So, what is a healthy lifestyle? Well, a healthy lifestyle is one that helps to improve and maintain your health and well-being. There is a wide range of things that you can do to start living a healthy lifestyle, such as eating healthy, becoming more active, maintaining a healthy weight, and managing your mental health. After all, a healthy lifestyle is not just about healthy eating and exercise; it also means taking care of yourself emotionally and physically,
Even though there are many ways to live a healthy lifestyle that is seen as the ‘right’ way, doing it looks entirely different for each of us and means something different from one person to the next with regards to mental health. Regardless of what you choose to do, living a healthy lifestyle is most definitely an essential method for disease prevention, wellness, and longevity.
Watching your diet and physical activity enables you to effectively balance all areas of your life. Have a look at this short guide for helping you live a healthy lifestyle:
Water
Water is a necessity for anyone, but to understand the importance of it is essential for living a healthy lifestyle. If you’re looking to improve your lifestyle, try drinking more water and continually ensuring that you’re hydrated efficiently. It’s a fact that most of us don’t drink anywhere near enough water, but water is essential for our bodies to function correctly.
You should be drinking at least eight to ten glasses of water each day. Watch out for dark-colored urine, chapped lips, and a dry mouth. These are all signs that you’re not giving your body enough water.
Sleep
You should be making sure that you’re getting enough sleep as part of your lifestyle. Lack of sleep could lead to all sorts of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, depression, and even heart disease. Having a continuous lack of sleep can also affect your immune system and make you less able to fend off even a simple cold. So, it’s essential to get a good night’s sleep. There are some things that you can do to help you get a good night’s sleep:
- Avoid stimulants close to bedtime- Try to avoid caffeine and nicotine.
- Avoid alcohol – It’s known that alcohol helps you to sleep; however, it leads to a disturbing night’s rest.
- Avoid technology- It’s a good idea to try and stay away from your phones, tablets, and tv right before bedtime as your mind doesn’t switch off, try reading a book instead.
There are things that you can do to improve your night’s sleep, though. You can try something like:
- Exercise- As little as 10 minutes of activity, such as walking or cycling, can drastically improve nighttime sleep, but e sure to avoid strenuous workouts close to bedtime.
- Meditation- OK, so not for everyone, but it’s said that meditation quietens the mind and can be extremely relaxing. If you don’t know how to meditate, there is plenty of information online.
- Relaxing Music- This is one that is hit and miss, some people find music an excellent way to get calm and start snoozing, whereas others find it to be a distraction.
Regular exercise
You should be aiming to exercise a least a few times a week, and this would tick that all critical ‘regular’ exercise box. Anything less, and you’re not hitting the mark. It’s best if you can work it into a daily routine. Daily exercise can improve your health in an abundance of ways. It not only helps to increase your lifespan, lower your risk of diseases, and enables you to develop higher bone density. It also helps you to maintain or lose weight.
The best thing you can do is to work your exercise into your daily life, so you don’t notice it as much. One easy step you can take is always to choose walking over transports, of course, distance plays a part in this. However, if you only work a few miles away, try biking or walking instead of getting us or jumping into your car. Climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. The exercise you do is up to you, so pick something that you know you’re going to enjoy and potentially stick to, even if that means exercising at home. You’re much more likely to continue to a lifestyle choice if you enjoy it rather than feeling like it’s a chore.
Exercise is all about being healthy and having fun while doing it. If you have kids, it presents you with the perfect opportunity to get them involved, too, arrange family days out hiking or cycling. Having a mix of exercises will keep them interesting.
Eat Well
It’s not a hidden fact that fruit and vegetables are the keys to sourcing the right vitamins and minerals that our bodies crave, so, surprisingly, so many people fail to consume even a few pieces a day. You should be consuming vitamins as part of your daily diet, and to do this, you NEED to eat vegetables and fruit.
Ideally, you should be consuming between five and nine portions of fruit and veg a day; however, this sometimes can prove to be complicated. If you are someone who isn’t a fan, try to discover new fruits and veg to try and incorporate the ones you do like as often as possible into your daily diet. Try to think about your favorite vegetables/fruit and how you can include more of them naturally. Picky bright-colored foods is an excellent decision to make as fruits and vegetables with bright colors are right for your health; they remove the things in our body that damage our cells.
Processed foods are not good, most of the nutritional value is lost in the making of these foods, and therefore, you should cut down as much as possible. Not only this, but the majority have a high salt or sugar content, which leads to higher blood pressure and the most common heart disease. Processed foods are anything that is not considered to be in its raw form.
When choosing the carbs to include in your diet, the best thing you can do is go for brown carbs over white carbs. The nutrients have been removed in the processing of refined grains such as white bread, white rice, and noodles and can cause unhealthy spikes in sugar levels; yes, they contain sugar too. Instead, you should consider going for brown carbs, like brown rice, whole grain, oats, and oatmeal. These come packed with nutrients and vitamins.
It goes without saying that cutting down on sugary foods such as soda, sweets, and fast food is going to benefit your health. There are much better alternatives, such as grilled, steamed, stir-fried, or even raw food like carrot sticks. The fact is that they don’t fill you up and only provide you with a temporary sugar rush. You could try reducing the amount you have and having smart snacks instead. Of course, we are all allowed a treat occasionally.