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Last updated on May 2nd, 2020
Lifestyle refers to the daily life we are living everyday. It is directly related to a person’s physical, mental and emotional well being.
Having a healthy lifestyle is all about making the right choices for your health such as healthy eating, being physically active, exercising and maintaining a healthy weight.
Our physical health, in most cases, is affected by the lifestyle we lead like irregular eating habits, improper diet, addictions such as — tobacco, alcohol or drugs, excess sugars , junk foods in one’s diet, etc. Not only do these wrongly picked up habits compromise your present-day health status but also pave the way ahead to much serious health hazards, inviting chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and hypertension which come in later in life.
Importance of lifestyle modification in physical well being
Several research studies conducted over the years have documented the risks of erratic lifestyle & the number of premature deaths around the world due to cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes (which are now called as lifestyle disorders) is staggering.
Small changes to a healthier lifestyle will make a huge difference and take one a long way.
Improve Your Lifestyle Choices: When we talk about lifestyle it means a comprehensive approach towards life. Lifestyle not only comprises of our routine diet and exercise but it also signifies our habits, our choices, our behaviour and our decisions. Exercise and nutrition are a gateway towards a healthy lifestyle but one has to rework at improving small habits, make informed choices in order to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
E.g. Stay away from smoking,
Reduce eating junk/ cut the junk
Avoid addictions,
Meditate often to calm your mind,
Take the staircase instead of an elevator,
Make conscious choices when eating in a restaurant, and eat fresh and natural foods.
Nourishing / Dead Food : The human body requires relevant amount of all the minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and fats on regular basis. These nutrients are required by our body to function optimally and remain disease-free. After all, we are what we eat. Ask yourself a conscious question while eating anything – Will this satiate my senses, fill me up and nourish my body or am I eating dead food with empty calories and no nutrients? Your answer will help you make better choices.
How is your Sleep Health: The purpose of sleep is to allow your body to recover fully in order to be able to function optimally the following day. Eight hours of sleep is recommended by the experts to obtain the maximum health benefits. Just because you don’t have insomnia doesn’t mean sleep is doing a good job for you. One should listen to the circadian rhythm ( a.k.a the body clock also called the biological clock ) that tells your body when to eat, sleep and rise. This internal body clock takes cues from the cycle of sunrise and sunset, temperature, environment around you etc. Sleep deprivation has been known to lower the efficiency of human brain and also affects our immune system. Several research studies have shown the relation between sleep deprivation and obesity. Good sleep improves memory and keeps you more agile.
Take Care of Your Mental Health: Mental well-being, often the most underrated one as it being non-tangible is equally important as physical health, if an individual is mentally unhealthy he will also be physically unfit which will reflect in every work that he does. The human body can achieve an optimum level of health and fitness only when both mental and physical fitness are achieved. Just like muscles need relaxation after exercise, mind needs de-stressing. Every individual de-stresses in a different way. For some, a sport is their stress-buster, for others a colouring book helps them relax. Yoga, meditation, a good night sleep and listening to light music are a few popular ways to unwind and de-stress.
Physical well being is a combination of many things, regular exercise, including good nutrition, and a positive attitude. No matter how small you start, you can make a big change and can improve your lifestyle.
Take care of your body so that it can take care of you – Kajal Bhatia
- Balanced Diet Improves Cognition
A study on cognitive development establishes the importance of nutrition in cognition. It shows that children who were fed healthy and balanced diet performed better in school. For good cognitive health one needs to consume all the micro-nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids (which is present in walnuts and flax seeds) vita, iron (found in dates, , green leafy vegetables), iodine (found in natural sea salt), folic acid (sources green leafy vegetables, avocado, peas and beans) and zinc (which is found in chickpeas, mushrooms, cashew nuts, spinach ). Undernourished brain is slow to perform in comparison to a well-nourished brain.
- Nutrition Revamps the Quality of Life
The food you ate yesterday leads to the current status of your health today. In the absence of disease your body functions the way it is designed to and you are at complete wellbeing.
Recharge your energies by feeding your body well. Instead of focusing only on carbohydrates, proteins and fats, up your micronutrient intake. Nourish your body don’t just feed it and kickstart a preventative lifestyle today.Last Updated on by Dr. Damanjit Duggal
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