How to Live a Healthy Lifestyle
Health is Wealth, who doesn’t want to be healthy and fit. Healthy living is eating proper and balanced food, doing regular exercise, and managing your risk factors.
Eating (diet) – Choosing healthy food
Choose food that contains minimal amounts of unhealthy fats. Unhealthy fats include both trans fats and saturated fats. These fats will raise your LDL cholesterol, and elevated LDL cholesterol often correlates with an increased risk for heart disease.
Foods that are high in trans fats include foods made with “partially hydrogenated oils,” such as shortening or margarine. Baked goods, fried foods, frozen pizza, and other highly processed foods often contain trans fats.
Foods that are high in saturated fats include pizza, cheese, red meat, and full-fat dairy products. Coconut oil is also high in saturated fat, but may also increase good cholesterol, so it’s okay to use in moderation.
Choose oils such as olive, canola, soy, peanut, sunflower, and corn oil. Fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids. Choose fish including salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel, sardines, and herring. You can also get omega-3s from plant sources, like flaxseed, plant oils, nuts, and seeds, although your body doesn’t process the fats from these as effectively.
Minimize your consumption of sweets, soft drinks, sugary fruit juices, and white bread. Choose whole fruits, freshly-squeezed juices, and whole-grain bread instead. Eat fruits and vegetables for their high vitamin and mineral content.
Try to eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, rather than canned ones that often contain added sugar or salt. Choose lean meat, beans, and tofu for their protein content. Enjoy whole grains such as whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, and quinoa.
Eat low-fat dairy products. Skim milk and reduced-fat cheeses will reduce your fat intake while ensuring that you receive enough calcium. If the price is a factor for you, consider buying only certain foods organic, such as apples, berries, stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, etc.), grapes, celery, bell peppers, greens, potatoes, and lettuce.
Physical activity and exercise
Physical activity is the movement that is carried out by the skeletal muscles that require energy. Physical activities are activities that get your body moving such as gardening, walking the dog, raking leaves, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
Staying active is one of the most important things a person can do to help curb obesity, lower your chances of heart disease, and live healthily.
Integrating a variety of exercises that focus on balance, strength, endurance, and flexibility into your workout routine helps break up the monotony and creates a more well-rounded fitness program that your heart and body will appreciate.
Yoga
More than just a great way to relax, yoga can help tone your body, improve your balance, and even lower your blood pressure.
Walking
Walking is one of the simplest forms of exercise you can do to maintain a heart-healthy lifestyle. Take steps towards healthier living by incorporating walking into your daily routine.
Endurance Exercise
A good run, swim, or bike ride can reduce your risk of heart disease and improve your overall health. Incorporate endurance exercises into your routine with these fitness tips.
Flexibility Exercise (Stretching)
Improving your flexibility starts with proper stretching. Improve your range of motion with these stretching tips.
Staying Motivated for Fitness
It may seem like a struggle to stay active sometimes, but we can help keep you motivated.
Avoid Alcohol and Tobacco
Tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine represent a triple threat to your health. Drinking too much alcohol contributes to accidents and injuries and can lead to liver disease, high blood pressure, various cancers, and birth defects, among other health problems.
People who smoke and drink should be concerned about their cardiovascular health. Both habits increase the risk of developing hypertension, or high blood pressure, which in turn increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Nothing you do for your health can make a greater difference than cutting out tobacco and significantly reducing your consumption of alcohol and caffeine.
Suggested read: Unhealthy Foods For Children
