There’s no doubt that the internet has caused a whole host of health problems. People are less active nowadays, with children losing out on the benefits of outdoor activity. Smartphone addiction is rapidly becoming a widespread phenomenon. Porn addiction is affecting people’s relationships and sex lives.
However, there are a number of online tools available which can actually improve your health. Here are 3 of the most important.
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Meal kit delivery
It hasn’t been all that long since the rise of meal kit delivery services in the US and UK. These services offer full meal kits delivered on a regular basis with all the ingredients and the recipe for a healthy meal. Instead of having to spend time coming up with something to cook, buying the ingredients, and preparing everything, you get almost everything done for you. All you have to do is follow the recipe — essentially assembling and cooking it. It makes cooking quick and stress-free. It also ensures you spend less on unhealthy fast-food or less-than-nutritious microwave dinners.
South Africa has its own host of meal kit delivery services, including UCOOK, Daily Dish, Daily Dietitian, and Woolworths meal kits. All of them are affordable — with the recipe and delivery coming to between R4 and R20 when you subtract the price of the ingredients.
Home exercise programs
Everyone aims to exercise more, but few of us find the time and motivation to do it. Going to the gym after (or before) a long day of work is the last thing anyone most of us want to do. Furthermore, few people enjoy running or cycling in the streets, and bad weather can lay even the best intentions to waste.
However, you don’t need to leave your house if you want an effective exercise program. Online, you’ll find tons of exercises you can do without any gym equipment. But the best options are apps which guide you through every exercise.
Sworkit is my favourite, but there are many other examples. Sworkit provides an array of exercise programs for people of every fitness level. Choose what you want out of your workout – weight loss, fitness, strength, agility, etc. – and you will get a programme made up of 30 second exercises. You can choose how long you workout for, with a 15 minute daily routine often being perfectly sufficient.
Mindfulness
When talking about health, mental health often gets short shrift. However, it is often as important as physical health, if not more so. Smartphones and technology in general can lead us down a dark road. When we spend too much time looking at screens, we become dependent on them for validation or distraction. However, mindfulness apps can change that.
Headspace is perhaps the leader in mindfulness. It provides a huge library of mindfulness courses. Each day, you will be guided through a 10 to 20 minute mindfulness meditation, which will help ground you and help you to regulate your emotions. After a few days, you’ll already begin to feel more balanced.
Headspace is a particularly cheap option as well, at just R60 a month. It is well worth the money.
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