You need more than just eat an apple every day to keep your doctor away. Modern lifestyles are hectic. Bad habits like excessive drinking of alcohol, smoking, skipping sleep, and high-stress levels make leading a healthy life difficult for many people. That’s why lifestyle diseases are on the rise.
Many people are unable to keep fit because their tight schedules leave them no time to exercise. What’s more, some people don’t have time to prepare their meals. They eat fast-foods and meals whose sources of their ingredients they don’t know. Nevertheless, it’s still possible to kick bad habits and lead a healthy lifestyle.
Quitting alcohol, for instance, can mark the beginning of a healthy lifestyle for some people. For others, the process can start with a reduction in the number of cigarettes they smoke. But, it’s easy to say that a person will embrace a healthy lifestyle while the reality gets complicated. If struggling to the following 5 rules for a healthy lifestyle can help.
1. Exercise Regularly
To ensure your optimal health, exercise your body. Exercising more often will enable you to use your body muscles. This will give your body a better look. And, an improved appearance comes with more psychological benefits. Exercising keeps the brain, body, and hormones functioning optimally. Overwhelming evidence shows that exercise is linked to longer health.
When a person exercises regularly, they delay the onset of up to 40 chronic diseases. These include type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. What’s more, exercising regularly raises the levels of growth and testosterone hormones. These are associated with the enhanced well-being of a person.
And, a person can exercise in different ways. It’s not a must that a person invests in a piece of expensive workout equipment or gym to exercise. Even walking or hiking is a form of exercise. This can be done without spending even a cent. The most important thing is to choose something that a person enjoys and stick to it.
2. Watch Out What You Ingest into Your Body
You need to watch out what you put into your body to lead a healthy lifestyle. For instance, quitting drinking ( https://addictionresource.com/alcohol/treatment/how-to-quit-drinking/ ) can be a great way to start leading a healthy lifestyle. That’s because alcohol is toxic and responsible for causing many lifestyle diseases. Abusive drugs and cigarettes are highly addictive and giving up on them is not easy once a person starts.
Some people think that moderate alcohol consumption is fine. But, some researchers say no amount of alcohol is healthy. Abusive drugs and alcohol are bad for anybody. But, the most common problem in modern society is eating disease-promoting, unhealthy junk foods.
To ensure your optimal health, minimize the consumption of such foods. Cut back on packaged, processed foods. This is not easy for some people because these foods are extremely tasty. Resisting them is not easy when already used to eating them.
Added sugars are some of the worst ingredients of these foods. These include high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose. These wreak havoc on the metabolism once consumed excessively. However, some people tolerate them in moderate amounts.
But, if you can manage to quit drinking and smoking, giving up on junk foods shouldn’t a challenge you can’t overcome. It’s also a good idea to ditch trans fats. These are common in some baked, packaged foods and margarine.
3. Eat a Wholesome Diet
Eat real foods to lead a healthy lifestyle. That means going for unprocessed foods. Combine foods from plants and animals. Your diet should include fish, meat, vegetables, eggs, nuts, fruits, and seeds. It should also include healthy fats, dairy products, and oils.
It’s fine to eat unrefined, whole carbs if healthy, active, and lean. These include legumes, sweet potatoes and whole grains like oats. But, if obese, overweight, or with metabolic issues like diabetes, reducing carbohydrates intake can help you lead a healthy lifestyle.
4. Get Adequate Sleep
Sleep is important for optimal health. Research has shown that sleep deprivation is associated with several diseases including heart disease and obesity. Therefore, getting adequate quality sleep should be part of a healthy lifestyle.
The hectic lifestyles of some people make it hard for them to sleep properly. Nevertheless, you can improve the quality of your sleep. Try the following if unable to sleep properly.
- Avoid drinking coffee a few hours before you go to sleep.
- Establish a sleep routine and stick to it.
- Sleep in a room that is completely dark without artificial lighting.
- Dim your home lights a few hours before you go to bed.
If you drink excessively, try to stop drinking or cut down because alcohol can affect sleep negatively. If you suspect that you have a disorder like sleep apnea, see a doctor. Sleep disorders are a common cause of sleep problems. Luckily, these are easy to treat.
5. Avoid High-Stress Levels
You need regular exercise, a wholesome diet, and quality sleep to lead a healthy lifestyle. But, your thoughts and feelings are also important. Having high-stress levels all the time can be a disaster. Being extremely stressed can impair metabolism and increase cortisol levels. This can increase cravings for junk foods and fat in the stomach area. It can also increase the risk of developing some lifestyle diseases like depression.
Unfortunately, some people turn to excessive alcohol consumption when stressed. This leads to lifestyle problems that are associated with heavy drinking. So, if you always turn to alcohol for relief when stressed, find the best ways to stop drinking.
Simplifying life is one of the best ways to minimize stress. Exercising, taking nature walks, meditating, and practicing deep-breathing techniques are some of the ways of reducing stress levels. If unable to deal with stress, see a psychologist. Overcoming stress makes a person healthier. It also improves other aspects of life.
The Bottom Line
If you think habits like smoking and drinking excessive alcohol are the major reasons you’re not leading a healthy lifestyle, you need to stop the habits. There steps to quit drinking or smoking that you can follow to do it. Alternatively, you can seek professional assistance. Nevertheless, a healthy lifestyle also entails being keen on what you eat and exercising. A sedentary lifestyle, junk, and processed foods, as well as, an unbalanced diet can wreak havoc in your system. Nevertheless, sticking to these rules will play a significant role in helping you lead a healthy lifestyle.
