Living a healthy life does not just mean losing weight and eating salads for all meals of the day. A healthy lifestyle is actually achieved by making the right choices in many other aspects of your daily life. This involves your sleeping patterns, work habits, and even how much water you drink. Following a healthy plan will help you live happier and away from any risk of serious diseases that can strike you as you get older. Read this article as we highlight 4 of the quickest and simplest steps you can take to live a healthier lifestyle.
1. Stay Fit and in Shape
Keep an eye on your weight and try to make the right meal choices. Try to aim for unprocessed food instead of canned and pre-made food. Your ideal diet should contain all kinds of vitamins and minerals that are gained through eating greens, fruit, and lean protein. Being overweight puts you at greater risk of having heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Avoid ordering fast food too often, these fast-food delivery restaurants pack their food with trans fats and salt that can have a horrible impact on your heart health.
Pack your own lunch before going to work, and this will save you the hassle of eating from a place that you don’t know anything about, and the ingredients they use in their meals. You might also want to avoid soda and all types of sugary drinks. Learn to get your calories from food rather than drinks. If it is packed with calories, you don’t want to drink it, unless you are subbing a shake or cup of soup in place of a meal. Drinking sugary drinks is going to lead you to weight gain without feeling full even after drinking something like a 500-calorie iced mocha. Green tea and green smoothies are good beverages, green tea boosts metabolism, and all the calories from any green smoothies are good calories that your body needs for nourishment. Check out here some of the major health benefits of smoothies especially for kids.
2. Drink Water
Water makes up about 60% of our body. Our bodies lose a lot of water while doing the simplest tasks like breathing, sweating, and digesting food. This is why you need to always hydrate your body to make up for the loss of water that your body goes through. Water helps in providing your brain with more power and in increasing your energy levels. Water also increases metabolism levels in your body, making it easier for you to lose weight and stay in shape. It is recommended that you drink 8 cups of water per day To do this, have a bottle of water with you all the time and remember to drink throughout the day. You also need to make sure you are drinking good water. Experts from Water Filters Advisor will recommend that you stay away from unfiltered tap water and you should install a water filter before you drink straight from the tap. A lot of toxins and diseases enter your body as a result of drinking tap water. Just like choosing unprocessed food and staying away from junk meals, you need to make sure you are drinking clean water from clean sources.
3. Move More Often
Instead of driving to a nearby restaurant that is a mile away or requesting an uber, try walking. On average, we spend more than 7 hours a day sitting at work or at home, mostly at desks, and this can be very unhealthy and lead to obesity or weight gain. To cope with this, one should move whenever there is a chance. Aim to get at least 30 minutes of physical exercise daily, and hit the gym if you have enough time in your schedule. If you can’t exercise daily, try to squeeze at least 2 workout days into your week.
4. Get Enough Hours of Sleep
Getting about 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night is ideal, but it also matters the quality of sleep that you get. This is in order to keep your immune system working properly and to curb your cravings and help you stay in shape. Your energy levels also depend on how much you sleep, however, if you sleep for too long you will also feel less productive and more tired the next day. Aim to get no less than 6 hours of sleep to avoid heart disease but also no more than 9 hours of sleep per night. For the best sleep, ensure that there are no distractions in your room, like bright lights, even from the street, and noises that can keep you awake.
It will be beneficial if you reduce the pollutants at your home too. This ensures that you breathe clean air whenever you are relaxing. Use air filters and purifiers and vacuum frequently. Take it to the next level and avoid negativity and negative people to stay in a healthy state of mind. That’s right, toxins can come from toxic people too. Surround yourself with healthy people to become inspired by their healthy life choices and learn from their experiences. As you can see, it is easy to make simple choices that will have a positive impact on your health and your life.