As we get older, the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle become more apparent and important. Some of those benefits include staying free from disease and having a strong, slim, and responsive body. For many, this is easier said than done. However, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is possible, and below are eight tips to help you do just that.
- Eat a Nutritious Diet
Your body is only as healthy as the things that you put inside it. Rather than basing your diet on foods that you can order from a menu at your local fast food restaurant (which are famously low in nutrients and high in unhealthy fats and salts), aim to stock each meal plate with healthy portions of proteins (e.g. fish or chicken), vegetables (e.g. lettuce, carrots or cabbage), complex carbohydrates (e.g. sweet potatoes or beans), and healthy fats (e.g. coconut or olive oil).
Foods like these help you prevent or reverse weight gain. They also deliver all the nutrients your body needs to fight off any health complications and keep them running smoothly.
- Get Quality Healthcare and Visit Your Doctor
Regularly checking with your doctor and having immediate access to top-quality health services may help keep a health emergency from becoming a tragedy. While the NHIS gives citizens free healthcare, staff are often overworked, and delays are common. Quality private services like those offered by Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Private Healthcare assure clients that their health is the top priority and cover them in multiple cases.
- Move Your Body Regularly
Unless you are sleeping, your body was designed to be in a constant state of motion. When you do not move, your joints and organs begin to slow their operations as well, and you open yourself up to back pain, knee pain, and other muscle and skeletal defects as well as cardiovascular, chronic kidney, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Experts have advised that you engage in at least 30 minutes of vigorous movement like running, weightlifting, martial arts, or yoga every day of the week. This can be done in a single set or broken into multiple sets of five or ten minutes throughout the day.
- Drink More Water
After air, water is the most important substance that the human body needs to keep operating optimally. A recent study conducted by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution claims that 89% of the British population suffers from dehydration and do not drink enough water to stay healthy. Experts advise that you should drink 1.2 litres of water, which is 6 glasses, every day.
- Drink Less Alcohol
75% of British people drink alcohol, and 27% of those that do are binge drinkers. Alcohol consumption presents multiple dangers as it weakens your body’s ability to function and filter dangerous elements in your bloodstream, and also makes it difficult for you to make rational decisions, often causing life-threatening accidents. According to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ guideline, neither men nor women should drink more than 14 units of alcohol every week.
- Stay Away from Smoke
It is common knowledge that smoking tobacco is harmful to your lungs and that it decreases life expectancy. More than 120,000 people in the UK die every year from smoking-related health issues. Do not pick up a smoking habit, and if you already have, consider quitting.
- Get More Sleep
Many people believe the idea that sleeping is for the lazy and that we should work as much as we can. However, sleep is the body’s most effective way of recovering from the day’s stressors, and we all need between 7 – 9 hours of sleep every day to operate optimally. Some people get this at a stretch, but for some, sleeping for long periods is impossible. If you are like that, aim to sleep for 5-6 hours at night, and aim to get a 1 to 2 hours nap during the day.
- Have Safe Sex
With the introduction of the modern birth control pill in the 1960s, the amount of sexually active individuals has seen a surge. This surge has been closely followed by an increase in sexually transmutable diseases. Sexually active adults must ensure that they are responsible for their sexual health and that they try to maintain sexual relationships with one partner and use condoms if they have sex with multiple partners.
Many factors affect our health, but most of them are preventable if we take adequate measures. By following the above tips, you will be able to minimize the risks of your body breaking down, and you will be able to live a strong and healthy life.
