It’s the little things that you do each day that adds up to being healthy and fit. While we do what we can to be as health-conscious as we can, it is always a work in progress since there are many elements to a healthy lifestyle. Use these tips as a guide on your journey on the path to good health.

1. Eating Breakfast Daily

A healthy breakfast starts your day off right. It sets you up so that you have energy and fuel for optimal mental and physical performance. Eating breakfast helps to maintain stable blood sugar levels and a healthy weight because you are less likely to overindulge later in the day.

2. Eat Small Portions at Regular Intervals

Most people know that small, frequent meals are absolutely the only way to go. Why? Because when we go longer than 3 hours without eating, our levels of the stress hormone cortisol rise. When you eat small, frequent meals long term, the body becomes efficient at keeping cortisol levels low, which helps both men and women reduce belly fat.

3. Make Fitness a Lifestyle

Even if you just get out for a walk a few times a week, exercise is important for being fit and healthy. Cardiovascular exercise helps to strengthen the heart and lungs; strength training helps to strengthen the muscles and stretching helps to reduce the risk of injury by increasing flexibility. Exercise also improves circulation and body awareness, and regular exercise can help combat depression.

4. Eating Whole Foods

Successful fit people tend to eat mainly whole, unprocessed foods, including fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Whole, natural foods—apples, steel-cut oatmeal, broccoli, salads, brown rice—are low-density foods. That is, they take up a lot of room in your stomach because they contain lots of fiber, which satisfies hunger with few calories. Eating mostly low-density foods is the easiest way to keep your weight in check without feeling hungry or like you’re depriving yourself.

5. Expressing Yourself

Keeping emotions bottled up inside can cause mental and emotional stress as well as physical symptoms. Unexpressed feelings can lead to depression, sleep problems, eating disorders, and even physical pain. Learn to talk about your feelings and you’ll soon notice the positive changes in your mind and body.

6.Relax Your Body & Mind

A lot of us have forgotten how to relax. We often find ourselves carrying stress and tensions in our muscles, when sometimes all we need to do is lie down and allow ourselves to relax, clear our minds of all thoughts and just listen to your body. When the body is relaxing it is able to repair your muscles and it will also relax the mind enabling you to mentally focus. Being mentally focused is almost as important as the exercise itself. To achieve any life goals you must believe in yourself.

Often, the biggest hurdle is sluggishness. It’s true that it isn’t easy to change ingrained habits, however gradually working toward change improves your odds of success. So follow the above-said strategies that will help you enact a healthy change in your life, no matter what change you’d like to make.