Why you should stop eating late at night — and other 3 simple changes to improve your health

Every day, there are people trying to convince you that you need to overhaul your lifestyle in order to be as healthy as possible. While making major changes can impact your health — especially if you know you're doing the bare minimum — they are also not necessarily practical...or easy habits to stick to.

Instead of promising yourself you're going to eat a strictly healthy diet and hit the gym seven days a week, try out some of these tips instead. These small tweaks to your routine, whether that's including a few meditation sessions a month, eating more plant-based meals or even getting your whole family moving, can make a big difference. Here's what to know.

GO…for a family walk

A new study published in Nature Communications found that replacing sedentary time with light physical activity (LPA) can have major benefits when it comes to fighting childhood obesity. The researchers found that three hours of LPA per day could reverse childhood obesity, while getting the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 60 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) only reduced it.

While there are many factors that lead to childhood obesity — including access to healthy foods and even stress levels — this is good news for parents of kids who are concerned about having their kids stay at a healthy weight. Instead of focusing solely on having kids engage in activities that are considered official exercise, this study shows it's just as important to simply get them moving more frequently. Going on a walk with your kids before dinner, for example, can make a difference — plus, it also encourages you to not be as sedentary, which we know has health consequences outside of obesity, too.

STOP…eating late at night

We know that what you eat can impact your health — but what about when you eat? The earlier your first and last meal of the day, the better for your heart health, according to a new study. The researchers found that delaying your first meal of the day is connected to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. For each hour you put off your initial meal, the risk of heart-related issues increases by 6%.

Another thing to avoid, according to the study, was eating too late at night. Eating at 9 p.m. was associated with a 28% increase in the risk of cerebrovascular disease, such as stroke. The research also found that the longer you fast between your nighttime meal and your morning meal, the lower your risk for cerebrovascular disease.

This isn’t the only study to find the benefits of eating earlier in the day, and avoiding eating too late at night. A study in the journal of Cell Metabolism found that eating later in the day affects certain processes in the body, such as decreasing the energy you have in the morning and altering how your body stores fat. It found that later eating may lead to obesity and other health problems.

TRY…this type of yoga meditation

A specific type of yoga meditation may have major benefits, according to a study published in PLOS ONE. Novice participants who tried two weeks of yoga nidra — a kind of meditation and mindfulness training also referred to as yogic or psychic sleep — found improvements in their quality of sleep, as well as attention and memory.

Yoga nidra is used to achieve a state called non-sleep deep rest, or NSDR. Unlike traditional yoga, which has you bend into pretzel-like shapes, this practice involves laying down and following guided instructions on your breathing or where to focus your attention.

This isn’t the first study to show yoga nidra’s benefits: A 2020 study found that those who tried yoga nidra had lower stress levels and better feelings of overall well-being, as well as improved sleep quality.

While you can find this practice at yoga studios, you can also try it on your own at home with the use of YouTube videos that can guide you through the practice.

EAT…a plant-based diet

Risk factors for type 2 diabetes typically include a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, as well as smoking, alcohol use and stress. But a new study suggests that adopting a plant-based lifestyle could significantly lower your odds of developing the disease. The research, which was based on a 12-year study involving over 113,000 participants, found that a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables and low in animal products reduced diabetes risk by 24%, even for those with a genetic predisposition.

This is just one more piece of research suggesting the benefits of a plant-based diet. A recent study out of Stanford University using identical twins also found that those who ate a plant-based diet improved their cardiovascular health markers, including lowering “bad cholesterol,” more than those who also ate a healthy diet that included animal products.