Benefits Of A Healthy Lifestyle

A good healthy lifestyle is one where you make conscious decisions throughout the day that benefit your emotional and physical well being. When you talk about a lifestyle, you are talking about a way of living and not just doing periodic activities such as a particular exercise or eating one healthy meal a day. A true healthy lifestyle requires making good choices in all the areas of your life.

The trick to healthy living is making small changes by taking more steps, adding fruit to your cereal, drinking at least 8 glass of water every day and these are just a few ways you can start living healthy without drastic changes.

Exercise

To stay active and enjoy a healthy life style, you must engage in various form of exercise such as walking, running, jogging, cycling, etc. A 20-minute walk a day ensures you are active and keeping your heart healthy. We all know that exercise is good to maintain a good health, yet we avoid it like the plague either because we're used to being sedentary or afraid that exercise has to be vigorous to be worth our time. The truth is, movement is movement and the more you do, the healthier you'll be. Even moderate activities like chores, gardening and walking can make a great difference.

By adding a little movement to your life can ensure:

• Reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes

• Improve joint stability

• Increase and improve range of movement

• Help maintain flexibility as you age

• Maintain bone mass

• Prevent osteoporosis and fractures

• Improve mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression

• Enhance self esteem

• Improve memory in elderly people

• Reduce stress

By opting for small changes and a more modest weight loss, you can see the benefits are still pretty good. One study has revealed that just a 10% weight reduction helped obese patients reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and increase longevity.

Simple Ways to Move Your Body

You can start the process of weight loss now by adding a little more activity to your life. If you're not ready for a structured program, start small. Every little bit counts and it all adds up to burning more calories.

Make sure you increase the amount of exercise you engage in as maintaining the same diet and calorie intake will still ensure you lose some amount of weight.

Make it a point of duty to take a short 20 minute walk every day. Instead of taking the bus for a short route, walk so that you can stay fit as walking is a good form of exercise. Every time you exercise more than usual, you burn calories and fat.

There are lots of ways to increase the amount of activity you do such as sports, running, walking and cycling which will result in your fitness levels.

• Get out and about at the weekend, leave your car on the drive and walk to the shops. Try to incorporate longer walks into outings to the park, coast or countryside and take a picnic, so you are in control of what you are going to eat and do that day.

• Every extra step you take helps you in losing weight. Always use the stairs instead of the lift, or get off the bus a stop before the usual one and walk the rest of the way.

• Do some chores - such as working in the garden, raking leaves, sweeping the floor though not vigorous exercise, can still keep you moving while getting your house in order.

• Pace while you talk - when you are on the phone, pace around or even do some cleaning while gabbing. This is a great way to stay moving while doing something you enjoy.

• Be aware - make a list of all the physical activities you do on a typical day. If you find that the bulk of your time is spent sitting, make another list of all the ways you could move more getting up each hour to stretch or walk, walk the stairs at work, etc.