I’ve spent a lot of this year writing about single things like lifestyle habits, different types of exercise and specific nutrients. So I thought I’d take a step back and ask a simple question: if I had to boil all of it down into a handful of everyday habits, the ones I genuinely wish everyone had, what would they actually be?
So that’s what this week is: a recap of five habits pulled from everything we’ve covered this year and the ones I keep coming back to myself. Plus, I’ve also added a few links for extra reading where the topic deserves a deeper look.
1. Keep moving, and don’t let long stretches of sitting go unbroken
Movement matters more broadly than any single exercise. Prolonged sitting is its own risk factor for heart disease and metabolic health, separate from whether you exercise elsewhere in the day. Even standing up for a couple of minutes every 20 to 30 minutes measurably helps. Within that, remember eccentric movement too, like walking down stairs, lowering into a chair, easing into a squat, which we covered properly a few weeks back. It builds real strength while asking far less of your heart and lungs than people assume exercise has to, and needs no gym, just a few deliberate minutes most days.
2. Get a real protein hit at every meal, not just at dinner
Ageing muscle becomes less responsive to protein, so it needs a proper amount at each meal to register at all, roughly 25-30g, rather than most of your day’s protein arriving in one go at dinner. It also keeps you fuller for longer, as protein slows digestion and affects the hormones that signal fullness. Therefore, spreading it throughout the day helps with more than just muscle. Two eggs and yoghurt at breakfast, a tin of fish or some tofu at lunch, does more for you than saving it all for the evening.
Further reading: Why Protein Keeps You Fuller for Longer.
3. Read the label, and default to whole food when you can
This one takes a bit more effort than the others, but it might be the most useful. Food marketing is very good at drawing your eye to the front of the pack with statements like “high protein” or “one of your five a day”. While the actual ingredients list, on the back, tells a different story. Therefore, it’s worth getting into the habit of turning things over. A long ingredients list, several types of hidden sugar, or a string of stabilisers and emulsifiers is worth noticing. These are hallmarks of what’s called ultra-processed food and growing evidence shows they affect blood sugar, gut health and inflammation in ways whole foods don’t. Where you can, choose whole, simple foods over packaged versions of the same thing.
Further reading: How Ultra-Processed Foods Affect Inflammation.
4. Protect your sleep like it’s part of your immune system, because it is
We looked at the cold-exposure evidence a couple of weeks ago, but the effect goes deeper than just catching fewer colds. Even a single night of poor sleep measurably reduces the activity of natural killer cells, the immune cells that hunt down infected or abnormal cells in your body. Poor sleep also raises cortisol and inflammation, both of which blunt your immune response more broadly. It’s not just about avoiding tiredness, it’s one of the most powerful levers you have and the good news is you can get back on track quickly with a few decent nights of sleep.
5. Make space for calm, not just correction
This is the one I think about most, prompted by a reader, Jenny, a few weeks ago. Most health advice is corrective, where you treat the symptom and fix the problem once it’s already there. Nervous system regulation works differently: it’s about supporting your body’s underlying capacity to recover from stress in the first place, so problems are less likely to build up. We know we can’t eliminate stress entirely, but practices like slow breathing, good sleep habits, getting out in daylight and making time for proper relaxation help our bodies come back down afterwards. This is important as it underpins everything else we do.
Further reading: Nervous System Regulation: What the Science Actually Supports
Which brings me to something that keeps coming up when people try to actually build meditation into their routine as part of their relaxation. A conversation with friends the other day reminded me how much this gets misunderstood. One said she’d given up on meditation because her mind kept wandering, as if that meant she was doing it wrong. I told her that’s not a sign of failure, it’s the whole exercise. Noticing your mind has wandered, then gently bringing it back, is the actual practice, not an obstacle to it. Don’t give up just because your mind won’t sit still, as that’s exactly what it’s meant to do.
These are the five I keep coming back to, and the ones I can actually achieve! But there are many more I’m sure and maybe some obvious ones I’ve missed. So do tell me what your five are, or if you have any that I could add to my list.
As always, if something here resonated or there is a topic you would like me to dig into, just hit reply. I read every message.
