5 Simple Habit Switches That Will Change Your Life
Taylor the Kinesiologist • January 2, 2026
Simple Changes Can Amount to
Huge Results if Practiced Regularly!
Many people tend to believe that the lifestyle switches needed to improve our health must be extreme, uncomfortable and take staggering amounts of willpower.
What if I told you that it doesn’t have to be that difficult?
That you can take small steps in the right direction and develop significant improvements to your health?
You may be thinking...
"No way, I don't buy it!"
"If it was that simple, everyone would be doing it!"
Have you ever had that 'lightbulb'
moment when you’ve adjusted how you done something in your day and the results have been remarkable? It's along the same lines as that.
Let me tell you 5 simple changes you can make in your daily life to produce lifechanging results:
1) Drink a full glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning
Evidence suggests that consuming a full glass water with an added slice of lemon first thing in the morning can have profound benefits for your health. The antioxidant qualities & high Vitamin C content of the lemon will aid in maintaining proper brain, kidney & liver health. Additionally, by drinking water in the morning, your body will get a jump start on keeping your fluids properly balanced, which is essential for optimal organ functioning.
2) Take in bright outdoor light in before 10:00AM
Researchers from Turkey found that getting enough bright light in the early morning from 8:00AM to 10:00AM (for even just a few minutes) for five consecutive days helps to boost the quality of your sleep thereafter. Light plays a key role in your circadian rhythm, which is your internal 24-hour clock. It helps you feel sleepy at night when it's dark and it also makes you feel alert during daylight hours. Light exposure provides your brain with information that helps guide your circadian rhythm.
3) Consume 2 cups of fruits and 2.5 cups of vegetables per day
Researchers from the University of Iowa showcased that enjoying servings of a wide array of vegetables & fruits has the power to improve our body's important modulators of both the neuromuscular & immune systems. This will help you move better and ward off sickness more effectively.
4) Get to sleep before 11:00PM
According to research conducted by the University of Arizona, those of us with bedtimes close to 11:00PM report the fewest difficulties with mental health, sleep, & overall functioning. Going to sleep before 8:00PM or after 1:00AM can significantly affect our mood & performance the following day (for most people).
5) Be mindful of your breathing
In the Netherlands, the Nijmegen Institute showed in that brief periods of daily meditation, breathing exercises & cold exposure (such as a brief cold shower) can actually help to down-regulate your sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system and up-regulate your immune system. This will help you better manage stress and become more resilient to illness.
While these 5 changes appear very simple on the surface, they will do wonders to help you manage your blood sugar regulation and maintain the health of many of your body's of organs (including the brain, liver & kidneys, to name a few).
I challenge you to pick even just one of these lifestyle shifts and to stick to it diligently for at least a week. After a full week, come back to this blog and post how you feel in the section below.
I can almost guarantee that all of these small changes will have you feeling better with each subsequent week this year!
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Renew Medical Fitness Blog
Summer is officially here!
Naturally, this season brings about many opportunities to get out there and be active. I hope this article goes to show you that there are numerous ways to improve your fitness & enjoy nature. You don't need to be stuck indoors lifting weights at a gym if that isn't your thing! Find the activities you enjoy and stay consistent with them and I promise you will see improvements.
With that being said, here are 10 outdoor exercise ideas for you to enjoy in North Vancouver.
Do you ever find yourself becoming overly focused on the number on the weight scale?
Are you measuring your self-worth based on this number?
Do you have a certain goal weight that you are striving for?
Are you constantly telling yourself that you won't be satisfied with your body until you reach it?
If you answered 'YES' to any of the above questions...
then I am sorry to announce that you have the wrong mindset around losing weight.
The weight scale is simply a tool. It does not measure everything when it comes to fat loss.
Around 20 years ago, something odd occurred: Iceberg lettuce started appearing on “ foods to avoid ” lists. Yes, you read that correctly. Refreshing, crunchy, near zero-calorie iceberg lettuce made it onto the list. Websites proclaimed that it had “ zero nutritional value ” (which is completely false) and that you should always eat baby spinach instead. (This was before the kale revolution, by the way) This was without knowing whether or not you actually enjoyed baby spinach. Which just goes to show: Those universal “ foods to avoid ” lists? They are nearly always a terrible idea. (Well, I suppose things like poisonous foods should appear on these lists at least!) Now let’s take things one step further, and take a look at why someone may choose iceberg lettuce over kale, the reigning champion of leafy green superfoods (sorry, baby spinach!). To be completely transparent, kale does beat iceberg lettuce in a head-to-head comparison of nutritional value. Kale is especially rich in vitamins A, C, & K, and also several disease-fighting compounds like quercetin, lutein, zeaxanthin, & sulforaphane. However, that doesn’t mean iceberg lettuce is completely devoid of nutrients. It’s considered a great source of vitamin K (though it does have much less than kale), and it is also rich in apigenin, a phytochemical which thought to be protective against cancer . Here’s where context comes in. When you take a look beyond the nutrition label, there are other more important factors worth considering. Iceberg lettuce might be the better choice if you… - Are more likely to eat a salad if you use it as your base - Can only stomach kale with an excessive amount salad dressing or oil - Will gladly eat a large quantity of it, but can only manage a couple of bites of kale - Are looking for a little extra crunch in your meal - Want more volume with few calories and lots of water, helping you feel more satiated - Are trying to increase your veggie intake and iceberg lettuce is one of the only ones you enjoy Kale may be better option if you... - Enjoy it - Like the thick texture it provides in your smoothies - Want to expand your vegetable repertoire and try something more exotic PS: Baby spinach is a great food that has lots of health benefits to it. So please enjoy all the leafy greens and don't discriminate! Or at least the ones you enjoy the taste of. I hope this post helped shed some light on the fact that there is no perfect, universal diet out there.
With B.C wide travel finally opening up today, it got me thinking...
People travel from all over the world to experience the beautiful hikes we have access to here in our own backyard. Why don't we take advantage of these scenic & refreshing opportunities for fitness?
I think sometimes we take for granted just how lucky we are to live in this area!
ICBC-Funded Active Rehabilitation is a program that helps drivers involved in a motor vehicle accident regain their full functional abilities as soon as possible. The program has been well-received for its speedy recovery times & ability to help drivers get back to their normal day-to-day activities soon as possible. It offers rehabilitation services that focus on restoring a patient's functions & improving their quality of life, while also ensuring that they receive the best possible care.
Do you struggle with regular muscle cramps? This can be your body's way of telling you that you are missing something.
Often muscle cramps can be caused by lack of exercise or movements that your body is unaccustomed to. This can be remedied quite simply by stretching more regularly, exercising more often, or massaging the cramping muscles...
Typically, your immune system does an incredible job at protecting you from disease-causing viruses, but occasionally it can fail. When this happens you can get very sick.
Is there a way to affect this process and augment your immune functions? What if you try to improve your diet, or take special vitamins or supplements? What if you make other various lifestyle changes with the hope of optimizing your immune functions? Let's take a brief look at some actions you can take today to improve your resilience and reduce your risk of becoming sick.
As I was working with two different people this week, I realized something that I hadn’t thought about before. Both of these people presented with very similar chronic pain patterns. This week their pain seemed to be much worse than it usually was.
What if I could help them lower the activity of their body's sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response)? While we chatted about their pain the past few days, I noticed that it had no particular cause for triggering. Both people had not changed their daily activities, nor did they change up their exercise routines. Both people spoke extensively about their pain and all the ways they tried to find relief: medication, food, sleeping, distractions like TV, etc....Nothing was working!
Despite their efforts, all they could think about was their pain.
