Healthy lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle is an essential factor in our lives as it makes us feel good. To lose a large amount of weight and be able to manage our body image and self-esteem needs a lot of inspiration and living a healthy lifestyle is the key to this. When many hear about a healthy lifestyle, they think it is all about just exercising and dieting but in the real sense it takes a whole package of several factors to living a healthy lifestyle. Health can be described as a complete physical, social and state of mental well-being; this does not mean that there is a total absence of a disease. A healthy person is a person who consumes a healthy diet, always feels relaxed, thinks positively, maintains a healthy relationship, does not smoke and is at a healthy weight. Lifestyle can be defined as a way of life that reflects the values and attitudes of a person.

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A healthy lifestyle is about actions, strategies, and steps that an individual puts in place with a goal of achieving optimum health. It is about making responsible decisions and healthy choices for today and the future. It consists of proper stress management, good nutrition, enough rest, positive self-image, love and compassion, joyful relationships, trust in the inner capability and inner calmness among others. A healthy lifestyle is vital for reduction of the impact of health issues, for managing life stressors and for improving the quality of life. What we drink, eat and exercise will always affect our health not only in life expectancy but how long we can live without chronic diseases such as mental illness, diabetes, joint disease, heart disease and cancer. Several steps can be taken to have a healthy lifestyle (Thompson).

First of all, an individual should consume vegetables on a daily basis if they are to have a healthy living. Vegetables can be served in different ways for instance; stir-fried, steamed and raw. An individual should strive to eat at least five meals in a day containing vegetables as this is responsible for reducing risks of cancers such as ovary, cervix, stomach, colon, lung, breast, esophagus, and bladder. The vegetables with powerful nutrients include those with bold colors such as cabbage, carrots, leafy greens, grapes, broccoli, and tomatoes among others. Correct nutrition is vital for a healthy living, and eating can be a necessity though eating intelligently is an art. The body is required to have a well-balanced diet with adequate vitamins and minerals on a daily basis. Having five meals a day is most appropriate to maintain body health. This helps in keeping the bodys metabolism and energy levels progressively elevated all day long. It also helps one to maintain focus, keep cool, manage their weight, and avoid cravings. Most important, consider using foods at all times over supplements. Before taking supplements, let them be recommended by a health expert after they have been evaluated for purity. Some supplements will be toxic, react with particular medications, compete with other nutrients in your body and even put you at risk of contracting diseases such as diabetes. These factors disapprove supplements ability to contribute to ones health. While picking on what to eat, choose less of or even no saturated fats and Trans fats. Eat foods that are rich in anti-inflammatory omega three fatty acids; these reduce your risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases and improve on depression.

Secondly, daily exercise is essential for reducing all of the biomarkers of aging such as improvement of eyesight, improvement of bone density, normalizing of blood pressure and lowering cholesterol. If an individuals objective is to live a healthy life and longer one, then daily exercise is paramount, it is not an option. Most studies show that even a daily 10 minutes exercise is enough for keeping fit. Therefore, we are required to take up the initiative by jumping on a trampoline, going for a hike and riding to our work places. Also cranking the stereo and dancing in our living rooms, signing up for swing dances, walking to the park with friends or catching up with old friends, playing water volleyball, jumping of ropes and spinning a hula hoop among many other activities that people can engage in. Being active also helps in sleeping better and keeping one's weight in check (Thompson). There is so much that comes with daily exercise that we should be happy about. Therefore, those who do not create time for daily exercise are paving a way for fatal illnesses in the future.

Thirdly, if the individuals goal is to manage self-esteem and body weight then taking some steps to maintain certain levels of balance is essential. One should be able to balance their lives physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially financially and mentally. Balancing work, family and all other areas of ones life are critical; create time for every aspect of your life so that you do not keep feeling that you should be doing something else when you are doing another. Creating satisfaction in all areas of our lives by giving enough time to each area helps us to live a healthy lifestyle.

The fourth measure of ensuring that you live a healthy lifestyle is getting good and enough sleep at night. Some people find it easy to go to sleep at night while others have to struggle to get some sleep. Some of the things one can do if they are finding it hard to sleep include; eating light foods that will help the mind shift to the sleep mode, foods like whole grain cereal with milk and having your room darkened a little bit more. Again, try loading some of the stressful issues that are running through your mind onto paper; this helps you to worry less and in turn, get enough rest for the night.

Managing ones emotional stress is the fifth thing to do to live healthily. Meditating in a quiet place and trying to relax are the techniques to employ in managing ones emotions. A stressed out person is likely to partake of other actions that will contribute to ill health. Such actions include eating too much, engaging in unnecessary arguments, working excessively hard and smoking. Emotional stress itself can lead to illnesses; say, for example, depression and even worse, mental illness. It is therefore of advantage to find suitable ways of managing stress even as one strives to live a healthy lifestyle.

Additionally, power your own persons mind and body to focus on success. As an individual, it is important to identify goals that will lead you to your perfect definition of a compelling future. Dont just identify the goals, focus on them daily. It will also take a lot of discipline to remain on the course because there are so many factors that could knock you down. Remaining focused, however, contributes to positive thinking, helps you in controlling your thoughts and in living a healthy life in general.

Lastly, ever thought that making friends with yourself is an important bit of living healthy? It is not a good thing if you always depend on people around you to make you feel good and boost your self-esteem. Loving oneself builds your pride and makes you feel worthwhile. Self-esteem is very crucial because it affects someones actions. If you feel good about yourself, you are likely to engage in activities (like keeping your relations with other people good) that will help you live a health life unlike if you feel bad about yourself.

As evidenced in the above passage, living a healthy lifestyle is not as easy as a walk in the park. It requires effort and sacrifice, but it is worth every sacrifice. These sacrifices will help a big deal in saving money that would have otherwise been used in paying for treatment of diseases that can be prevented by practicing a healthy lifestyle. Again, why to wait to be depressed over weight issues when you can simply live healthily and never have to be depressed. At whatever age, body size or level of fitness it is not too late to start living healthy. Simply make a change in the way you live and adopt some of the measures in this passage. Live healthy, be happy!

References

Thompson, Holli. Discover Your Nutritional Style. New York: Sunrise River Press, 2014. Print.