Wearing workout clothes also means if you have 5 or 10 minutes to do a short workout, you’re ready to go.

Canned goods are also good for doing bicep curls or straight-arm lifts with a little resistance. Hold a can in each hand, then extend your arms out to your sides even with your shoulders. Lower your arms down to your sides on an exhale, then raise back up as you inhale. Do 10 repetitions. You can also extend your arms in front of you and do forward lifts.

If you’re watching TV, get up and do quick exercises such as jumping jacks, push-ups, or crunches during commercials. [5] X Expert Source Shira TsviPersonal Trainer & Fitness Instructor Expert Interview. 7 January 2020. If you invest in a stability ball (available online or at sporting goods stores), sitting on that instead of on your couch while watching TV is a good way to passively strengthen your core. During commercials you could do stability ball exercises. [6] X Expert Source Shira TsviPersonal Trainer & Fitness Instructor Expert Interview. 7 January 2020.

For example, you can burn between 200 and 300 calories cleaning your bathroom. Plus, scrubbing the tub is a great way to tone your arms and shoulders. Just 30 minutes of making the bed will burn 130 calories – about what you’d burn if you ran on a treadmill for 15 minutes.

Many smartphones have built-in activity apps that will also monitor your step count. Use these to see how many steps you’re getting in each day. Try to add a few hundred steps each week to gradually become more active. Set a goal for how many steps you want to achieve, then challenge yourself to meet or beat that goal.

You can also play music videos from sites such as Vimeo and YouTube and try to mimic the dancers in the videos. But you don’t have to be a professional dancer to have fun moving to the music and improving your overall fitness at the same time.

The USDA has an online food tracker available at https://www. supertracker. usda. gov/. You can create an account for free and enter your personal information to get a customized nutrition guide with sample meals. The tracker also allows you to look up the nutritional information for more than 8,000 different foods.

The easiest way to make sure your meals are balanced is to eat a rainbow of foods at every meal. Mix it up with blue or red berries, which are high in anti-oxidants, and add greens like spinach and kale. Round out a salad with red and yellow peppers. Beans and peas are good vegetable sources of protein.

If you don’t have much experience cooking, search for simple recipes online or get a cookbook for beginners with recipes that only require 3 or 4 ingredients. You can always add to them as you get more proficient. Try to learn 4 or 5 recipes that you can cook quickly and easily. Always having healthy meals ready will help you resist the urge to order takeout or get fast food if you’re hungry and don’t feel like cooking.

Nuts, raisins, and fruit are also nutritious snacks that can help stave off hunger between meals. If you’re prone to having late-night snacks, try brushing your teeth after dinner. Your mouth will feel clean and it may help remove that temptation. [14] X Research source You could also do an activity that keeps you away from food, such as taking a long bath, playing a board game, or engaging in a hobby.

Pace yourself if you’re going up several flights of stairs, so you aren’t winded and sweaty by the time you reach your destination. If you’ve just got one short flight of stairs, on the other hand, try running up them as fast as you can.

If you want to drink fruit juice, choose a juice with no added sugar.

For example, you could walk around the building when you’re waiting for an appointment, rather than sitting in a waiting room flipping through a two-year-old magazine. Typically if you tell the receptionist you’re going for a walk, they’ll let you know about how long it will be.

While you sleep, your brain releases chemicals that affect your heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism, and digestion.

If you exercise regularly, eat well, and get plenty of sleep, you’ll likely find that you don’t need as much caffeine to get through the day. Sleep gives your body a chance to renew all systems and repair any damage done throughout the day.

You might also set aside 30 minutes to an hour each day to unplug. Put on some soft music and read a book or meditate.