9 Best Tips On Healthy Living, Exercise, Nutrition & Wellbeing

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What is Healthy Living?

The term “Healthy Living” is valued by most people as a lifestyle choice that lowers the likelihood of becoming mentally or physically ill. It is also widely viewed as a way of increasing your lifespan.

It is about maintaining a balanced lifestyle in terms of the mind and body. Physical and Mental Health go hand-in-hand. For example, if you contract a disease of some sort, your mental health is likely to decline. Therefore, any change in either aspect, whether it’s positive or negative, will directly affect the other.

Why is it important?

It is very easy to say you want to be “healthy”. I’m sure most men and women have all said it at some point in their lives. Whether we are having a down day or setting a resolution for the New Year. However, wanting to be healthy is very different to actively making healthier lifestyle choices.

Incorporating tips on healthy living into your lifestyle may seem daunting. Breaking old habits is not a simple process and it cannot be done instantly. We should never make drastic changes to our way of life as we are less likely to commit to it. Consequently, it is important to adopt small changes into your daily routine.

Let’s start with some pretty simple steps which are more likely to stick with you.

9 Tips On Healthy Living

1. Serve your meals in reverse

What do you put on your plate first? If it’s carbs, then start portioning your meals out backwards. Start with the veg or protein first. That’s the important stuff to fill yourself up with! Although, be careful to not fall into the trap of avoiding carbs. We all need carbs in our daily consumption.

2. Keep temptations for seconds out of reach

Put your leftovers away. Sometimes we use the avoidance of wasting good food as an excuse to have some seconds. Whereas, if you freeze or refrigerate your leftovers straight away you are less likely to get tempted.

3. Drink lots of water

We are generally advised to drink up to 8 glasses of water a day. As a rule of thumb, try drinking one glass of water before each meal. Not only will it increase your daily water intake, it will also encourage you to have smaller portions at mealtimes due to feeling fuller.

4. Don’t forget to chew

Do you inhale your food when you’re hungry? It may be time to start focusing on your chewing when you are eating. Chewing each bite thoroughly is essential to prevent you from bloating. The more you chew, the less air you swallow and the more you get to appreciate the taste. Moreover, filling up on your food too quickly may deceive your body into thinking it is still hungry. Take time plating up that next bite and most importantly, take it slowly!

5. Avoid negative vocabulary

If you want to label your food, don’t make yourself feel bad whilst doing it. People typically refer to specific foods as “good” or “bad”. This can lead to increased judgement over yourself and this will not have a good impact on your mental health. Stop being so harsh on yourself. Instead, start labelling your food as “healthy’ or “less healthy”. We are all allowed a cheat day every now and again!

6. Get those steps in

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Ideally, you should spend 5 minutes on your feet and walking around for every hour you spend sat down. For those that work at their desks all day, it is not good for your heart or your pelvic floor. A women’s health expert once said that physical activity is an important factor towards increasing your life expectancy. Although it may be hard to fit much time into your busy schedule for exercise, adding those 5 minutes of stretching your legs throughout the day will bring great benefits to your overall wellbeing.

7. Only do exercise that makes you feel good

Do not overexert yourself. Some people, especially women, put pressure on themselves to do workouts they do not enjoy as a result of trending social media and society. You don’t even have to go to the gym to reach your fitness goals. If you enjoy cleaning the house from top to bottom, you may find that you are burning the same calories as a spin class. Be honest with yourself. If you don’t like it don’t do it. Only do the things in life that make you feel comfortable. It’s much more difficult to commit to lifestyle choices you don’t enjoy as opposed to the activities that make you feel good.

8. Get an early night

Try gradually increasing your duration of sleep each night by five minutes. Although it varies between people, it is considered healthy to obtain from 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. This is due to the amount of melatonin an adult will build over the course of their day. The more melatonin you release, the more sleep you will need. Therefore, if you have a busy lifestyle, you should ideally be getting those 9 hours. However, ease yourself into it. Going to bed three hours earlier than your usual bedtime will not suddenly change your sleeping pattern.

9. Split your goals up into smaller objectives

It is more tactical to set yourself smaller targets for every personal goal you have. Think of these targets as milestones. Reaching your main goals will not happen overnight, so it is useful to map yourself out a plan of action to keep on top of your learning path. Any habit takes some time to put into practice, your brain will get used to it in smaller doses or steps than one big swoop.