What are 5 Health Habits You Can't Live Without?

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What are 5 Health Habits You Can't Live Without?

Many chronic diseases are caused by lifestyle issues.

People tend not to exercise as much as they should, they allow themselves to become overweight, and they eat unhealthy foods that lead to things like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and strokes.

The problem with lifestyle issues is that they are difficult to turn around. Many people try to change their lifestyle all at once, which is extremely difficult to accomplish.

 As a result, they often give up all of their healthy habits and resort to the usual negative health habits that they had been doing before they attempted a healthy lifestyle. 

Sometimes it just takes a few days or a few weeks of trying to live healthy before the individual becomes overwhelmed and stops living healthy. 

They stop exercising and go back to eating processed foods and junk foods.

This is why it is better to change your health habits one habit at a time so that you don’t become overwhelmed and stop trying to be healthy altogether. 

Most weight loss programs work if they are done carefully and don’t deprive the individual too much. The same is true of exercise programs.

If you choose an exercise that you really enjoy or increase your physical activity more gradually, you can usually stick to the program so that you don’t become discouraged and quit exercising altogether.

The trick to healthy living is to begin gradually.

Don’t try any trendy diet or fitness fad. If you try these things with gusto, you are likely to respond negatively and you won’t stick with the programs. 

There are a few simple things you can do to live a happier and healthier life. 

Start with just these 5 changes in health habits:

     1. Try eating at least one healthy meal a day.

Even if you eat processed foods most of the time, if you try to eat just one healthy food each day, you will feed your body with good nutrition and healthy proteins.

Healthy meals consist of mainly fruits and vegetables, supplemented with whole grain products, and lean meats.

It doesn’t matter how much you eat because, if the food is healthy for you, it won’t usually contain a lot of calories and won’t cause weight gain as can be seen when you eat junk foods or highly processed foods.

Even so, you should try to watch your portion sizes. Protein is calorie dense so keep your meat portions the size of your palm.

I tutor young students each Saturday morning and they are expected to do a short mini-test in each of their subjects each week.

So I tell them that they need to eat a carbohydrate to wake their body's engine up in the morning, and a protein to wake their brain up and be ready for the test.

I found the times I ate my meals had a great impact on my cravings and energy levels. 

I used to have afternoon cravings and, as I got older and became more in tune with my body, I realised that the less I ate earlier in the day, the worse my afternoon and evening cravings were.

As I ate breakfast around 6.30-7 am, I decided to have my lunch at morning break, weaned myself off endless cups of coffee and replaced it with a large glass of water.

I ate my snacks for lunch and I did not have hunger cravings after this as I felt full all day long. I started not even wanting to eat my fruit until after work, on my way home. 

I also started to cook slightly more at night so I would take this for lunch, instead of sandwiches.

After a couple of years, people who had remarked on this habit changed from sandwiches daily to “left-overs”, as well.

     2. Drink a glass of water before each meal.

Water is perhaps the best liquid you can drink.

When you decide to drink a glass of water before meals, (an 8-ounce glass is enough), you will feel fuller before eating, and you won’t eat as much at the meal that follows a drink of water.

If you like, you can squeeze some lemon or lime into the water. 

I found that adding water or lime to my water decreased my appetite and I found it more refreshing. It is great as part of a weight loss program too.

Our bodies can give us signals that are hard to read, in terms of hunger and thirst. 

We may often be thirsty and we think it is a signal that we want to eat. This is another benefit of drinking water regularly throughout the day.

 

 3. Be active during lunch. 

    Even if you are given a half-hour to eat, it usually doesn’t take that long to eat your meals. Try eating your meals and then take some time to exercise. You don’t have to work out excessively but you should be able to take a brisk walk.

    Not only will this energize you but also it will help burn off the calories you just ate and will aid in the digestive process.

It really doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do as long as you choose something reasonable that will help you feel better after eating your lunch.

    Exercising during lunch also helps decrease the stress of your job and will make the rest of your day go easier. It also takes the focus off food and moves you away from the table.

     If you are at home, you can do a spot of gardening, walk the dog or do some shopping.

  4.     Try a Meal Replacement Bar. 

    

     This involves eating a healthy protein bar as a snack instead of junk foods. Most meal replacement bars contain a lot of good nutrition and fibre.

       They are also not as calorie-rich as you would think. They help stave off hunger pangs that are so typical of the mid-afternoon time.

Keep a stash of these protein bars in your desk at work or in your purse or briefcase so you can grab one whenever you feel hungry.

It will keep you from going to the vending machines and eating poor food choices. Try eating a meal replacement bar that is high in fibre and that has at least 10 to 15 grams of protein per bar.

If you are going to eat something, always try to make it the healthier choice- or the lesser of two evils, if your choices are limited!

5.     Exercise regularly.

You can keep it simple and walk for half an hour 3 times a week initially.

I found that when a walked twice a day and ate anything I wanted,  I consistently lost 3 kilos in a fortnight, with a pleasing corresponding loss of inches.

An inspiring walk for me was to meet up with a walkers group every Saturday morning to walk around the beautiful Botanical Gardens early in the morning when the scent of the gardens wafted from the gardens.

Twice around the gardens was 8 kilometres and it is amazing how quickly it goes when you are part of a group.

If you have a gym membership, try going there at least 3-4 times per week. Choose an activity you enjoy and make the most of it for at least a half hour per session.

This will help energize you, may build muscle mass, and will help you lose weight by burning off excess calories. 

If you are interested in more self-care strategies, you will be interested in these strategies. 

I use these to feel better, get rid of headaches, or become alert on the way to work or when I need to be focused. 

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