Adopting A Healthy Lifestyle: What You NEED To Know

In today’s fast-paced world it may seem impossible for adopting a healthy lifestyle. Instead of making sudden dramatic changes, slowly implement these components for a sustained healthy lifestyle.

What is Considered A Healthy Lifestyle

Everyone can have their own version of a healthy lifestyle. What this looks like is subjective and will vary person to person.

Popular media may have you believe that in order to be ‘healthy’ you must drink a greens powder in the morning, use a walking pad while you work, and never indulge in sweet treats. That is total B.S.!

A healthy lifestyle is something that includes a balanced diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, and avoidance of harmful habits. For some it will be slight changes but for others it may be a large overhaul.

What and how much you do is completely up to you!

Components of A Healthy Lifestyle

There are no specific pillars that will lead to a healthy lifestyle, but here are a few important areas to start.

Balanced Diet: This is crucial! By having a diet balanced you will be fueled to do what you want, have enough brain power to power through your day, and reach your goals.

Regular Exercise: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical exercise a week in addition to two days of strength training.¹ This can look different for everyone based on what you love, goals, and access!

One week you could: jog for 45 minutes on Monday, strength train Tuesday, 45 minutes on the elliptical Wednesday, strength train Thursday, and end you week with a long walk on Sunday! This is just a basic example. There are endless combinations of workouts that fulfill the CDC’s recommendations.

Adequate Sleep: This is one of the foundational components to adopting a healthy lifestyle. Nearly every other aspect relies on the premonition that adequate sleep is being had.

An epidemiologist from University of Michigan explains that, “Sleep is essential to every process in the body, affecting our physical and mental functioning the next day, our ability to fight disease and develop immunity, and our metabolism and chronic risk disease²“. She shows that nearly every other aspect of our health relies on adequate sleep.

Socialization: Social health can be a multitude of interactions. Potentially, it may be contributing to your community, having friendships and relationships, caring for one another, and further! For clarification, these connections are about quality not quantity.

Without socialization, loneliness may occur and that has been linked to higher rates of³:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Suicide
• Heart disease
• Heart failure
• Stroke
• Dementia
• Premature death

As you can probably tell, having social support system is a great idea to have in place to improve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Avoid Harmful Habits: New information is always coming out. That is why there isn’t an exhaustive list of harmful activities/substances. As of now some harmful habits you may want to decrease or avoid completely are: smoking, nicotine use, vaping, and alcohol abuse.

Why You Should Adopt A Healthy Lifestyle

There are a ton of results you will see (or at least will occur) from adopting a healthy lifestyle!

Stress Reduction: Imagine how much better you’ll feel with less stress weighing you down!

Weight Management: For some, increased exercise and consuming a balanced diet may lead to weight reduction, but it is not the ultimate goal for a healthy lifestyle.

Mood Improvement: Through these different components you will experience elevated moods and increased endorphins!

Disease Prevention: There is no guarantee a healthy lifestyle will ward off any disease but it may be a factor in reducing your odds in disease prevention.

Improved Athletic Abilities: One of your goals could be to run quicker, further, or enjoy your movement more. Either way, if you are doing something more often you are more likely to improve!

Healthy Relationships: With socialization being a component, you’ll have the space to nurture and maintain your valued relationships.

I am sure you’ll come across a few more as well.

Making A Lasting Change

The key to making a lasting healthy lifestyle change is to make it sustainable for you. Depriving yourself from your favorite foods or forcing yourself to do activities you loathe will only increase the odds of quitting.

What you implement needs to fit into your life in a manageable way. Telling yourself to never eat cake again isn’t going to work. I don’t even need to personally know you to promise you this!

If consuming less cake is a goal make it sustainable by opting for less amounts in a sitting or having it less often. Strictly cutting it out isn’t good for anyone!

Another important aspect to sustained change is to stay flexible. Things happen, plans change. Keeping flexible allows you to take these changes in stride knowing you have goals and can always continue owrking towards them.

Where to Start

The first step when deciding to adopt a healthy lifestyle is to keep in mind that this will be challenging. You have to actively and consciously put in the effort to make these changes day after day until they become ingrained into your routine and habits.

Where you’re actually going to start is setting a clear goal. This should be something possible and makes sense for you. Additionally, you need to define what each step you are going to take to reach this goal.

For example, you may have the goal to do a turkey trot 5k on Thanksgiving with your family. This means you need to write down the steps and mini goals that are between you and that race.

Your first step may be to stretch! After doing this it may be to walk a mile, two miles the third day, and 3.1 on the fourth. The next goal could be to jog a mile and walk 2.1. This continues on until you can jog a 5k on Thanksgiving! You can even break this down into more gradual steps- whatever suits you!

By following this example you would have actually done a plethora of steps without realizing it:

1. Set a clear goal (turkey trot 5k)
2. Educate yourself (learning how to stretch and proper running form)
3. Broke the goal down into steps and mini goals and made a plan (the different mileage growth)

Reasons to NOT Adopt A Healthy Lifestyle

For some, these habits may not be feasible nor warranted. Every person has their own situations, conditions, goal, and resources. These determinants may guide one’s path in what to encompass.

If you do not currently exercise it may seem impossible to follow the CDC’s recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise and two days of strength training. This recommendation doesn’t mean you have to immediately jump into it! By doing so you may actually cause yourself more harm than benefit!

If your healthcare provider has told you to not do a certain action or consume a specific diet, listen to them.

Do I Need to Stop ________?

When you decide to adopt a healthy lifestyle you may be believing that you have to immediately quit all habits that you see as ‘unhealthy’.

This is FALSE!

So, if you have read this far and want to adopt a healthy lifestyle but are thinking, ‘but do I need to stop _____ (insert anything you believe would have to be cut out)?’ No!

You can fit (nearly) anything in to a healthy lifestyle, including what you love! If having a few things you love in moderation allows you make a healthy lifestyle sustainable, go for it!

Frequently Asked Questions About Healthy Lifestyles

Do I need to take 10,000 steps everyday?

No, you do not need to take 10,000 steps everyday. This is an arbitrary number. Some days you will take less steps and some days you’ll take more. Don’t worry about a specific number, just move your body most days!

How much water should I drink in a day?

Unless you have a medical condition, there is no specific amount of water you should be consuming everyday. It will vary based on weight, sex, temperature, activity level, etc. There are SO many factors that will alter the amount of water you consume!

Do I need to avoid dairy and gluten?

No! You do not need to avoid dairy and gluten. If you are allergic to dairy, yes avoid it. If you have celiacs disease, yes, avoid gluten. And unless you’ve been told by a healthcare professional you are likely to be a-okay to enjoy the dairy and gluten-filled foods you love.

Should I be drinking green juice?

If you are having a balanced diet you do not need a greens juice or greens powder. These are supplements meant to fill any gaps you may have in your diet. If you are having enough fruits and veggies these products will just be a waste of money!

Do I need to take supplements to be healthy?

If you are concerned about not meeting your recommended intake of nutrients you may want to consider a multivitamin. This will help ensure any vitamin and mineral gaps in your diet are filled.

If you have a certain condition or disease you may be prone to a deficit or be in need of additional nutrients. Speak to your healthcare provider prior to beginning any supplement.

Key Takeaways For Adopting A Healthy Lifestyle

• A balanced diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, socialization, and avoiding harmful habits are all components of a healthy lifestyle.
• There are nearly endless benefits from adopting a healthy lifestyle.
• You don’t need to cut off all of your favorite foods and activities cold turkey. By continuing what you love in moderation is the key to long-term success!
• These components mentioned may not be suitable for everyone.
• Trending health topics can be pretty persuasive, always consult a healthcare professional prior to following online advice.

Craving More?

Do you have other questions about common health trends and what is truly healthful? Check out some of the other articles and you just may find an answer to your question. If not, feel free to send me along an email or leave a comment and i’ll do my best to get back to you!

Also check out if I’ve answered your question on Instagram!

• Do Carbs Make You Fat?
• Fiber: An Important Carbohydrate
• Do Diets Actually Work?
• The Truth About Late Night Snacks

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Citations

1. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/adults/index.htm
2. https://sph.umich.edu/pursuit/2020posts/why-sleep-is-so-important-to-your-health.html
3. https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html#:~:text=Loneliness%20was%20associated%20with%20higher,risk%20of%20emergency%20department%20visits.

Disclaimer

This is not intended to be medical advice. Always follow instruction from your healthcare provider.