When we try to live a healthy lifestyle, we can sometimes get caught off guard. This is due to the high demand and pressure we face in our work, or in school, or whatever you do that involves a lot of pressure. Today, I will share with you 10 tips on How to Live a Healthy Lifestyle.
1. Plan out your meals for the week
Planning out meals for the whole week is an extremely effective way to maintain a healthy lifestyle, this is especially if you are at work most of the time. Me personally, I prefer to prep my meals, so I don't have to worry about making something if you have just got home from a 12-hour shift or a long day after school. This will not only help you maintain a healthy lifestyle, but this can also help you control your weight, especially if you want to lose weight. Did you know? that 90% of dieting and having a healthy lifestyle helps to lose more weight than exercising alone. That is why it is extremely important that you have a well-balanced diet.
2. Eat your 5-a-day
Eating your 5 portions of fruit and veg a day will not only improve your health and wellbeing, it also helps to prevent a variety of major and minor illnesses/diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. By including fruit and veg into your daily diet, it will have significant health benefits, such as stimulating brain cells that may prevent memory loss.
3. Exercise at least 3 times a week
It is crucial that you include exercise into your weekly routine. By doing so, this will help your overall health and improve your mental state. especially if you suffer from anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, etc. Moreover, exercising 3 times a week will help to promote better recovery. After you have stimulated the muscles through training, it is important to recover afterward. However, over the years that I've been training, I have noticed that people tend to neglect the recovery process. This recovery should be your main priority if you want to see results, due to this helps to repair muscle tissues and makes sure your hard work and time pays off.
4. Have a good-vibrant friend group
Having friends who help bring a smile to your face will also help you develop a healthy lifestyle. It is important to have friends who you are liked-minded with and ones you develop your trust in. Having your friend/s will also boost your confidence and enthusiasm to do things together such as playing badminton or football or rugby, Furthermore, having friends will also improve your mental health, lowering depression and/or anxiety, as well as knowing you have someone to talk to if you feel down or upset about something.
5. Thinking more positively
There are many ways we can help ourselves by thinking and feeling more positive. Firstly, by starting off the day with a positive affirmation. In today's world, we are so busy thinking about everything and we just forget to look after ourself and work harder to satisfy your teacher or your boss, especially when we're asked to work longer hours or you need to study the night before a test, that when we want to sleep more, we tend to hit the snooze button like a million times until we eventually wake up late. This impacts our emotions for the day feeling tired and grouchy, as though we can't be bothered to do anything. My advice for this is to try to go to sleep earlier than usual and keep the same the amount of hours you slept when sleeping earlier, and to your benefit, will help improve your mood and bring more positivity to your day. For me, I need at least 9-10 hours of sleep to feel happy and positive for the day, anything less than 9 hours of sleep, I can feel very (very) grouchy in the morning.
6. Stress management
So you may or may not know what that basically means and some of you will ask yourself "what is stress management actually about?" Well, Stress Management is a large chemistry of techniques and physiotherapies, which is aimed at controlling your level of stress, especially chronic stress. In the UK, over a third (37%) of British residents tend to feel stressed for a whole day. That's 4 days a month. Stress is an emotional feeling you DO NOT want to have during your day. This is because you go through your day trying to think everything over at the one time and that's when you start to procrastinate (Procrastination is when you keep switching between tasks but don't get anything done). One way you can stop this is just get up from where you are sitting, whether that's in an office or in a classroom (just remember to ask if you can leave the classroom!), go for a walk and get some fresh air and you'll feel better than you did 10 minutes ago. Sometimes the tasks and demands we get are so overwhelming for the mind to handle, so you really need that "step away" to clear your mind of anything. One thing you do, whether it's in the morning, during school/work, or even before you go to sleep, I would recommend you listen to a guided meditation session. Not only is this going to reduce stress levels, this will help you think better and focus on the tasks that need to be done today or tomorrow. So remember, the next time you feel stressed out, just take 10 minutes out of your day to breathe, calm down, and be more productive.
7. Sleep at least 8-10 hours a night
To me, I believe people neglect their sleep, in that they don't get enough "shut-eye" to help their bodies develop. A lack of sleep causes premature aging, which is extremely bad especially if you are young. Premature aging includes:
Atrophy (skin thinning and loss of elasticity
Wrinkling
Grey hairs
Loss of hair
Nail dystrophy
Defective pigmentation
Ulceration
Changes like these can occur as the normal body ages but in progeria, these occur at an accelerated rate.
8. Stop smoking
Now if your someone who has never smoked in their life, that's great! don't start anytime sooner (I'm sure your parents have told you this before). Smoking is extremely dangerous for your health as this can cause a huge number of health problems, such as lung cancer, kidney cancer, esophageal cancer (of our gullet), heart attack, and much more. If you are a smoker, QUIT. Do this not just to improve your health but for your family and friends. Moreover, quitting smoking will reduce your chances of getting cancer or a heart attack, and this will also help you save money.
9. Meditate
Meditation will help to quieten the thoughts going your mind and also quieten your soul. Meditating at least 10 minutes a day can make all the difference, by improving your attention span and helps promote emotional health. A study which was done by a group called "Science Direct" stated that 18 participants were followed as they practiced meditation over three years, and studies found that participants saw a long-term decrease in depression". Overall, it will help you to prioritize your "Me-time", a time when you focus just on you only. So if you ever have that spare 10 minutes of your day, take that time to self-medicate.
10. Purge negative people from your life
In order for you to have positive mental health, you need to remove those toxic people from your life. This is especially if you feel like your friend is overly critical or negative, it is best if you let them go, for the sake of your own mental health and wellbeing. There will come a day where you will meet good friends and you'll become best friends for the rest of your life. Positivity is key to having a good lifestyle, and friends that motivate you and encourage you to go even further and that's what life is all about.
Well, that is my 10 tips on how to live a better lifestyle, if you enjoyed this blog, make sure you comment and subscribe to my site, where you'll receive updates on my latest blogs. I look forward to hearing from you all on Saturday!
Another amazing blog post! well done james.