Grow Healthy Habits Farm Inspired Doggy Dining Tips
12 Tips for Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
Exercising regularly, eating nourishing foods, and reducing your intake of sugar and alcohol are just some of the recommendations for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Taking care of your health is arguably the most important thing you can do for yourself (and your loved ones).
Whether you make a point to eat more fruits and vegetables or get outside for a daily walk, there isnt just one way to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
To center health and wellness in your life, try including some or all of the 12 tips we include in this article. Adopting just a few of these recommendations can go a long way to improving your physical and mental well-being.
Keeping your weight in a healthy range can protect you from things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.
But what exactly is a healthy range?
Your body mass index (BMI) and your waist circumference are two measurements that can help determine if you have a healthy weight, according to the
Remember, weight isnt just about a number on the scale. Everyone is different, so its best to work with a doctor to determine a healthy weight for you.
Our bodies need a variety of foods to give us energy and keep them running. That means eating a balanced diet that contains vitamins, minerals, and fiber, which can be found in fruits and vegetables (with a focus on leafy greens), whole grains, legumes, nuts, lean protein, and low fat dairy, per the
Of course, its OK to have a treat once in a while, but its best if the bulk of your everyday meals and snacks contain some of those vital nutrients.
Its best to eat mostly nutrient-dense foods. This means limiting highly processed foods, like packaged and frozen foods, that typically have fewer nutrients but more calories, fat, salt, and added sugars. You should also limit your intake of soda, packaged cookies and chips, candy, and sweetened cereals.
If youre having a hard time giving up packaged snacks or fast food, you can try slowly swapping out these processed meals and snacks for whole foods. Its not a perfect science, and setbacks are a normal part of making
Staying hydrated isnt just about quenching your thirst, it also keeps your body and brain running. Not only can drinking enough water improve your thinking abilities but may also help:
Advice on how much water to drink per day varies, but anywhere between 8 and 13 cups a day is a good target.
Moving your body has a host of health benefits, including:
- boosting your mood
- giving you more energy
- building muscle
- protecting your bones
- losing or maintaining weight
- helping you get better sleep
Regular exercise can also help prevent chronic conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer.
Youll want to aim for 150300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, according to the
In addition to getting your heart pumping, spending less time sitting can improve your overall health.
Prolonged sitting and sedentary behavior have been linked to an increased chance of heart disease, weight gain, and early death. However, regular exercise doesnt completely balance these effects. So, its a good idea to get your workouts in and take breaks from sitting throughout the day. Plus, cutting down your screen time wont hurt either.
Being out in nature has a way of putting things in perspective, but it also has proven benefits for your mental health. Not only can soaking up the sun ease symptoms of depression, but it can make you feel more relaxed and focused, particularly when you take notice of your surroundings.
Getting outside can also ease feelings like worry and sadness and promote happiness, optimism, and a sense of connection with the world. Sunlight is also the best source of vitamin D.
We all know sleep is important, but getting good sleep is really critical to your overall health. When you sleep, your body is actually completing a number of essential tasks, like:
- maintaining bodily functions
- repairing muscle tissue
- restoring energy
- processing new memories and information in the brain
When you dont get enough sleep, you may be irritable, emotional, and have trouble focusing. If sleep deprivation becomes chronic, it can even increase the chance of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and depression.
For all of these reasons, its important for most adults to get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night.
Having a drink now and then is perfectly fine, but make sure to limit alcohol to no more than one drink per day for women and one to two drinks per day for men, according to the
Having more than that could have a negative effect on your health. In case youre curious, one drink is typically defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor such as gin or vodka.
There are a few studies that suggest some alcohol could have health benefits, according to Harvards School of Public Health. However, more
Smoking releases harmful chemicals into your body and can damage lung tissue, heart health, and more. Its no surprise that smoking is also the number one risk factor for lung cancer.
Thats why quitting smoking is one of the most important things you can do for your health, no matter your age or how long youve smoked. In fact, quitting smoking can add up to 10 years to your life expectancy, according to the
Knowing its best for your health to quit smoking is one thing, but actually doing it can be quite hard. The good news is there are lots of resources and medications that can help.
Multivitamins may be an important part of your routine, particularly if you have a nutritional deficiency due to:
- older age
- pregnancy
- malabsorption issues
- certain medications
Outside of that, research is still mixed on whether multivitamins are effective at improving health, according to Harvards School of Public Health. That said, taking a daily multivitamin within the recommended daily allowance likely wont harm you either.
When life gets busy, annual physicals and bi-yearly dental cleanings may fall by the wayside, but these check-ups are important to stay on top of your health, according to the
Its also important to attend health screenings that you are due for such as a breast mammogram or a colonoscopy. These can detect disease early, making it easier to treat. Keeping up to date with your vaccinations can also help prevent certain infections or diseases.
Regardless, scheduling regular checkups with a doctor and dentist is one great way to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Paying attention to your lifestyle and daily habits is the first step to making changes that can benefit your health in the long run. Think of these tips as a jumping-off point to maintain a healthy lifestyle and live your best life possible for as long as possible.
17 Tips to Build Good Habits
Source: Photo by Lala Azizli on Unsplash
Habits have been described as repeated actions that arise from some kind of internal or external trigger (Robbins & Costa, 2017). Often, these habits exist in particular contexts. For example, Billy might have a habit of smoking a cigarette when he drinks alcohol. Sharon might have a habit of brushing her teeth before bed. And Mark might have a habit of biting his nails when hes nervous.
Habitsboth good and badare closely related to our goals. Since habits are just things we do regularly, they can contribute to or deter us fromachieving the things we want to achieve. Thats why building good habitsand perhaps getting rid of some bad onesis so important for building the lives we want to lead. So what are some good habits to build?
Habits of Highly Effective People
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is perhaps one of the most popular self-help books of all time. It suggests that there are 7 key habits that we should all strive to build. These habits are the key to being successful. According to the author, these are the things we need to do:
Be proactive. Take action and initiative to improve your situation. Don't sit and wait for things to happen.
Begin with the end in mind. Think before acting. Know your long-term goals so that you can effectively work towards them.
First things first. Focus on what is important. Try not to get caught up doing unimportant things.
Think win-win. Look for mutually beneficial solutions that are good for everyone because they have a high chance of success.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Use empathy to better understand others and create a culture of caring.
Synergize. Combine the strengths of different people so that the group can achieve more than any one person could achieve alone.
Sharpen the saw (keep growing). Remember that self-renewal and rest are essential for optimal functioning and success.
More Ways To Build Good Habits
The book, Atomic Habits, suggests even more tips for building good habits. Here are a few:
- Make it obvious. Create cues in your environment to remind you to do your new habit.
- Make it attractive. Try to make the habit something fun or enjoyable.
- Make it easy. Try to make the habit simple so that you can do it more easily.
- Make it satisfying. Find a way to reward yourself for doing the habit.
- Never miss a habit twice in a row. This will keep you on track.
- Stick to a sustainable pace. That way you won't burn out.
- Think about your habit as a way to grow 1% per day. Improving just a little bit each day results in big changes over time.
BJ Fogg, the author of Tiny Habits, offers us a few more tips.
- Attach a new habit to an existing habit. For example, if you want to build a habit to floss then you can attach it to brushing your teeth. You can use this approach for anything by saying, After I do X, I'll do Y.
- Make the habit tiny. For example, rather than saying you're going to meditate for 5 minutes, start with something like 1 deep breath. He says this makes it easier to accomplish.
- Physically celebrate when you execute your tiny habit. For example, throw your hands up into the air and say "Yes!" This helps your body feel good about the habit.
Some More Good Habits to Explore
Good habits tend to be good for the mind and body. Habits of the mind are what help us successfully engage in effective behaviors that lead to success over the long term (Costa & Kallick, 2009). Habits of the body can help keep us strong and healthy. Here are some examples:
Habits of the mind include:
- Persisting
- Striving for accuracy
- Questioning and problem posing
- Applying past knowledge to new situations
- Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
- Gathering data through all senses
- Creating, imaging, and innovating
- Taking responsible risks
- Finding humor
- Remaining open to continuous learning
Habits of the body include:
- Daily exercise
- Good nutrition habits
- Drinking 8 glasses of water per day
- Getting 8 hours of sleep per night
Beating Bad Habits
The good (and bad) thing about habits is that after repeatedly engaging in them, they become automatic. That makes it somewhat easier to build good habits, but also harder to break bad ones.
Learning how to break a habit like smoking, drinking, gambling, overeating, or overspending is likely more difficult than starting a new habit. It requires more than building new patterns of behaviorit requires understanding how your existing patterns of behavior benefit you and finding other ways to get those benefits. For example, maybe smoking helps us calm down, and binging on cookies feels good. So we have to ask ourselves, how do we get these positive outcomes without the bad habit?
To start, it can be helpful to:
- Identify your triggers.
- Keep yourself away from anything that might make you engage in the habit.
- Be more mindful of your thoughts and actions.
Be careful that you dont end up swapping one bad habit for another. You might ask yourself these questions to better understand what helps and hurts your ability to stick to habits:
- Who makes it easier/harder for you to build good habits?
- Who makes it easier/harder for you to break bad habits?
- What situations make it easier/harder for you to build good habits?
- What situations make it easier/harder for you to break bad habits?
- Do you have any traits that make it easier/harder for you to build good habits?
- Do you have any traits that make it easier/harder for you to break bad habits?
Once you know the things that stand in your way and the things that help you, see if you can make changes in your life that help you create better support structures for the habits you want to build.
Adapted from an article published by The Berkeley Well-Being Institute.
