🧠💪 3 simple habits that maximise your life quality

🧠💪 太累了？这3个日常改变帮你慢慢找回状态！

留学澳洲的你，是否常常被课业和新环境的压力搞得头昏脑涨？在适应新生活的过程中，我们往往用熬夜、刷手机、暴饮暴食来对抗疲惫，但久而久之只会让身心更累。但是别担心，今天给大家推荐三招超简单的小习惯，让你随时满血复活，轻松应对学习与生活的挑战！

Arrive Thrive SucceedHarrison H

When you're stressed from studies and life, it's easy to get lost in the unhealthy habits we form to deal with it. Even when you're young, however, your body will feel pretty bad over time if you don't look after it. The bad factors largely fall under a few categories:

• Not moving your body
• Too much mental stimulation
• Not enough sleep
• Putting bad things in your body to cope with stress
• Not putting good things in your body to help recover and function

The following three simple changes are aimed to cover all the problems above, so check them out below.

Social media in bed -> podcast + walk

Ever feel mentally and physically "fuzzy"? Constantly scrolling your phone while in an awkward sitting or lying down position can do that to you. Going from no exercise to really intense exercise can often be very stressful and cause injury, so here's an easy way to change that habit into a super-powered exercise routine:

1. Find your favourite podcast, music or show.
2. Put on your most comfortable walking clothes
3. Start with a short walk in a local park or some quite nearby streets.
4. Put your phone in your pocket and try not to look at it for the duration of the walk. If you must, hold onto a water bottle, stress ball or anything small that can keep your hands busy to take your mind off your phone.
5. If you're preparing for bed, go for a moderately paced walk (eg. under 5kph). If you're looking for more exercise go faster and find some hills to climb.

This way, you can still engage with your favourite content, relax your eyes by looking at some greenery instead of a screen, and maybe even spend some time with your friends if they're willing to walk with you.

Smoking / caffeine -> fruit+water+caffeine-free tea

You know tobacco is definitely not good for you and caffeine isn't great for you if you have too much, however facts rarely convince people to change their behaviour, because facts don't address people's needs. What we need to consider is that the reason we consume both of these is often because we are stressed and bored and are looking for a way to deal with those feelings. So to help you take a step towards changing this behaviour, the following is one way to reduce your reliance on these substances while still addressing your physiological needs.

If you're looking for a reason to move around outside, you can try grabbing a "slower" piece of fruit or vegetable (eg. apple, pear or carrot washed, not grapes or bananas for example), and going for a short walk outside. Eat it slowly, chew intentionally. This is functionally similar to smoking or vaping, it keeps your hands and mouth preoccupied and gives you a small amount of sugar, which is a good energy source for thinking, as well as fibre and nutrients.

If you're like me and you eat too quickly, maybe you can try consuming water or caffeine-free tea instead. A good way to force yourself to move around every hour or two is to form the habit of drinking a cup of water every hour (284ml), or about 1L every 4 hours (eg. with a 1L bottle at your desk). This gives you multiple opportunities to move around: once every 2h or so to go to the bathroom, and once every 4h or so to fill the water bottle. You can do a similar thing with tea, and walk around a bit while you are waiting for the water to boil.

Junk food snacks -> Healthy snacks

Junk food snacks serve as a quick way to get your brain to feel good by overdosing you with too much sugar (fructose), salt and saturated fats, especially when you are stressed from work or boredom.

Buying healthy snacks can be very costly and often the snacks aren't nearly as healthy as you think (eg. some have low fat but high sugar), so here are a few snack ideas that can help you replace a bad "food" with good food that your body can actually use. I've tried to only include ideas that take less than 3 minutes to make, because I've been a student and I know how lazy students can be 😜.

1. Carrot/celery sticks + hummus
   1. Wash some carrots / celery
   2. Cut up into small sticks the size of your fingers
   3. Place sticks and hummus on a plate (~one tablespoon of hummus per large carrot or celery stick).
   4. Done!
2. Apple slices + natural peanut butter
   1. Cut up an apple into thin slices (example)
   2. Place in a bowl
   3. Add one tablespoon of natural peanut butter
   4. Done!
3. Avocado + natural peanut butter
   1. Cut up an avocado, use the knife to remove the pip.
   2. Place a tablespoon of natural peanut butter inside the whole in the avocado.
   3. Done! (You can save the other half of the avocado from browning quickly by adding some lemon or lime juice or even olive oil)
4. Veggie and fruit smoothie (assuming you have a blender)
   1. Cut up some veggies for nutrients (eg. spinach, kale, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber).
   2. Cut up some fruit for sweetness (eg. apple, orange, pear, grapes, banana). One piece of fruit is enough per large smoothie to reduce excess sugar.
   3. Avocados are great for unsaturated fats (the healthy type of fat) which has a creamy taste and helps you feel full for longer.
   4. You can also add the following if you have it:
      1. Oats - great if you need a quick source of energy (eg. you're going for a hike after the smoothie).
      2. Nuts and seeds - almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds and others are cost-effective sources of unsaturated (good) fats that help keep you full.
      3. Protein powder / egg whites - a high protein diet is highly beneficial, and you can use plant-based protein sources instead of meat for financial or cultural reasons.
5. [Bonus] Popcorn (without salt or butter)
   1. I've put popcorn here as a semi-cheat food, but as long as you can eat it with no butter and minimal salt, as a replacement for chips and worst foods, then this could be another go-to snack.