time with the books you’ve been dying to read.

Catch up on sleep. Sleep, both how we sleep and how much we sleep, has a tremendous impact on every other aspect of our lives. But not only is social media cutting into our sleep time, the use of devices late into the night is negatively affecting the quality of our sleep as well. Skipping the social media to get a little more sleep will be well worth the effort, and will make a big difference in the big picture.

Looking for some health related reads? Visit our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices.

Easy Steps to a Healthier Routine

Most of us have a routine that revolves around work or school, and oftentimes it’s far too easy to let that routine get a little unbalanced or completely out of control. Hectic schedules and stressful days can have a negative impact on our health, so here are three easy steps to achieve a healthier daily routine.

Wake up at the same time every morning. Our bodies function on a circadian rhythm that sets our sleep cycles, waking up at the same time every morning regardless of what time we go to bed may seem counter-intuitive, but it actually helps regulate sleep and prevent those sleepless nights.

Plan out meals for the week. It may be difficult to find the time to cook every day, but fast food and vending machine snacks certainly don’t do us any favors. Batch cooking is a great way to ensure healthy meals all throughout the week, and packing some fruits and vegetables to replace salty and sugary snacks will go a long way to help overall health.

Keep work at work. If you work a 9-5, try to make sure you only work from 9 to 5, and when you punch the clock, try to leave anything work-related behind you. Work can be a major source of stress, and taking that stress home with us at the end of the day never helps. Consider a reset, perhaps a good audiobook on the commute home!

Looking to keep up with more of the latest health trends? Visit our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more, accessible anytime on your favorite devices.

The Importance of Proper Sleep Hygiene

Sleeping is tricky for many of us, often because we don't have the time to schedule enough of it into our night, and often because when we do finally get to bed many of us have trouble falling asleep. This is where “sleep hygiene” comes into play, a set of habits and routines than can lead to better luck sleeping. Here are three tips for proper sleep hygiene and how they can help you sleep better.

Wake up at the same time every morning. It may be tempting to skip the alarm on weekends, particularly after late nights, but the truth is you’re not doing yourself any favors. Setting a consistent wake-up time, regardless of what time you go to bed the night before, helps your body set a natural rhythm and increases your chances of falling asleep easier at night.

Shut off screens an hour before bed. The blue light emanating from the screens of our various devices actually suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone which helps regulate our sleep/wake cycle. Shutting off all screens at least an hour before bed will not only help you relax and disconnect from the day, it’ll prevent the blue light from affecting your sleep cycle.

Avoid late night eating. Digesting is hard work for the body, and odds are that extra effort late at night will prevent your body from shutting down for some shut-eye. Ensuring that your last meal of the day happens at least 2-3 hours before bed means that your body will have the time it needs to digest and you can go to bed knowing your dinner won’t keep you up at night.

Looking for more healthy reads? Visit our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more.

Simple Rules For Staying Fit

There’s no miracle diet, essential workout, or magic bullet that will do it, staying fit requires no less than a lifelong commitment. For those ready to embark on the journey, here are three simple but essential rules for staying fit and living well.

It’s all about consistency. It’s tempting to think that going on a diet or going gung-ho at the gym will lead to fitness and good health, but these strategies are hard to keep up, and the effects don’t last. Better eating habits on a regular basis make for a much better strategy than a temporary diet, and committing to 3-4 workouts per week is far more sustainable than exercising daily until an eventual burnout.

Sleep is essential. Sleep is how our brains and bodies recover and regenerate, without it we can’t work at peak efficiency and will tire or burn out in no time. Prioritising sleep, even over exercise if need be, is a key component of long term health and fitness.

Moderation is key. Carbs are not the enemy, in fact whole grains are essential to a healthy diet. A slice of toast at breakfast won’t balloon the waistline, but half a loaf of bread will. Moderation is the key to a healthy diet, and this is especially true when it comes to sugar and alcohol.

Looking for some healthy content? Keep up to date with the latest in health trends by visiting our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime from you favorite devices, and sure to get have you feeling great!

The Importance of Vitamin D

With the cold winter months bringing shorter days and considerable darkness, many of us aren’t getting the sunlight we need to be healthy and happy. And with the lack of sunlight comes a lack of vitamin D, which is essential to our health. Here are five of the reasons why our bodies need vitamin D.

Vitamin D is essential for strong and healthy bones. Vitamin D deficiency could lead to osteoporosis, and often leads to weaker bones at the very least, which could, over time, increase the chances of a break or a fracture.

Vitamin D helps reduce the risk of cancer. Studies have found that having sufficient levels of vitamin D in the body helps reduce the risk of developing some cancers, especially colon cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.

Vitamin D helps reduce the risk of diabetes. Yes, people with sufficient levels of vitamin D in their systems have a decreased risk of developing diabetes, and this is especially the case in young people and in those living in high altitude.

Vitamin D helps protect against heart disease. Given than diabetes and heart disease often go hand in hand, it comes as no surprise that Vitamin D helps protect against heart disease, including high blood pressure and heart failure.

Vitamin D helps improve mood. Studies have shown that vitamin D can not only help improve mood, it can help ease the symptoms of those suffering from depression.

Looking for more healthy content? Visit our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more, accessible anytime from your favorite devices.

Slowing It Down: How Slower Eating Can Lead to a Healthier Life

The promise of a new year often bring with it the promise of a new you. For some people that means engaging in new pursuits they’ve often put off for lack of time, for some it means making more time for themselves, and for others it means making a commitment to living healthier and being healthier. When it comes to being healthier, be it through increased exercise or a different diet, lifestyle changes can play a big part in helping us achieve our goals, and one particular lifestyle change that could be of immense benefit is the simple act of eating slowly.

Our brains take time to process the fact that we’ve eaten. If fact some studies have shown that it takes our brains roughly 20 minutes to process that we’re full. More often than not, 20 minutes is already ample time for us to have eaten far too much. Excessive eating not only leads to an immediate feeling of discomfort, but can also lead to several negative long term effects if done regularly. Weight gain is just one of the many potential outcomes of overeating, digestive trouble and an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes are just a few other.

Taking our time to eat slowly not only leaves room for dinner table conversation, it also gives our brains the time to catch up and let us know when we've had enough, an essential first step to eating healthier and living healthier.

Looking for more health related content? Visit our online library at www.hubbelt.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audio books, music, and more.

Favorite comfort meals for the winter months

When the temperature starts to plunge and you feel as if you haven’t seen the sun in weeks, it’s time to stock up on your favorite foods. This recipe will bring you lots of comforts when the weather is cold and wintry - read and be inspired!

Apple Crumble

Sweet, rich and comforting, the taste of apple crumble will transport you back to your childhood. A dish that isn’t difficult to make but will provide protection against the cold, apple crumble is filling and delicious - and you can even count it as a portion of your daily fruit and veg!

Macaroni Cheese

Pasta is an ideal dinner for the days when you’re craving comfort; although the Atkins diet might not love carbs, we certainly - especially in the winter! Cheesy and deeply satisfying, you can add a little twist to your dish by dropping in a teaspoon of English mustard to spice up the flavor.

Short Rib Meatloaf

If you are handy in the kitchen, it won’t take long to rustle up this dish which will be a surefire winner. Braise the ribs in the oven before shredding the meat and adding to the juices. Throw in spices to flavor together with some caramelized onion before refrigerating for up to 48 hours. When you’re ready to eat, slice it into squares before searing in a skillet and heating through in the oven for 10 minutes. Perfect prepared in advanced, it’s a feel-good meal that will banish the blues.

For more great recipes and nutritional inspiration check out www.hubbelt.com where you’ll discover a great library of food ideas at your fingertips