Lifestyles make up all of what we do and a great portion of who we are.
Some people’s lifestyles might involve watching TV all day, eating junk food and never visiting the local GP when they get sick, and others might involve running an hour every morning, only eating fruit and not having any electrical items in the house.
Neither one nor the other is necessarily right or wrong, but some are better for you than others.
So, today we have written up some factors that play into the ideal lifestyle choices for an active adult, to help guide those that may be searching for a healthier way to live.
Exercise
First up is exercise. Exercise has been proven to help physical health by increasing strength, regulating heart patterns, increasing lung capacity, and boosting energy levels. As well as these physical health benefits, mental health has been shown to benefit from regular exercise, as it helps to separate perceived exhaustion from depression and anxiety from actual exhaustion, reducing the effects of the former by virtue of the latter.
Healthy Eating
A selection of fruits, vegetables and protein makes up a healthy diet for most people, and sticking to it is usually either comparable in price to an patchy, somewhat healthy diet, or cheaper than the aforementioned diet. This is because it involves buying ingredients in bulk and planning and preparing meals for weeks at a time, stopping or seriously reducing impulse purchases when hungry. This kind of purchase is not only bad for your body, but bad for your wallet too, with each fast-food purchase often costing as much as a healthy meal would, and sometimes more.
Hydration
Hydration plays a big part in the overall health of our internal organs, especially our kidneys and liver.
A majority of adults don’t drink enough fluids during the day to live as healthily as possible, and this usually reflects in skin problems such as acne.
Drinking 2L per day is much closer to a healthier amount, and even though it’s usually an inconvenience early on, almost every human has the ability to adapt to the excess of water until it’s the normal amount. Start off by finishing 500ml every day, then when that becomes normal switch up to 1L, and so on in increments. This way you avoid overloading yourself and becoming tired with the effort.
Regular Sleep Pattern
With our many electronic devices it’s hard to maintain a regular sleep pattern. These pieces of intrigue and technology are brimming with information, and it’s natural for us to want to learn from them and interact socially through them, but the light from them tricks our brains into believing it’s daytime, which can mess with our circadian rhythms.
Getting to sleep at the same time every day followed by waking up at the same time every day can be hugely beneficial to your health after only a few days, and a habit to this effect can affect your mental and physical health significantly.
Natural Light
Finally, the need for natural light is hugely important to the health of human beings.
We thrive on sunlight, it helps us synthesise a compound inside our bodies that allows us to digest vitamin D, and a lack of it can be seriously detrimental. Spending some time in direct sunlight every day is absolutely necessary for an ideal healthy lifestyle, but that doesn’t mean sunbathing every day. Even a brisk walk in the sun every day can net you the UV rays you need to maintain a healthy vitamin d level.
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With these tips, a healthy lifestyle is easily within your grasp. Motivation to live by these rules can be tough to find, but stick to it and you’ll find yourself healthy and happy in no time.