How to Stay Healthy?
Looking for ways to stay healthy? Here are 30 things you can do today to ensure you stay physically and mentally fit.
– What is a Healthy Lifestyle?
A healthy lifestyle is one that helps to keep and improve people’s health and well-being. The ways of being healthy, include healthy eating, physical activities, weight management, and stress management.
A balanced and healthy lifestyle is, mostly, associated with:
- Proper diet
- Physical exercise
- Proper sleeping pattern
- Personal hygiene
- Absence of bad habits or addiction
- Health education
- Safe environment
- Physical fitness
- Love through social support and healthy relationships
- Emotions
Being the healthiest you can possibly be means eating a variety of healthy foods, being physically active and understanding the nutrients you need to protect your bones, immune system, physical and mental health. A healthy eating plan, knowing which diets work, how active you should be for your age and what you can do to manage your weight are important too.
Credit: Jean Hailes naturopath Sandra Villella
For a Healthy Living put your considerations on the following:
- Get the screening tests you need
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Eat a variety of healthy foods, and limit calories and saturated fat
- Be physically active
- Control your blood pressure and cholesterol
- Don’t smoke
- Protect yourself from too much sun
- Don’t drink alcohol at all
- Get enough sleep every day
Many factors affect your health, some you cannot control, such as your genetic makeup or your age. But you can make changes to your lifestyle. By taking steps toward healthy living, you can help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and other serious diseases.
A healthy heart or healthy life is all about making wise lifestyle choices. While we aren’t asking you to completely give up some of the little joys in life, we urge you to choose wisely. Sip on green tea instead of tea or coffee, Go for sparkling water or fresh homemade juices instead of fizzy drinks. Also, stop smoking!! Next time you have the urge to pull a few puffs to ‘de-stress’ take a few deep breaths or slowly sip on a cup of warm green tea instead.
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– Here are 30 Simple Ways for you to Stay Healthy!
1. Eat a Balanced Diet
Eating healthy food can lower your risk of developing health problems, like heart disease and diabetes, and also make you feel good. The best diet is one that has a balance of nutrients measured by calorie intake.
Dietary Guidelines recommend that you eat more:
- Fruit and vegetables
- Whole grains
- Fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products
- Lean protein
And consume less:
- Fats and sugars
- Refined grains
- Sodium
- Dietary cholesterol
2. Drink plenty of water
Water is a vital component of our survival! We can last much longer without food, but can’t without water! It is essential to every function of our body including temperature regulation, digestion, and metabolism.
Read the full article here: Water is the Best Way to Stay Hydrated!
3. Be happy and Laugh
It is easier said than done, but being in a good mood will do wonders for your health!
A good chuckle can lower levels of stress hormones, boost your immune system and produce feel-good chemicals called endorphins.
“Laughter is the best medicine.” and “ A good laugh recharges your battery ” so laugh when you can 🙂
4. Sleep 8 hours
Getting a good night’s sleep can improve your memory, sharpen your attention, make you less stressed and potentially even live longer.
5. Do Exercise Everyday
“Calories in and calories out” is a good focus. If you burn more calories than you consume, the weight will drop. Exercise won’t just make you fitter – it can help with weight loss, increase bone density, fend off heart disease and relieve mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
Regular exercise is the first step towards a healthy heart – it helps lose weight, improve blood circulation and manage blood pressure – the main causes that lead to heart diseases. Exercise also helps release endorphins in the system which uplifts your mood – so your heart is not just healthier,
but happier too. So, ditch that television marathon and give your couch potato status a break – go out for a run instead – you will instantly feel better.
6. Don’t drink fizzy pop
“A GLASS OF MILK AFTER EXERCISE IS SUPER GOOD TO HELP YOU STAY HYDRATED – IT NATURALLY CONTAINS SODIUM AS WELL AS MICRONUTRIENTS THAT CAN REPLACE WHAT YOU’VE LOST IN YOUR SWEAT.”
Sugary, fizzy drinks can ruin your health, as well as increasing your chances of putting on weight and developing harmful conditions like diabetes. Drink sparkling water or milk or homemade fresh juices or smoothies instead!
7. Eat vegetables and Fruits
Eat the rainbow. Brightly-coloured fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, flavonoids, and vital vitamins.
8. Eat fish
Fish is packed to the brim with vital nutrients like protein, vitamin D and omega 3 fatty acids. Eat fish high in omega-3s, such as Salmon, Tuna, Mackerel, Herring, and Trout!
Get the Recipe: Grilled Salmon with Grilled Vegetables
9. Eat some nuts
Nuts are bursting with protein, unsaturated fats, and vital fatty acids. A handful of healthy nuts such as almonds or walnuts will satisfy your hunger and help your heart! Nuts like almonds, walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, and macadamia nuts, all of them contain good-for-your-heart ‘Dietary fiber’.
10. Read Health Blogs
Scientists are discovering new ways to boost your health every day. Be sure to keep your finger on the pulse by subscribing to health blogs.
11. Take care of your Heart Health
To prevent heart attacks, avoid unhealthy food, and eat foods rich in nutrients, fiber, and healthy fats. The sudden rise in heart attacks over the last few decades has led reluctant people to sit up seriously and take note of their diet. A healthy and clean eating and healthy living (like exercise daily) can make your life better and healthy.
Read the full article here: Keep Your Heart Healthy!
You may also like to read: 10 Foods That Can Save Your Heart
12. Get some sun
Sunlight helps your body produce vitamin D, triggers the release of feel-good hormones and help clear up skin problems like eczema and acne.
13. Cut back on sugar
Reduce the intake of sugar and sugary foods and you will see remarkable improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol levels and the risk of suffering a heart attack.
14. Do yoga
Boost your core strength, stay flexible and de-stress with regular yoga sessions. Yoga is good for your mental health too.
15. Get a blood test annually
Keep an eye out for developing diseases with an annual blood test.
16. Eat less salt
Too much salt has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease.
17. Eat broccoli
This green vegetable is low in cholesterol, high in fiber, and contains a wealth of antioxidants. It’s good for protecting your joints, too. Fresh broccoli tastes great when eaten with hummus or a yogurt-based dip. You can also enjoy steamed broccoli with a meal of grilled fish/chicken or in a salad.
18. Take some “you” time
Take a little time out of your day for yourself. When you have a busy schedule, no matter if you’re an adult or a teen, you should be able to relax once in a while. This can seem hard with the demands of work, school, and family life. But it’s also important to your overall well-being. No matter how busy you are, it’s important to take time from your schedule to focus on yourself.
How to Make More Time for Yourself, you can choose from the following ways:
- Finding Time in Your Schedule for You.
- Find time to be alone.
- Accept not doing things perfectly.
- Change up your routine.
- Put down the electronics, mobile phones, social media etc…
- Find time for friends and family and enjoy with them.
- By choosing less on the outside, you may experience more peace on the inside—and get more time to yourself.
- Gives you the awareness to listen to what your body, heart, and soul need to thrive.
- It is the way back to love. By simplifying your life and eliminating things that don’t matter, you will find your way back to the people you love, a life you love, and the work you love.
19. Read good books
“Books are the most quiet and lasting friends, the easiest to reach,
Charles W. Eliot
the wisest counselors and the most patient teachers.”
Book reading stimulates your brain and keeps sharp into old age, while simultaneously de-stressing. Reading stimulates imagination and lights up new ideas. Reading habit improves your memory and makes you smarter as well as reduces stress. So, make a habit to read a good book once a while in a day.
20. Listen to music
Music has positive effects on our health. There’s no one who doesn’t love a good tune. Music helps us relax, it can be soothing or can even just act as a distraction from the stress of everyday life. Music can improve our memory. It helps us give 110%, which is great for our health when 110% goes into a workout.
21. Don’t smoke
There is no safe level of smoking. It’s really bad for your health.
Impact of smoking on women
- Double the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke (with 4 or fewer cigarettes per day)
- Earlier menopause by 1.5-2 years
- A higher incidence of osteoporosis
- Increased skin aging and wrinkles
22. Eat 5 a day
Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables every day. At least any 5 or a combination should be in your lunch/dinner.
Several studies have suggested including atleast 5 different types of fresh veggies or fruits in your everyday diet is an ideal way to keep heart disease at bay and we couldn’t agree more. In fact, go one step ahead and paint your plate with a variety of colours – darker hued veggies and fruits are more beneficial for heart health because they have a higher concentration of heart healthy polyphenols and antioxidants. Including more veggies and fruits in your diet will only do you good.
23. Use “Portion Control”
Eat a little less at each meal and see your waistline shrink in no time at all. A healthy plate is an easy way to control portion sizes. Fill half your plate with Non starchy vegetables, one quarter with lean protein, and one with whole grains for a healthy eating plan.
24. Wash your hands
We carry millions of “Germs” on our hands. Some are harmful, many are not. Starting in the fall, many illnesses increase, like colds, the flu, diarrhea, and some that are food related. Many of these outbreaks are caused by poor hygiene, usually unwashed or poorly washed hands. Proper handwashing is the single most effective way to decrease these illnesses.
Do you know?
- Kids who wash their hands at least four times per day experience up to 51% less sick days.
- 50% of many illnesses could be eliminated by proper handwashing.
- 30% of people who cough or sneeze into their hands wash them afterwards.
- Over-use of anti-bacterial gels can lead to antibiotic resistance.
- There are more germs in your kitchen sink, on your steering wheel, and your cell phone than in your toilet.
When should you wash your hands?
- Before preparing or eating a meal
- After going to the restroom
- After playing with a pet
- When you are around an ill person
- Anytime you touch your hair, face, mouth or other body parts
- After you blow your nose or take out the garbage
- After changing a diaper
- After shopping
- Any time your hands may come into contact with something unclean
* * * Stay Healthy and WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS, WASH YOUR HANDS!
25. Do weights
Gain muscles, lose weight. What’s not to love?
26. Take the stairs
Squeeze a little more exercise into your day by dodging the lift and use stairs instead.
27. Emotions
The way you feel physically has a big effect on your state of mind and emotional wellbeing. Similarly, if you are emotionally agitated, your physical health and energy levels are affected.
28. Organize your food
It’ll make cooking easier and mean you’re less likely to reach for that takeaway menu.
29. Eat more fiber
High fiber foods keep your digestive system in tip-top shape. The recommended daily intake of Fiber is 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.
Fiber-rich FRUITS include bananas, oranges, apples, mangoes, strawberries, raspberries.
~ FIBER-RICH VEGETABLES. Generally, the darker the color, the higher the fiber content. Fill up your shopping cart with carrots, beets, broccoli, collard greens, swiss chard, spinach, artichokes, potatoes (russet, red, and sweet).
~ BEANS and LEGUMES are flavorful, fiber-filled additions to salads, soups, and chilis. Navy, white, garbanzo, kidney, peas, or lentils are all healthy choices.
~ BREADS & GRAINS
- Whole-grain breads: Select 7-grain, dark rye, cracked wheat, pumpernickel. Make sure “whole wheat” or another whole grain is listed as the first ingredient.
- Grains: Try bulgur wheat, brown rice, wild rice, and barley instead of white rice.
- Cereals: Look for those with 5 or more grams of fiber per serving.
~ NUTS: Snack on almonds, pistachios, or pumpkin and sunflower seeds. But don’t take too much nuts, as nuts can be high in calories.
30. Help others by sharing good things 🙂
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