Thinking about the state of your “health” shouldn’t make you break out in hives.

Maven Practitioner and Nutritionist Amanda Bontempo has some great tips to help you make thinking about your health a simple and easy daily practice:

1. Exercise like a big kid

Stay leisurely active during the day (walk around) and intersperse periods of high intensity periods like chasing your kid (or if you’re me, the bus). Sitting is the new evil so even if you don’t have a fancy activity tracker, try setting an “inactivity alarm” on your phone or computer to remind you to get up from the desk. This type of interval training should be applied to your workouts too because you actually burn more calories!

2. Drink water, seriously

Retrain yourself to make water your default beverage. I like to recommend naturally flavored water to make it more interesting for people who really have a hard time with it, like hint water or hint fizz. Sparkling water and unsweetened decaf teas also do the trick.

3. Sleep like a baby

Sleep hygiene is real. Try to avoid food a couple of hours before bed and try to avoid “screen time” including the television, computers, iPads and phones for an hour before bed so your body prepares to produce and maintain sleepy time melatonin.

4. Breathe the air

When I was a kid, someone along the way told me that talking to plants is healthy. So I did. Open windows, keep plants in the apartment and run a fan. I try to skip the AC in the summer in favor of naturally detoxifying oxygen-makers. I also love the fresh smell of eucalyptus so it doubles as a room spray.

5. Breathe and be mindful

It’s important to be present in life. It’s so true that half of life is just showing up. Be mindful of your surroundings. See the sky, see the people on your commute, see the food you eat. Just notice.

6. Eat the yolk

It’s amazing that I still have to convince clients to eat the yolk. Cholesterol in the food you eat has very little impact on cholesterol in blood. It’s saturated fat, sugar and refined carbs that trigger cholesterol production in your blood. So eat eggs and enjoy the yolk! When I encourage whole foods, I mean it. I don’t like the idea of the fragmenting food and our bodies will respond in kind. We are not a heart, a liver, kidneys and lymph. We are whole people. Eat like it.

Written by: Maven Practitioner Amanda Bontempo. Book an appointment with Amanda by downloading Maven now.