How to Maintain a Healthy and Active Lifestyle
Living a healthy and active lifestyle is about more than simply living longer. The quality of life through middle age and into your later years is going to be much better if you’ve made a point of taking care of yourself throughout your life. Never having the energy to do anything or getting winded every time you go up a couple flights of stairs is no fun. Below are a few ways you can explore to help you maintain a healthy and active lifestyle, so you can get more out of all your years.
Plan and Prioritize
The first step may seem obvious, but too many of us fail to do it and that is to make having a healthy and active lifestyle a priority. We tend to do what we focus on, so you have to dedicate sufficient thought and planning to the goal of staying active and healthy to make it happen. This is the only way you’ll actually continue to follow any other suggestions on this list.
Getting Sufficient Sleep
Without the core essential of sleep, you’re going to be hard pressed to have the energy to do many of the other things that will keep you active and healthy. Whatever exercise regimen you may be committed to, you’re just not going to feel like doing it if you wake up exhausted. In addition to having less energy, lack of sleep boosts levels of cortisol, which is a hormone linked to stress. Set a bedtime that you stick to, and you’ll thank yourself in the morning and throughout your day at work or at play on the weekends.
Keep Healthy Snacks With You
One of the biggest challenges to maintaining our health is how busy so many of us are and that we may not have the time to get healthy food. This is where the first step about planning comes into play. You should plan to carry healthy snacks around with you if you know you’re going to be at work or someplace else where you may not have time to get to a place with a healthy menu selection every time hunger strikes. There are a wide variety of such snacks you can carry with you that will provide you with a healthier alternative than random vending machine choices. Such snacks might include raw or dry-roasted nuts or seeds, fruit, energy or protein bars and trail mix.
Reduce the Amount of Time You Spend Sitting
Sitting at a desk while working or on your couch while watching TV represents the ultimate in inactivity. Long periods of being sedentary has been linked with higher probabilities of contracting a number of illnesses or diseases. The increase in the probability of contracting Diabetes was highest from a sedentary lifestyle, but there are higher risk factors for other diseases as well. If you find yourself sitting for hours in front of a keyboard or in a work cubicle, you need to stand up for a couple minutes about every half an hour.
Changing up Your Exercise Routine to Keep It Interesting
Are you feeling bored at the prospect of taking yet another jog? Perhaps you should try biking instead just to get a change of pace. Also, if you generally run or bike in the same area, you might find a change of scenery may help keep you motivated. If the aerobics class at the local gym is feeling kind of stale, then maybe try hitting the elliptical or the treadmill to get your cardio workout this week.
Don’t Forget the Social Aspect
Just about any goal is harder to achieve alone than with friends or at least with like-minded individuals. This is why many people sign up and go to a gym even if all they might do is use the treadmill there. Barring living in a particularly bad neighborhood, they could probably just as easily jog outside near their home. That said, there’s nothing quite like the shared experience of working out in a room full of other people who are also trying to improve or at least maintain their health. This community aspect applies to joining gyms and to joining online groups with like-minded individuals who are trying to eat better. Surrounding yourself with people who share a common purpose with you is extremely powerful in motivating you to stay on track to a healthier and more active lifestyle.
