Don’t waste time and money on trendy wellness hacks. Try these things that actually work

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

(CNN) — It seems like every week a new product or viral hack promises to change your life forever — until you forget about it and another one comes out the following week.

It’s past time for New Year’s resolutions, but maybe August — which is National Wellness Month — is just right to look at your behavior and find ways to up your wellness.

Instead of jumping on the latest trend, spending too much time and money and letting it fizzle out, try these expert-approved strategies to add real wellness to your life.

Let’s commit (to a routine)

Whether it’s getting better sleep, eating more nutritious food or restarting an exercise routine, it takes a lot of willpower to add a new element into your daily life. And sure, willpower can spur you in the short term — but experts don’t recommend it as a strategy for long-term change, according to Katy Milkman, the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

But good habits and a well-established routine can help you make the choices you are trying to stick to, she told CNN earlier.

Habits are behaviors people engage in without conscious thought and are reinforced through repetition, social psychologist Wendy Wood told CNN in a previous article.

They are triggered by stress, familiar context and routines.

It’s helpful to have these behaviors automated so that the brain can free up space for the conscious mind to focus on thoughts that require more problem-solving, she added.

This automation already works in other aspects of your life, such as brushing your teeth. You probably just wake up in the morning, and you make your way to the bathroom sink while thinking about other things.

The goal is to make new habits similarly as ingrained into your routine.

Try to sleep better: Babies and young children often have a specific routine every night to help them sleep better — maybe it’s a bath, a few books, a song and a snuggle.

Grown-ups need that, too, clinical psychologist and sleep expert Michael Grandner told CNN earlier. Specific actions at the same time nightly gives your body the memo that it’s time to start doing all the things it needs to do so you can sleep well, he said.

Now stick to that routine

If willpower isn’t enough, how do you get yourself to repeat an action enough to make it a habit? There are a few ways, experts say.

You can use a cue-based plan, meaning when a specific thing happens, you will initiate the behavior you want to add to your routine, Milkman said in a previous CNN article.

“A plan like ‘I’ll study Spanish for 30 minutes, five days a week’ is OK. But a detailed, cue-based plan like ‘Every workday after my last meeting, I’ll spend 30 minutes studying Spanish in my office’ is much more likely to stick as a habit,” she wrote for CNN earlier.

“Temptation bundling” might also be a good place to start, Milkman added, referring to a method in which you only enjoy an indulgence while pursuing a goal.

Try to add exercise: For example, if you want to work out but always find yourself binging your favorite TV shows, try making a rule that you are allowed to watch if you are exercising at the same time, Milkman said.

“Suddenly, (people) actually find themselves working out to see what happens in their favorite shows, and they’ll probably work out for longer,” she said.

“The workout will be less unpleasant, because time is going to fly while they’re watching, and they’re going to waste less time at home on TV when they should be doing other things.”

Make fundamental changes

Bubble baths are nice, skin care is luxurious, and green juices are delicious. But when it comes to making a big difference in your wellness long term, the best habits to introduce are more fundamental.

Look at food differently: Consider how you approach your relationship with food. In a world of diet culture, many people have learned to ignore their cues of hunger and satiety so that they no longer can tell what their body needs, Steph Grasso, dietitian and TikTok creator, said in a previous CNN article.

Or they restrict themselves until they lose control and binge. Eliminating shame and adding nutritious food instead of demonizing the foods you want to cut down on can help you make more empowered and sustainable choices, Grasso added.

How much do you drink? Another habit to evaluate is the consumption of alcohol.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies moderate drinking as two drinks or less a day for men and one drink or less for women

But no amount of alcohol is safe when it comes to heart health, according to the World Heart Federation. And even moderate drinking reserved for the weekend can have social, emotional and psychological impacts, according to a 2022 study.

A sobriety challenge or making changes to the routines you associate with drinking can help, journalist Rosamund Dean, author of “Mindful Drinking: How Cutting Down Can Change Your Life,” said in an earlier CNN article.

What about friends? Finally, most of us need to put more importance on friendships. Not only is a robust social life with strong connections important to emotional health, but it also is connected with better physical wellness, according to a 2023 study.

Friendships can start with small actions such as sending a text or meeting for coffee, but it is going to take a lot of time and regular practice to develop the closeness you need, Adam Smiley Poswolsky, workplace belonging expert and author of “Friendship in the Age of Loneliness,” told CNN earlier.

Research shows that it takes 90 hours together to consider someone a friend and more than 200 hours to consider them a close friend with whom you have an emotional connection, he said.

“In our busy world, we need to put our friendship on the calendar, and commit to recurring activities,” Poswolsky said.

Adding habits to help your wellness is a process. Instead of making over every aspect of your life, take it in manageable steps.

If you want more impactful wellness habits you can build into your routine, look for more CNN articles every week this National Wellness Month covering sleep, exercise, food and mindfulness. Not sure what to focus on? Answer our Life, But Better questions to find out.

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