Healthy Lifestyle

Love Your Life

            What does a healthy lifestyle means? In general, a healthy person doesn't smoke, is at a healthy weight, eats healthy and exercises. Sounds simple, doesn't it? No, I don’t think so. For me, a healthy lifestyle means maintaining a balanced and nutritious diet as well as engaging in sports or other fitness related activities, enjoy life with no stress.

A healthy diet alone however is inadequate to ensure a healthy body as physical activity helps to keep one in shape and free of sickness and disease. The trick to healthy living is making small changes. Taking more steps, adding fruit to your cereal, having an extra glass of water. These are just a few ways you can start living healthy without drastic changes.

According to the World Health Organization, only one in ten people exercise regularly and a majority do not follow a healthy diet. The main culprit is our penchant for junk food as can be seen from the popularity of fast food chains and other western eateries. Even local foods such as fried noodles, friend rice and snacks and savouries are laden with fat and calories. Thus, consuming this type of food on a daily basis can contribute to weight gain. Overweight and obese people suffer from many health complications such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even cancer.

Dining out usually involves eating heavily and unhealthily. Most of us are prone to ordering deep fried food and oily dishes as opposed to steamed or baked food. Thus, though eating out is an unavoidable, parent of children and adults as a hole should order fresh food and foods that are nutritious and not laden with oil, fat or sugar. Once a pattern of healthy eating is established, it would be easier to carry through such a lifestyle and for the children to follow suit.

School canteens must be urged to sell only highly nutritious food and drinks. Vending machines that sell soft drinks and drinks that are spiked with sugar should be banned. Hence, school going children would be exposed to healthy eating form young.

Daily exercise is vital. In fact, schools should implement Physical education on a daily basis rather than twice weekly. Only the minority are actively involved in sports. Most students are sedentary and prefer to concentrate on their studies as they consider indulging in physical activities a waste of time. By enforcing regular exercise daily, these students would be exposed to the importance and benefits of exercise.

              Physical with your family. Play games, take a walk...almost anything will be more active than sitting on the couch. Walk more. Look for small ways to walk more. When you get the mail, take a walk around the block, take the dog for an extra outing each day or walk on your treadmill for 5 minutes before getting ready for work. Do some chores. Shovelling snow, working in the garden, raking leaves, sweeping the floor. These kinds of activities may not be 'vigorous' exercise, but they can keep you moving while getting your house in order.

             Pace while you talk. When you're on the phone, pace around or even do some cleaning while gabbing. This is a great way to stay moving while doing something you enjoy. Be aware. Make a list of all the physical activities you do on a typical day. If you find that the bulk of your time is spent sitting, make another list of all the ways you could move more--getting up each hour to stretch or walk, walk the stairs at work.

              Eating a healthy diet is another part of the healthy lifestyle. Not only can a clean diet help with weight management, it can also improve your health and quality of life as you get older. You can use the new My Plate to determine how many calories you need and what food groups you should focus on or, if you're looking for smaller changes, you can use these tips for simple ways to change how you eat. Eat more fruit. Add it to your cereal, your salads or even your dinner .Sneak in more veggies. Add them wherever you can--a tomato on your sandwich, peppers on your pizza, or extra veggies in your pasta sauce.

               Keep pre-cut or canned/frozen veggies ready for quick snacks. Switch your salad dressing. If you eat full-fat dressing, switch to something lighter and you'll automatically eat less calories. Eat low-fat or fat-free dairy. Switching to skim milk or fat free yogurt is another simple way to eat fewer calories without having to change too much in your diet. Make some substitutes. Look through your cabinets or fridge and pick 3 foods you eat every day. Write down the nutritional content and, the next time you're at the store, find lower-calorie substitutes for just those 3 items.

               One of the biggest problems in America today is lack of activity. We know it's good for us but avoid it like the plague either because we're used to being sedentary or afraid that exercise has to be vigorous to be worth our time. The truth is, movement is movement and the more you do, the healthier you'll be. Even moderate activities like chores, gardening and walking can make a difference.

Trust yourself and give a try on it ! =)

Ok, now we see many ways to have a healthy lifestyle right? Do you ready for it? Try more and wish you all can be healthy always. Good luck ya!