Are You Doing These Things to Stay Healthy? You Should be!

Staying healthy is something everybody should aim to do. If you want to live a long, happy life then staying healthy will help you to do that. If you don’t bother exercising, getting checked out or taking care of your mental health, you put yourself at risk of getting poorly. You might feel in brilliant health right now, but if you’re being careless your health could very well deteriorate over time. Everybody thinks it won’t happen to them, but it could happen. By making the effort to stay healthy, you’ll look and feel so much better. You’ll enjoy a longer life, and you’ll have a better quality of life. Here are some things you should be doing:

Eating Vitamin and Nutrient Rich Foods

The foods you eat will play a big part in how healthy you are. It’s not always about how much you eat or how many calories you consume, but the quality of the foods you eat. You must eat vitamin and nutrient rich foods to stay as healthy as possible. This means plenty of fruit and vegetables, as well as things like nuts. You could also take supplements to make sure you’re getting everything you need. Just bear in mind that supplements will not replace healthy foods in your diet, they should simply enhance and add to your diet. Your diet should be made up predominately of these foods to have a positive effect on you. Make sure you’re getting fibrous and leafy greens such as broccoli and kale. Make sure you’re eating fruits, especially berries. Everything you eat should be minimally processed with very little ingredients. If something is packaged or has a long ingredients list, then it probably isn’t great. Eating fresh, natural foods is the way forward. It’s more expensive than eating junk food, but you can’t put a price on your health!

Drinking Lots of Water

Water is one of the key elements to staying healthy. Not only will drinking plenty of water keep you hydrated, it’ll energize you and flush the body of toxins. You’ll also find that by drinking lots of water, you stay fuller for longer. This means you won’t eat when you’re not hungry, leading to excess weight gain. You should drink at least 2 litres of water a day. If you exercise then you will want to consume more. Try to stay away from drinking things like pop and juice. If you want flavour, add some fruit to your water! Lemon water is especially detoxifying. Drinking too much caffeine is a bad idea, so keep it to a minimum. Water should be your main drink, rather than calorific and even diet beverages.

Watching Your Intake of Junk

You can have treats from time to time. Of course you can; what would life be if you couldn’t have treats?! However, you should watch your intake. Don’t kid yourself about how much rubbish you’re actually consuming. If you’re going to eat processed, sugary, fatty foods then make sure you’re only doing it once or twice a week. Maybe allow yourself one really naughty meal and make sure the rest are made up of whole foods! Making sure you don’t tip the balance is really important.

Exercising and Staying Active

Humans were supposed to stay active. Many lead sedentary lifestyles these days. They work in an office and say they don’t have time to go to the gym. However, exercise is usually just not a priority to them. Even just walking for a short time each day can help. The more you stay active now, the healthier and more mobile you’ll be in the future. If you can get a sweat on a few times a week, that’s even better. Try doing a cardio based class if you hate running, as well as resistance training so you’re getting a mix of everything. Health should be your main goal, but you can have goals on top of that. For example, muscle building/fat loss.

Getting Enough Rest

Getting rest is important too. If you’re on the other end of the spectrum and love going to the gym, then make sure you get your rest days in. Have one or two full rest days a week to allow your body to recover. You’ll be able to work harder in the rest of your workouts this way, and you won’t overtrain your body or make yourself ill. If you absolutely must get active each day, make sure you’re gentler on yourself one or two days a week. Maybe take a gentle walk or swim, which is low impact for the bones and joints.

Getting Plenty of Sleep

As well as rest, you need plenty of sleep too. If you can manage to go to bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning, you should get yourself into a really good routine. Many people sleep in on the weekend, but doing this can mess up your body clock. You won’t feel the need to sleep in if you get yourself into a good routine. Sleep is essential for health and performing properly throughout the day! Everybody needs different amounts, but 8 hours is usually a good amount to go for. To make sure you get a good quality of sleep, stay away from electronics a few hours before bed. Avoid caffeine and exercise too close to bedtime too!

Having Checkups Regularly

Having check ups to make sure you’re in good health could be a good idea. Sometimes, just having a check up even though there’s nothing obviously wrong is a good idea. This will help you to catch anything early on before it gets too serious if there is an issue. It’ll also give you peace of mind. One of the great things about modern medicine is that you can now use telemedicine. What is telemedicine? Something that allows you to have check ups using the internet, keeping you away from other contagious patients.  There are other benefits too, such as no travel expenses!

Of course, aside from the regular checkups, you should also be making sure that you’re jumping on any potential problems that you feel crop up. Don’t ignore symptoms, especially when they have to do with the heart, lungs, or any other organs you need to survive. If you have been having trouble breathing, then don’t wait on getting a mesothelioma chest x ray. Keep the doctor informed as to what you’re feeling lately and see what they recommend.

Staying Clean

Bathing regularly, washing your hands, and keeping your home clean are really important things to do for your health too. If you don’t make the effort to stay clean, you could spread bacteria, making yourself and others poorly. Make sure you’re hygienic!

Paying Attention to Your Mind

Keeping your mind healthy is just as important as keeping everywhere else healthy. You should pay attention to your thoughts and how you feel to get a good idea of what shape your mind is in. Everybody can benefit from meditation and positive thinking! It can be a difficult habit to get into, but extremely beneficial once you’ve done it.

Listening to Your Body

Listen to your body and it should give you a few clues when it comes to how healthy you are. Are you worn out? Aching? Then you should get some rest and de-stress. Taking care of yourself is a must if you want to stay healthy.

Spending Time in Nature

Fresh air and sunlight are two key things for both mental and physical health. Make sure you spend time in nature where you can, even if it’s for only 10 minutes. Take yourself out for a walk and not only will you get that vitamin c and fresh air, you’ll get a bunch of endorphins too.

Avoiding Bad Habits

Avoid bad habits and get rid of any you have now that could be affecting your health. Do you smoke? Drink too much? Take drugs? All of these habits can have horrible effects on your body. You don’t need to recover alone: there are plenty of support groups out there you can go to if you feel like you need help. It’ll be really hard at first, but getting rid of any bad habits you have will be so worth it in the long run.

Manage Your Weight

Managing your weight is always best done by eating a healthy diet and getting exercise. This doesn’t mean starving yourself on nothing but vegetables and running for miles every day. Eating well and exercise should be enjoyable so you actually stick to it! If you’re overweight, then you’ll need a program that has been given the OK by a doctor. If you’re underweight, you may need a different kind of plan to get you to a healthy weight. Once you’re at your ideal weight, it’s all about maintenance. You can’t just go back to the way you were before, or you’ll have to start all over again. Make healthy changes you can stick to and you’ll benefit.

If you’re doing all of the things in this guide for your health, then you will stay healthy and happy in the long run. You can’t always stop yourself from getting ill, but you can give yourself the absolute best chance of health. Get into the habit of doing them and you should notice a huge difference. Leave your own thoughts and tips below!

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