Healthy Habits I “Try” to Do Daily

Nothing defeats a failure except to “try.” I can’t remember where I heard or read that statement, but it fits into the current season I am in with regard to my journey to stay alive. Trying means moving forward, not waiting on something to happen, but taking an active role in making it do what it do regardless of what others think.

Using “try” in the title is intentional. I am not interested in pretending I do everything perfectly. What piques my interest is noticing the things I keep coming back to. Some days I hit the mark. Some days I get close. Some days I look up and realize the day got away from me, and the best I can do is make the next choice a little better than the last one.

Generation X is known for trying different things to see what happens. Health and the habits related to it are no different, but it has become a different kind of conversation than it used to be. We are not kids anymore, no matter how clearly we remember the music, the clothes, the cars, the shows, and the way the world felt before everything became an app. We have lived a little. We have worked, carried stress, pushed through, ignored signals, bounced back, started over, and kept going when nobody was handing out medals for it.

Now the body speaks a little louder. The back has opinions. The knees remember things. Sleep is not always guaranteed. Energy is not something I take for granted the way I once did. And if I go too long without paying attention to the basics, I can feel it. As I told my wife this morning, it takes longer for the Chevy to warm up these days. I feel some kind of way at the moment, but I will be okay in a few.

At this moment, I have been concentrating less on dramatic overhauls of the habits connected to my health and more on sensible maintenance. Zero thought and effort have gone into trying to become a brand-new person by next Monday. What I try to do each day is pay attention to any habit helping me feel consistent in the life I actually have, not one curated from the latest online trend or the opinion of the latest health guru.

Drinking More Water

This one sounds so simple that it is almost annoying. Drink more water. Everybody says it. We all know it. It is not breaking news. Every New Year, millions of people, young and old, break out the new water container and vow to everyone who will listen that they are going to drink gallons of water, work out, and transform. Knowing something and actually doing it are two very different things, especially when my day starts moving and coffee seems to have appointed itself the official beverage of adulthood.

For the past few years, I have been trying to be more intentional about hydration. Not in a dramatic gallon-jug-with-time-markers kind of way. Every time I see people carrying that huge jug, it tickles me. Another thing I try not to do is judge other people’s flow. Pray for me. The goal is to drink more water before my body has to start sending complaints through dry mouth, sluggish energy, or that dull headache that makes everything feel harder than it needs to be.

For me, the trick is just doing it. The visibility trick does not resonate with me. I can see my water container nearby and totally ignore it. I have to “Just Do It.” This is where I focus on the Gen X superpower of pushing through with the goal of drinking more water. Glen Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nutritionist, and don’t play one on TV. The bottom line is that wherever I am likely to be, water needs to be there too.

I am an old-school Mountain Dew addict. During my wellness journeys, beginning when I went through the Wondr Health program, which I will tell the full story of another day, my goal was to hydrate more. My taste buds changed, and carbonated beverages, in particular Mountain Dew, started to taste nasty. I still mourn the loss of my “Dew” habit, but my body feels much better being hydrated with water and, of course, coffee.

I am also learning not to turn hydration attempts into a personality test. If I forget for half the day, I do not need to make a speech about failure or flog myself. I just need to drink some water and carry on with my day. So simple that some days it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Moving More, Even When Not Trying to Work Out

Movement is another one I have been trying to bring back into my daily rhythm. Not punishment. Not performance. Not some big announcement about getting serious. Just moving more because my body feels better when I do.

For me, that means walking. Stretching should be a part of it, but honestly, I just don’t stretch like I should. Moving means getting up and standing more often than sitting in one spot so long that my body starts acting like I betrayed it. During my early days of taking my health more seriously, I started parking a little farther away, taking the longer route through the store, or doing a few minutes of movement because a full workout in the traditional sense was not happening.

I am starting to respect the small stuff more, and so should you. Not trying to sound all judgy, but let’s face it: when we were young and wild, we were brainwashed into believing only big efforts count. The hard workout. The long run. The results will surely be a dramatic before-and-after. Midlife has a way of teaching that consistency matters more than theatrics. A little movement done often can change how a day feels. It can loosen things up. Clear your head. Help your mood. Remind you that your body is not just something to critique; it is something to care for and live in.

That shift matters. It mattered to me when I started walking intentionally. I was not going to lift weights anymore, and I for sure was not going to run with my bad knees and back. At first, walking 30 minutes during my lunch break was all I could do, and it took me the full break to walk a mile! I walked daily and got to the point where, after a year, I was walking that same distance in less than fifteen minutes.

If you notice, I have not mentioned walking ten thousand steps a day. For me, this was not in my wheelhouse to complete. Walking daily was, and working retail keeps me on my feet, so 6K–8K steps a day on average over the course of a year was much better for me. I even got to the point of moving 15K–20K steps on average. I found out quickly that was not sustainable, and I ended the day more tired, while the health benefits seemed small at best.

Today, I am back to a reasonable average step level but not consistent with it like in the past, so it’s back to basics. Start at 10–15 minutes daily and let my body dictate when I level up. Me moving is not about chasing an old version of myself. I want it to support the version of me that is here now.

Paying Attention Earlier

All of the health goals mean nothing without paying attention sooner to the ins and outs of what is actually going on. That may sound vague, but it is real. Our group was raised to push through discomfort. Keep going. Handle it. Do not make a big deal. Sometimes that served us well. Oftentimes, it taught us to ignore things we probably should have noticed earlier.

Now I am trying to catch the signals before they become a full situation. Am I thirsty? Am I tired? Have I been sitting too long? Did I eat something that actually held me? Is my body stiff because I have not moved, or because I have been carrying stress all day? Do I need to step away from the screen? Do I need to go outside for a few minutes? Checking in with yourself mentally and physically doesn’t take long, but it does require honest effort.

Paying attention has become the foundation of where wellness starts for me. Not with a product. Not with a challenge. Not with somebody yelling motivation through a screen. Just with noticing what is going on and responding before I am completely worn down.

Eating in a Way That Helps Me Feel Good

Food is a huge part as well, but I am not interested in making it weird. I am not trying to turn every meal into a math problem or every snack into a confession. I am interested in asking whether what I am eating helps me feel steady. Does it give me energy? Does it satisfy me? Does it keep me from crashing later? Is there enough protein, fiber, or substance there to hold me? Would I make it again? That is the kind of food conversation I can live with.

To self-coin a phrase, food now is about behavior modification. I no longer let food dictate what I do or don’t do. I eat what I want in moderation and move on. Paying attention to food, cooking at the house, and limiting ultra-processed foods gave me the ideas I am sharing in the 450 Test Kitchen. I like the idea of testing food in real life. Not perfect food. Not performance food. Real meals, real portions, real shortcuts, real notes. What worked? What did not? What would I change next time? Was it worth the effort?

Because most of us are not trying to become professional wellness people. We are trying to get through real weeks with a little more energy, a little more intention, and food that does not make us feel like we are fighting ourselves.

Sleeping Like It Matters

Sleep is a habit I respect more now because I notice what happens when I do not get enough of it. When I was younger, I could treat sleep like a suggestion. Stay up too late, get up, keep moving, figure it out. I will not say there are no days like that now, but the recovery time is different. The body keeps receipts. So I am trying to be more honest about rest.

That does not mean I have perfected bedtime. Far from it. There are still nights when I stay up too late, scroll too long, or get caught in that Gen X habit of finally getting some quiet and not wanting to give it up. But I am learning that rest is not wasted time. It is not laziness. It’s maintenance, and it matters more than we like to admit.

A better night of sleep can change the whole next day. It can make food choices easier, movement more likely, patience more available, and everything feel a little less uphill. That is worth paying attention to.

Not Turning One Missed Day Into a Collapse

I am trying not to make one missed day mean more than it does. Missed the walk? Try again. Did not drink enough water? Start now. Ate in a way that did not feel great? Make the next meal more useful. Stayed up too late? Notice it and adjust.

My brain has no room for all-or-nothing thinking. Thinking that way is a setup for failure and has taken too much from too many people. One off day becomes a lost week. One missed habit becomes a reason to quit. One imperfect meal becomes a whole story about discipline and failure.

Not interested in that when I can concentrate on building habits that can survive being interrupted. Because they will be interrupted. Life will make sure of that. The question is not whether I can do everything perfectly. The question is whether I can keep coming back to the things that help. That feels like a much better definition of progress.

The Health Check I Actually Need

We have covered a lot to get to this point, so now let’s break things down in simpler terms of what I am trying to accomplish and how it might be able to work for you. Use what works, dump what doesn’t, and tweak it to where you are at now, not where you want to be. This is the launchpad toward a life of healthier habits.

Healthier-ish Checklist

• Did I move a little more today?
• Did I drink enough water?
• Did I eat enough to be full and satisfied?
• Did I get enough sleep?
• Did I pay attention to what my body is trying to tell me?
• Did I allow room to develop a routine and not worry about the results in the beginning?

That’s it. As you can see, nothing glamorous or extreme. No need to rush out and make a big announcement. Just a few maintenance steps to help with living in a body that has carried me this far and deserves to be cared for with some respect.

I think a lot of us are in that place. We are not trying to become someone else. We are trying to feel a little better as ourselves. We are trying to stop treating care like something we only earn after we have pushed ourselves too hard for too long. So yes, these are healthy habits I “try” to do daily. The trying is the point.

What healthy habit are you trying to be more consistent with right now?