The key to living a healthy lifestyle contains to me three aspects – eating a balanced diet, exercising regularly and managing stress effectively. No more, no less. Every activity you carry out falls into one of these three categories. How and what you choose each day can affect more than your physical appearance – it can also increase both the length and quality of your life by boosting your immunity to disease and keeping you emotionally healthy. Now aside from the three categories I put a healthy lifestyle into here are four aspects you should take into consideration on a daily basis.
1. Mental Well Being
Your mood and cognitive function play an important role in the quality of your life, productivity and interpersonal relationships. A typical “western diet” is high in saturated fat, refined carbs, and typically a decent amount of alcohol. All these lead to, or are associated with high levels of depression and anxiety. Now, Im no doctor but common sense and some education tells me that a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and the occasional meat (regardless of white or red), contain complex carbs, lean protein and healthy fats which in turn cause your body to release certain hormones and be an effective way to protect your mental health. Get the picture?
2. Energy and Stamina
Athos wakes us up every morning shortly before 6am so I head out with both Yara and him for our daily morning walk. However in the last days I have felt a lag in wanting to get up and have noticed its taking me longer to become active and I feel more tired in the evenings. Talking about energy and stamina to me goes hand in hand with being well and the simple absence of illness. A healthy body rewards you with a lifetime of service by providing strength, longevity and high energy levels throughout the day, 24/7. I’ve been quite disengaged from doing any activity for these past days however I read that low intensity exercise can decrease fatigue by nearly 65 percent while increasing energy levels. You should aim for at least 30min of moderate aerobic activity each day for optimal fitness. You don’t need to do this in one set. Use the stairs instead of the elevator, park further away from an entrance. The activity in my opinion can be spread during the course of a day considering that everything else aligns – eating habits, etc.
3. Disease Prevention
Chronic diseases like heart disease, type II diabetes and cancer are endemic in today’s society. Looking at my family history – it’s not all to bright but those risk factors are uncontrollable. What’s in your DNA is in your DNA. However you can significantly alter factors in your lifestyle such as diet, exercise and other harmful habits (smoking, drinking, excessive partying, etc) and prevent certain diseases. “The Mayo Clinic states that eating a diet low in saturated fat, exercising for 30 minutes daily and avoiding tobacco use greatly reduce the risk of heart disease — the most common chronic disease. Eating a nutritious diet and exercising regularly may also help prevent cancer development in people with an increased genetic risk for the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.”
4. Beauty and Appearance
I’m surely no super model but giving this point some thought and adding some common sense, maintaining a healthy lifestyle are vital to upholding a youthful and attractive appearance. Im not going to deep dive into the topic, but simple things like vitamin A support healthy hair, skin and nails. Antioxidants like vitamin C and selenium prevent certain damages that happen in the aging process. A healthy lifestyle choices like eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly also help prevent obesity. Avoiding excessive sun exposure, smoking and other potentially harmful habits promotes a youthful appearance by protecting against damage that can accelerate the aging of your skin.
Now, these are pretty straight forward, but just as a key reminder to my philosophy “You are what you eat and you eat what you are”, this ties in with the whole aspect of what you need to continuously remind yourself of consequences when making certain choices. Live right, live hard, live strong!
What else is vital for you?