Walking is a low-impact workout for someone new to the fitness world. It was quite helpful for me when I was a beginner. This article isn’t sponsored by any company, but Fitbit has helped me to make exercising a habit.

My daily goal was about 5000 steps initially – reaching 10K steps used to be elusive. I am now able to achieve 20K steps on a daily basis and try to reach 30K steps on weekends. If you are trying to improve your stamina, remember patience is a virtue – if I (never used to maintain any exercise routine and never went on a 4-hour hike) can push my limits, there’s no way you can’t! One step at a time, you can do this!

Currently, I do not follow any special diet. But when I started my weight loss journey, maintaining a healthy and balanced diet was challenging. Therefore, I modified my meal plan according to my eating habits and stress levels. My stress-eating experience can be found here.

Stress eating or emotional eating is not an uncommon way to relieve stress temporarily, but it doesn’t actually help the eater achieve true happiness or peace. In my case, I eventually felt weaker and lethargic, which affected my physical health condition. During my weight loss journey, some of my co-workers recognized the change and asked for advice. “Be creative and do some experiments if needed with your meal plans. No one knows better what works best for you, but yourselves.” I suggested.

Although I understood the benefits of running/ jogging (i.e., it stabilizes your cardiovascular and pulmonary circulation and reduces cardiovascular diseases), it just wasn’t my thing.

I didn’t like jogging or running at all, so I said to myself “Since I couldn’t find any suitable athletic apparel to support my body, it is okay not to exercise.” I had to convince myself that it was a reasonable choice so that I wouldn’t feel guilty about my behaviour. In the end, I sacrificed my health.

However, things have changed since February 2023. My body sent a signal, but I was ignorant. Not until I saw a photo of me taken in April 2023 did I finally decide to steer clear of the unhealthy lifestyle that had already deteriorated my overall well-being.

This new habit (jogging/running) unlocks the secret to living a healthy lifestyle. I am thus able to eat anything and everything, including junk food or deep-fried food on occasion. Jogging/running stimulates the release of endorphins by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. As a result, I feel healthy and happy. It took me more than a year to normalize the entire process – from being in denial to making a habit of being active.

This was the most difficult practice of all because I was used to living under extreme pressure. I didn’t know how to stop working and mind-wandering until I moved to a safe, quiet and tranquil community. It has been a life-changing and eye-opening experience for me. I have learned to slow myself down and just live in the present.

Due to the high workload (I have always had high expectations of myself), I do not have extra an 30 minutes to meditate. Alternatively, I try to meditate while exercising or take a few minutes break from work and focus on my breathing. This practice has significantly increased my productivity.

Monitoring sleep patterns is a crucial element in terms of living a healthier life. Again, this article isn’t sponsored by any company, but I use Fitbit to keep track of my sleep patterns too. My sleep score and stress management level are recorded every day, which helps me understand how I sleep and my overall health.

From my experience, when my sleep score is over 80 on most days, I generally wake up in a good mood. I feel more vigorous and emotionally stable. My advice to strengthen resilience (which is also one of the key benefits of practicing mindfulness) is simply to have a good night’s sleep.