Healthy Lifestyle Tips for Everyone
A healthy lifestyle is one which helps to keep and improve people's health and well-being. Being healthy should be part of your overall lifestyle. Living a healthy lifestyle can help prevent chronic diseases and long-term illnesses. Feeling good about yourself and taking care of your health are important for your self-esteem and self-image. Maintain a healthy lifestyle by doing what is right for your body.
If you want to be a well-rounded, healthy individual, here are several staying healthy tips that may help you:
1. Be conscious in your diet
To maintain a healthy lifestyle, you need to keep eating healthy. Add more fruits and vegetables in your diet and eat less carbohydrates, high sodium and unhealthy fat. Avoid eating junk food and sweets. Avoid skipping a meal. This will only make your body crave more food the moment you resume eating. Remember to burn more calories than you eat.
The right weight for each us depends on factors like our gender, height, age, and genes. Being affected by obesity and overweight increases the risks of a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, heart diseases, and cancer. Excess body fat comes from eating more than we need. The extra calories can come from any caloric nutrient (protein, fat, carbohydrate, or alcohol), but fat is the most concentrated source of energy. Physical activity helps us spend the energy, and makes us feel good.
The message is reasonably simple: if we are gaining weight, we need to eat less and be more active!
Physical activity is important for people of all weight ranges and health conditions. It helps us burn off the extra calories, it is good for the heart and circulatory system, it maintains or increases our muscle mass, it helps us focus, and improves overall health well-being. We don't have to be top athletes to get on the move! 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity is advised, and it can easily become part of our daily routine.
We all could:
use the stairs instead of the elevator,
go for a walk during lunch breaks (and stretch in our offices in between)
make time for a family weekend activity
4. Surround yourself with positive energy
In order to have a sound mental and emotional state, you must surround yourself with positive energy. Yes, not all problems can be avoided. But it helps to face such obstacles with an optimist outlook. Surround yourself with encouraging friends and people that will provide you with constructive criticism every once in a while, this can improve yourself. Make it a habit to always look at the brighter side of life. Even if you find yourself in the worst situation, there is always an upside to it which is something good and positive. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is not that difficult, nor does it require a lot of work. Just keep doing what you do and apply the staying healthy tips listed above—surely you will be a well-rounded individual in no time.
5. Replace saturated with unsaturated fat
Fats are important for good health and proper functioning of the body. However, too much of it can negatively affect our weight and cardiovascular health.
We should limit the consumption of total and saturated fats (often coming from foods of animal origin), and completely avoid trans fats; reading the labels helps to identify the sources.
Eating fish 2-3 times a week, with at least one serving of oily fish, will contribute to our right intake of unsaturated fats.
When cooking, we should boil, steam or bake, rather than frying, remove the fatty part of meat, use vegetable oils.
6. Reduce salt and sugar intake
A high salt intake can result in high blood pressure, and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
We should always choose products with lower sodium content.
Salt can be substituted with spices when cooking which can help increasing the variety of flavors and tastes.
When eating, it helps not to have salt at the table, or at least not to add salt before tasting.
Sugar provides sweetness and an attractive taste, but sugary foods and drinks are rich in energy, and are best enjoyed in moderation, as an occasional treat. We could use fruits instead, even to sweeten our foods and drinks.
7. Eat regularly, control the portion size
Eating a variety of foods, regularly, and in the right amounts is the best formula for a healthy diet.
Skipping meals, especially breakfast, can lead to out-of-control hunger, often resulting in helpless overeating. Snacking between meals can help control hunger, but snacking should not replace proper meals. For snacks, we could choose yoghurt, a handful of fresh or dried fruits or vegetables (like carrot sticks), unsalted nuts, or perhaps some bread with cheese.
Paying attention to portion size will help us not to consume too much calories, and will allow us to eat all the foods we enjoy, without having to eliminate any. Cooking the right amount makes it easier to not overeat.
Some reasonable serving sizes are: 100 g of meat; one medium piece of fruit; half a cup of raw pasta.
Using smaller plates helps with smaller servings. Packaged foods, with calorie values on the pack, could aid portion control. If eating out, we could share a portion with a friend.
Adults need to drink at least 1.5 liters of fluid a day! Or more if it's very hot or they are physically active. Water is the best source, of course, and we can use tap or mineral water, sparkling or non-sparkling, plain or flavored. Fruit juices, tea, soft drinks, milk and other drinks, can all be okay - from time to time.
9. Start now! And keep changing gradually.
Gradual changes in our lifestyle are easier to maintain than major changes introduced all at once. For three days, we could write down the foods and drinks we consume throughout the day, and make a note of the amount of movement we made. It won’t be difficult to spot where we could improve:
Skipping breakfast?
A small bowl of muesli, a piece of bread or fruit, could help slowly introduce it into our routine
Too few fruits and vegetables?
To start with, we can introduce one extra piece a day.
Favorite foods high in fat?
Eliminating them abruptly could fire back, and make us return to the old habits. We can choose low fat options instead, eat them less frequently, and in smaller portions.
Too little activity?
Using the stairs daily could be a great first move.
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