Healthy Living

You can choose between just living or healthy living. Making the right choices can bring a huge difference in your perspective and lifestyle. Some people think that only eating healthy is important for disease-free living but in reality, both physical and mental health needs to be in synchronisation to establish healthy living. If there is an issue with one, the other one gets affected too. Thus, it is very important to pay equal importance to both for peaceful living. All the components including emotional health, psychological health, physical health and mental wellness come under the umbrella of healthy. In this section, you would come across many suggestions to promote a healthy lifestyle and how you can incorporate small changes to being bigger returns.

Healthy Eating

Eating clean and healthy is the need of the hour. In times where people are enjoying packaged and processed foods more than nutritious and home-cooked meals, nutrition is lost. We are forgetting that what makes us healthy is good food loaded with nutrients that build and boost our body and overall health. When you eat a balanced diet, all the cells, tissues and vital organs receive their needful share of nutrients to function better. Nutrition varies with age and gender but it needs to be fulfilled. Changing your eating habits can bring a significant change in your health and lifestyle.

Tips for healthy eating

Eat all meals properly and do not skip any. Have a wholesome breakfast to provide you energy throughout the day. Do not starve yourself but eat healthy whenever your feel hungry. Eating junk once in a while is fine but restricts your unhealthy eating habits.

Eat a light dinner and try to finish it by 8 pm so that you have enough time to digest the food before you doze off. People who eat right before sleeping tend to suffer from stomach problems because of the undigested food.

Eat seasonal vegetables, fruits and whole grains to get maximum nutrition. Seasonal foods provide the required nutrition that your body may need during that season.

Your healthy diet should consist of everything including dairy, poultry, nuts, beans, legumes, etc. Have balanced proportions of protein, carbohydrates and fats. You can alter them as per your body's needs. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, limit fats and carbs in your diet.

Avoid consuming foods with additives including added sugar, trans fat, excess salt, etc.

Control your portion sizes if you are not in a mood to gain weight. Eating in small portions would satiate your hunger preventing overeating. You’d feel satisfied and light. Snack in moderation as one can go overboard with snacking and so, it must be avoided.

Avoid consuming sodas, coldrinks and other aerated drinks. These have high amounts of hidden sugar and cholesterol that disrupt stomach functions and cause weight gain. These also increase your hunger leading to overeating.

Avoid emotional eating as you won’t realise what you are eating in how much you are eating. Only after your stomach hurt and you see yourself gaining suddenly, you’d find how bad is emotional eating.

Avoid heavy meals in the summer time as they don’t get digested easily.

Always wash fruits and vegetables multiple times to get rid of bacteria, germs and other pathogens on them. Do not eat uncooked or raw food items in the monsoon or rainy season.

Physical Health

As much as consuming the right diet is important, digesting the consumed food is also very important. This makes a cycle where all the calories you have consumed are being burned in order to maintain physical health. This can only be done through physical activeness. Some kind of physical activity is a must if you are aiming at healthy living. Only eating healthily and lying on the couch doesn’t qualify you for healthy living. Exercise is a major contributor to healthy living to nullify possibilities of diseases including obesity, fatigue, digestive troubles, etc. Chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, etc. are also linked to poor physical activeness. Thus, you must get up and get active.

Tips to boost physical health

Exercise regularly no matter for how long you do or how intense exercising you do. Just be active to promote muscle strength and prevent age-related wear and tear.

You can do brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming, climbing up the stairs, skipping rope or dancing. These are some of the easy mediums of workouts that can be done easily. In the long run, these would keep your bones & muscles strong and you strongest.

Women must do weight-bearing exercises to build stronger bones as their bone strength tend to decrease with age risking them to osteoporosis. Increase your calcium and iron intake along for better benefits.

Practice mindful exercises including yoga to work on overall strength and fitness. Once you get into the routine of yoga, you will find that your mind in calm and your body is relaxed.

Regular exercising prevents obesity by reducing body fat and controlling body weight. You can consult a fitness expert for a weight loss-specific exercise regime for greater results.

Walk for at least 30 minutes daily to keep the body moving and all the joints exercised. Try to do this daily if you are not doing any high-intensity exercise.

If you haven’t exercised ever before, start slow in small sessions. This helps in warming up the body and prepare it for coming vigorous sessions. Increase the exercise time gradually.

Encourage your children to out for play. This would help them stay active and build their core right from the beginning. Ensure that they are playing some kind of sport that they love to indulge in.

Even older adults must exercise in moderation to keep their joints and muscles working. Initially, they would experience pain and soreness but over time, it will all subside.

Mental health

The third important component of healthy living is maintaining mental wellness. Just as being physically active secures health, being mentally sound is also essential for holistic health. One needs to be mentally fit and strong to take over the challenges of life and live without problems. Find below some tips to boost mental health for healthy living.

Tips

Do not take unnecessary stress. This is a part of life and every stress is short-lived. So, do not stress upon your stress. Be calm and handle everything with ease.

Meditate daily as this is one simple and most effective exercise that can uplift your psychological health instantly. Whether you are stressed or you are experiencing a mental/psychological roadblock, meditation would help you overcome these stressors.

Get ample amount of rest. People who work day and night for a living aren’t actually ignoring the long-term aspects and challenges that they might have to face in future. Your body is also a machine that needs rest to function properly. By sleeping good 6-8 hours a day, you can reboot your body and mind. Also, do not minding naps as they make you feel refreshed and recharged.

Practice mind exercises or brain games to challenge your cognitive functions. This would make your brain sharper.

References

https://www.medicinenet.com/healthy_living/article.htm

https://www.webmd.com/living-healthy