Living a Healthier Lifestyle
I think we all want to live a healthier lifestyle. I am not some lifestyle guru or nutrition or fitness expert who’s going to tell you how to live your life. What I am going to talk about is how physical health has an impact on your social, emotional, and mental health. It’s a package deal. And if you have mental health issues like depression or anxiety or even ADHD, being healthy physically can be a struggle.
That’s why my title is Living a HealthiER Lifestyle. It’s not about being perfect or being 100% healthy all the time. It’s about doing what you can to do better today than you were yesterday or last month or last year.
A healthier, happier, and more successful you
You can become a healthier, happier, and more successful person by making a few simple changes to your lifestyle. You will have to make changes to the overall you, not just change the amount of exercise you do or your diet. The secret to achieving happiness and a healthier lifestyle is to balance your body and mind. Only when we are balanced in physical, mental, and spiritual health we are truly healthy. That’s why when I talk about wellness, I have posts that talk about all of these things.
If we are healthy, then we are happier and can reach success more easily in life.
How do you find balance in your life?
Living a healthier lifestyle requires balance in other areas of our lives.
Exercise
Exercise is an essential part. It helps to tone our body, keep our heart and lungs healthy and detoxify our systems.
Exercise can be anything from more vigorous routines such as aerobics to simply walking. Choose your favorite activity and set aside a specific time of day and commit yourself to devoting a half-hour per day towards getting your body moving.
I mention walking because it’s something most of us can do, even in small increments. It’s also the easiest form of exercise to add extra minutes to daily without too much effort. We can park our car further out in the grocery store parking lot. We can walk our kids to school instead of driving them. I know not everyone can do these things, but think about what you can do. How can you add some movement to your life?
Nutrition
Eating right is the next essential step to maintaining a well-balanced life. Our bodies need the right amount of vitamins, nutrients, and minerals to work at their best. Making changes to our diet is simple. Keep away from fast foods which contain a lot of saturated fats and sugar and start including more whole grains, chicken, fish, and plenty of green vegetables and try to eat fresh fruit instead of juice when available.
I say simple, but not easy. Fast food is easy. Packaged foods are easy. You might never be able to fully get these things out of your life because you need something easy. On days when your depression is so bad you can barely get out of bed, it’s better to eat something pre-packaged than nothing at all.
Meal planning is a great way to figure out how to make some simple changes in your diet. Just like every plan, it takes practice. I love having the meal plan on my refrigerator so I know exactly what I’m cooking every day. It makes grocery shopping easy and I’m less likely to buy crappy stuff.
Stress Reduction
Reducing the amount of stress we have in our life plays an important part in how we are able to cope with it.
Stress can do much damage to our body and mind and has been linked with burnout, fatigue, sleep problems, depression, and lowered immune system. Learning techniques to cope with stress and worry are essential to keeping yourself balanced and full of energy.
There are a wide variety of techniques from simple breathing exercises which can be done anywhere, at any time, to yoga which is a full system for relaxation and de-stressing to meditation.
There are many books, DVDs, and CDs available on the subject and there are courses you can attend. Lastly but by no means the least important is keeping life fun, doing something which you enjoy doing and makes you feel relaxed and happy each day.
No, self-care is not being selfish. It’s essential. It’s just as important as exercising, eating right, and reducing stress. Your time could be spent doing a hobby or pastime that you enjoy, sitting quietly and reading, taking a hot bubble bath while listening to your favorite music, or spending quality time with your family or friends. It can be anything as long as it’s something you like to do and enjoy doing.
7 Tips for better health
The biggest step to aiming towards living a healthier lifestyle is admitting the fact that you need to make changes. Here are some tips to help you improve your health and help you to reach a new and improved you.
- Make it a life goal to obtain a healthier outlook on life which will undoubtedly lead to a healthier you. If you are determined to reach a better state of health, making it a reality will be so much easier. Remember, mindset matters.
- Support your new way of thinking by learning everything you can about ways of reaching better health and living a healthier lifestyle. Knowing all you can about healthy living gives you a great base to work from.
- You have to start somewhere, so start by taking a look at your kitchen and reorganizing in preparation for your new way of life. Reorganize your kitchen cabinets and refrigerator to make way for the nutritional changes you want to make.
- From day one, keep a journal. This can either be a traditional one or use your computer. Tracking your journey and progress can help motivate you when you feel like things aren’t working. You should include all thoughts and feelings about your new ways along with all the changes you see about yourself. This is essential to look back on to see the positive changes that are occurring due to your positive outlook and the changes you have made.
- Positive thoughts and self-talk or affirmations are a necessity; they will give you confidence at the beginning and will continue to take you through the tough times which will often occur during the early changes.
- Along with changes to your diet, you will also have to make changes to the exercise you do. While healthy food is essential, exercise is also just as important to help keep our body and mind in balance.
- Make sure you learn ways to eliminate as much stress from your lifestyle as you possibly can. Meditation, yoga, breathing, and journaling are all ways to help manage stress. Experiment with different things to see what you like best.
Living a healthier lifestyle is achievable. You can't do everything at once, though. It will be overwhelming. Choose one new habit or activity to introduce into your life and routine. Once that is habit, change the next thing.
