With the incredibly fast moving pace of life these days, so many of us find it difficult to add even one more thing to our to-do list. While we know that prioritizing our health and wellness will pay off in dividends, it can still feel like a challenge to commit to a robust daily health routine. That said, implementing strategies to build beneficial habits can help to alleviate the overwhelm of trying to do it all in the name of health. This article discusses strategies for helping to take your probiotic supplements regularly – something worth striving for as evidenced by the far-reaching benefits of a balanced microbiome! 1. Build Your Healthy Habits with Consistency Of course, we all have good intentions when it comes to our wellbeing, but to successfully implement new habits you’ll need to arm yourself with more than just an intention. In order to create habits that are automatic and that will stick in the long term, you’ll need to create a consistent action by repeating the behaviour many times. Of course, when you start to notice all of the positive impacts of your behaviour, this makes repeating it even easier! 2. Understand the Benefits of Taking Probiotics It may seem simple, but the very first step to creating the habit of taking your probiotic on a daily basis is to ensure that you feel good about using them in the first place! Success begins with a conscious understanding about WHY you’re taking probiotics, along with an understanding and belief that you’ll receive a positive outcome through the action of taking them. Probiotics, which promote a healthy balance in the microbiome have been linked to a wide range of health benefits including digestive health, immunity, mental health, heart health, skin health and more. Thus, if you’re experiencing any of these symptoms or conditions, and if you’re motivated to feel better; using a trusted probiotic brand is a sound idea! 3. Understand Your Preferences Beyond this, understanding your preferences and staying true to them will help keep habits strong. Do you prefer a liquid, drinkable probiotic or a capsule? Are you looking to promote overall digestive health, or do you have a specific need for travel protection, for diarrhea, or for your child? If it's a drinkable probiotic you enjoy most, do you prefer fermented milk, or you’d rather go with vegan options? Our Extra drinkable vegan probiotics contain functional active ingredients for added benefits. Perhaps you like to keep things simple, or maybe you enjoy the taste of different flavours such as strawberry, vanilla, mango, blueberries, or coconut. The point here is that by using a personalized approach for your health, you’re more likely to meet your goals as you’ll enjoy the process. So, How Can You Maintain Your Healthy Habits? Once you’ve got the foundational work done, and you’re excited about your daily probiotic habit, the key to maintaining it revolve around convenience and avoiding boredom. It’s a good idea to create associations between taking your probiotic with habits that you do each and everyday. The most obvious way would be to take your probiotic at a meal, as long as it is not mixed with hot food since heat is a recognized probiotic enemy. For many, this will look like adding your probiotic to your breakfast routine, but it could also be lunch or dinner. Whether this means bringing drinkables to the office on a Monday morning to be stored in the lunchroom fridge, or adding the capsules to a pill container and leaving it somewhere you check daily; personalizing your habits and routines in a convenient way will support your path to success. It is generally true that as habits become second nature, they do become easier to maintain. However, if you’re the type of person who gets bored by doing the same thing every day, it can be helpful to add some variety. Changing things up in order to keep motivation levels high over time could be as simple as changing your flavour choices. It could also involve getting creative with your probiotics in the kitchen. Bio-K is an excellent and highly nutritious addition to no-bake recipes like smoothies, overnight oats, muesli, dips, hummus, mousse or truffles. You can find many more tasty recipes here, but feel free to get inspired to create your own! Given that probiotics play such an important role in our health and lay the foundation for our overall health, it's important to create simple healthy routines that will support taking your supplements regularly. Bio-K is a safe and clinically tested probiotic with proven results so it can help to provide you with the confidence and trust that it will bring positive outcomes for your health. Do you have any other questions about your gut health? Ask us in comments below. If you are looking to stock up on Bio-K+, head to our store locator. For more information on Bio-K+, probiotics and digestive health, contact us, find us on Facebook and Instagram or join our community. References Schrezenmeir, J., & Vrese, M. D. (2001). Probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics—approaching a definition. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 73(2). doi:10.1093/ajcn/73.2.361s
