Making small changes to your lifestyle can have a big impact on your overall health and well-being.
Let's take a look at what makes someone healthy and how you can make positive changes to your habits to improve your health.
Diet
A healthy diet is the foundation of great health.
Eating a diet that includes a variety of nutrient-dense foods is essential for optimal health. This includes incorporating plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean protein sources and healthy fats.
It's also important to limit your intake of processed foods.
Physical Activity
Regular exercise helps you maintain a healthy weight, improves cardiovascular health, and increases muscle strength and endurance.
The effect it also has on your mood and feeling of accomplishment and well being can not be overlooked.
It's recommended to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week. This can be broken down into smaller chunks of time, such as 15-40 minutes per day.
It could look like many different things - such as Beth's home workouts, visits to a gym, running, hill walking, cycling, playing sports or lifting weights.
Sleep
Sleep is an essential and often neglected part of overall health and helps our bodies restore and repair. Adults should aim for seven to eight hours of sleep per night to feel refreshed and energised during the day.
Creating a bedtime routine (which could include a mobility routine), going to bed well before midnight, no caffeine after 12 noon, reducing exposure to blue light before bed and maintaining a comfortable sleep environment can help you get better quality sleep.
In addition consider ear plugs and an eye mask.
Stress Management
Chronic stress can lead to a variety of health problems, including headaches, fatigue and depression.
Finding healthy ways to manage stress, such as a good diet, exercise, meditation, community or spending time in nature, can help reduce the negative effects of stress on your body and mind.
There are interesting links between gut health and mental health - it is worth considering including a broad variety of fruits and veg along with fermented foods to improve your gut health. Be careful of undoing this with alcohol and processed foods.
Social Connections
Spending time with friends and family, volunteering and participating in social activities can help improve your overall well-being and reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Isolation has been estimated to take 10 years off your life and is suggested to be as harmful as half a packet of cigarettes and day.
Self concept
I have written a previous post called 'Identity' which digs into this further.
But be aware of how you refer to yourself verbally and in your thoughts.
There are plenty of indications that your thoughts can have a profound effect upon your physical self.
Think of when you are nervous you can literally feel sick.
Be kind and be beautiful.
And know you are.
It feels a thousand times better than thinking yourself ugly and unworthy.
In conclusion, a healthy lifestyle involves a combination of healthy habits, behaviors actions and ways of thinking.
Making small changes to your diet, incorporating physical activity into your daily routine, getting adequate sleep, managing stress, and maintaining strong social connections are all essential components of a healthy lifestyle.
You deserve to feel amazing.
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