Posted by The Simple Steps to Living a Healthy Lifestyle
Are you interested in living a healthy lifestyle? A healthy lifestyle should be something that everyone strives to achieve, but it can seem like an impossible goal if you’re not sure where to start.
However, making healthy choices doesn’t have to be hard; there are simple steps that you can take today that will help you improve your health in a big way! If you want to learn more about these steps, read on below!
Living a Healthy Lifestyle: Set Realistic Goals
Be sure your goals are realistic. If you’re a novice runner and you set your sights on qualifying for the Boston Marathon, you probably won’t make it. The same is true if you don’t eat well and try to lose 50 pounds in two months. Give yourself some time.
If running four times per week at 6:00 p.m. sounds overwhelming, start by walking three times per week at 4:00 p.m., or starting with one mile and working up from there instead of trying for five miles right away. It might take six months or more before reaching your fitness goals, but that doesn’t mean you should quit after two weeks of not meeting them!
Do Not Compare
Comparing yourself with others is easy and dangerous. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram make it easy for you to compare your life and accomplishments with those of your friends, but stop doing it. Research shows that comparing yourself to others can lower self-esteem and actually cause depressive symptoms.
Be sure to compare yourself only against your past self instead of other people; taking time every day or week to list things you’ve done well in comparison with where you were last year will make you more satisfied. This is healthy, so long as your definition of success is an ever evolving goal rather than something static that comes from someone else’s accomplishments. If so, stop doing it!
Get Over The Deprivation Mentality
Counting calories and watching every bite of food you put in your mouth are going to lead to that all too familiar cycle of dieting failure. Instead, focus on health, not weight loss.
Make sure you have enough lean protein in your meals every day and include plenty of complex carbs as well (whole grains, fruits, veggies). Be sure to get plenty of healthy fats, too (olive oil, fish oils, nuts).
A diet rich in these foods will keep hunger at bay and help give you energy for working out or just living a healthy lifestyle. This is what we call clean eating and it’s so much easier than counting calories!
Listen to Your Body
There’s no one size fits all diet and exercise program. The best way to lose weight is listening to your body. What works for one person may not work for another, which is why it’s important to find something that you can stick with.
If you’re always hungry, try an intermittent fasting diet where you eat less at certain times of day (16 hours of fasting). Try eating more frequently but less in total; increase protein intake; or change up your exercise routine to vary things up!
There are so many ways that you can listen to your body and make changes based on what it tells you, the most important thing is listening and making changes that work for YOU.
Focus on What You Can Control Instead of What You Can’t Control
Sometimes, it’s easy to get carried away and get wrapped up in what we can’t control. Focusing on our diet, weight and health is something that we all have to do but being too focused on one area of life will bring you nothing but frustration and disappointment.
Instead of looking at how you can’t control your weight or how hard it is to change your eating habits, focus on what you can control. Change your eating habits, exercise routine and build healthy relationships with friends instead of focusing solely on losing weight.
Expect Slumps, But Always Try Again
It’s hard to stick with new habits and see progress when you can’t see results. But don’t give up on your health in your 20’s, your body is still in its prime. What can you do to live a healthy lifestyle?
Start off small by adding one or two healthy habits and incorporate one change per week. For example, try walking for 10 minutes after work instead of eating junk food, or drink water or a smoothie instead of soda at lunch. Eventually, your healthy habits will become second nature as you replace poor health choices with ones that support your well-being.
Healthy Lifestyle Advantages
A healthy lifestyle gives you energy, confidence, and more. A healthy body means better physical performance at work, school, or sports; less stress and more happiness; better sleep; and lower health care costs. Your skin is clearer, your hair is healthier, your body will feel fitter as it becomes leaner. With all of these benefits come fewer sick days from work and that translates into more money in your pocket.
Conclusion
So there you have it. You now know how important it is for you to live a healthy lifestyle and how easy it is for you to get started with making changes in your life. Just take things one step at a time and make sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself by trying too many new things at once.
And if you find that any of these steps are too difficult or feel like they aren’t worth your time, just think about all of those benefits that we mentioned earlier and remember why it is so important for you to start living a healthier lifestyle right away!
