Improving your health isn’t just about losing weight, although this can be a welcome side effect if you have weight you need to lose. It is about ensuring your body is getting everything it needs to help support it both physically and mentally. It is about living a healthy lifestyle.
Our bodies are complex and need a lot to support how it works, but modern lifestyles often lead to us living our lives at a fast pace, meaning we don’t always do what we need to and give our bodies the best chances of success.
Are You Living a Healthy Lifestyle?
Recent studies have shown some interesting facts in regard to how healthy Americans are as a country. One study found that under 7% of the respondents engaged in all four healthy lifestyle factors, while a Carolina study found that only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy, meaning they are in excellent health and showing no signs of conditions such as high cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, weight gain and have great energy levels.
While you might automatically think this is all diet related, it isn’t just about the food you put into your body. Improving your health is about addressing every single aspect of your life and ensuring you are doing what is best for you and your body, and you aren’t cutting corners when it comes to your health and burning the candle to both ends, pushing yourself to your limits.
But living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t come naturally to everyone, especially in a world of convenience, high-stress levels, and increased business. But if you can stop to sit down and address what is affecting your life and what you want to change, this can go a long way to helping you turn things around and start living more healthily.
Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle
Everyone knows there are multiple benefits to living a healthy lifestyle. These range from increased energy levels, better focus, and concentration, improvised stamina fitness levels, a greater capacity for learning, lower stress levels, decreased risk of illnesses and specific health conditions, and an altogether better mood.
If you are ready to get on the healthy train and start changing your lifestyle, this post has some ways to live healthier and become a better version of yourself.
How To Live A Healthy Lifestyle
Diet
Let’s start with the main aspect of a healthy lifestyle, how you fuel your body. We all know the foods that are bad for us and what we are supposed to eat. And while 50% of Americans claim to eat a healthy lifestyle, rising obesity levels indicate this figure might be generous.
But eating healthy doesn’t mean clearing your cupboards of all the foods you like; it is being more mindful about what you put in your body. Your food intake affects you in many ways, including poor skin, energy levels, and mood if you rent testing correctly.
Everything in moderation is an excellent place to start. Avoiding your favorite foods will lead you to fall off the wagon, so including them in smaller amounts while upping your intake of lean protein, healthy fats, fruit, vegetables, beans, pulses, and whole grains can get you on track.
Your dinner plate should consist of portions of whole grain/starches, fruits, vegetables, and protein. These should all be included in your daily calorie allowance and be divided up like this;
- Fruits/Vegetables !/2 of your plate
- Protein ¼ of your plate
- Grains/Starches ¼ of your plate.
Your diet needs to include all the vitamins and minerals your body needs and if you aren’t able to get these from foods for various reasons like allergies, then adding supplements can be your best alternative to missing food groups for optimal health.
Drinking Water
Water is the ultimate drink. It is hydrating, calorie-free, and essential for your body to function. Everything your body does uses water, and denying your body water can have massive consequences.
Did you know that if you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated? You should avoid feeling thirsty by drinking a little and often throughout the day. Filling up a bottle with drinking guidelines can be beneficial at first, but everyone needs to aim to drink around 8 cups a day minimum.
More if you are exercising or in warmer climates. This can help you stop getting dehydrated and help you improve your energy levels and your skin’s appearance, and improve cognitive function while allowing your body to use the water to operate normally.
Cut Bad Habits
Bad habits can come in many forms, but in most cases, they will also harm our bodies and mental health. This is why they are called bad habits, not good ones; bad habits can be tough to break. Studies show you can form a new habit in 50 to 79 days, and it takes 30 to 60 days of a conscious effort to break a habit.
But not all habits are equal or as bad for you as you might think. Biting your fingernails isn’t considered detrimental to your health or a major bad habit that is life-altering and will mainly affect the appearance of your hands. But over time, it can lead to sores on the fingers, and if you bite them too far down, you are at risk of infections from exposed skin, cuts, and sores on the fingers, and you risk permanent damage to your nails.
For habits like this, you need to practice consistency to help you break them and use the tools at your disposal, such as bitter-tasting nail varnish or wearing gloves so you can’t bite for fingernails, for example. Set smaller goals and adjust these as you hit them. Go for one day without indulging in your habit. Then make it two. Then move the goalposts to a week, month, and so on until it is no longer something you frequently do.
Other habits like smoking or substance abuse will have more apparent signs and a greater risk of damage to your physical and mental health. Overindulgence in food that is bad for you will lead to weight gain and an unhealthy relationship with food which is a sign of an eating disorder, much like not eating correctly or enough to fuel your body is also an eating disorder too.
For more serious bad habits or concerns, you should talk to your doctor and get some assistance to help you stop. For alcohol and substance abuse stopping and going cold turkey can be harmful and lead you to experience intense withdrawal symptoms and side effects. Alcohol Rehab or checking into a substance abuse clinic can help you to get through this part and equip you with the tools you will need to help you get back on the right track.
Sleeping
Sleeping, much like food and water, is vital for your body. Your body performs many significant changes and repairs overnight, and if you aren’t getting a good quality shut-eye, then your body won’t be able to undertake these processes as needed for your health.
Are you indeed all of the time? Do you toss and turn and can only sleep if the pillow is a certain way, or do you have the correct type of lighting and white noise running in the background? Many people have different quirks when it comes to their sleeping routine, and as such, you need to find what works for you to get a good night’s sleep every night.
Aim for a short falling asleep time; this is where white noise or soothing sounds can come into play to help you get through as many sleep cycles as possible. You need around 4-6 sleep cycles per night, and each cycle can last from 90 to 100 minutes, so when changing your sleeping schedule to improve your sleep quality, factor this in to help you find the optimal sleeping time for your needs.
Exercising
We can’t talk about good health without mentioning the benefits of exercise. When you say exercise, most people automatically think of the gym and punishing workout routines. And while these can be beneficial, did you know that going to the gym only burns up a small percentage of your daily calories? Do you even burn calories in your sleep and when breathing?
But your body does still need to be moving, and whether you move it to a gym or move it around the block or even walk about the house more, moving to a more active lifestyle than a sedentary one can be massively beneficial to your body.
All movement is good, and while there is nothing wrong with going to the gym if you enjoy it, if you don’t, you won’t be able to sustain it, and this will be detrimental to your effort. Instead, find an activity you enjoy and aim to move around more.
Whether taking a bike ride, partaking in a more active hobby like gardening, swimming, or finding a dance class, get up and get moving. Once you’re doing this, you can look at increasing what you do or dig into something different.
Conclusion
Living a healthy lifestyle means you need to be looking at your body in different ways to give it the support it needs to become and stay in the best condition possible. From eating better, drinking more water, and moving more, you can take care of your health in many different ways to get you on the path to success.