Keeping a healthy lifestyle is important for both your mental and physical health. Eating food that is good for you, exercising regularly, improving your sleep habits, and getting all the nutrients and vitamins you need are the important factors of keeping a healthy lifestyle and keeping your stress at a lower level.
On this page you are going to find helpful tips on how to improve your lifestyle in order to stress out less, and enjoy all the aspects of your life!
About half the calories in our diet should come from foods rich in carbohydrates, such as cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread. It is a good idea to include at least one of these at every meal. Wholegrain foods, like wholegrain bread, pasta, and cereals, will increase our fibre intake.
However, make sure to include your diatary sestrictions and make sure it is going to be healthy for you personaly.
For good health, you need more than 40 different nutrients, and no single food can supply them all. It is not about a single meal, it is about a balanced food choice over time that will make a difference!
For example, a high-fat lunch could be followed by a low-fat dinner. After a large meat portion at dinner, perhaps fish should be the next day's choice.
Fats are important for good health and proper functioning of the body. However, too much of it can negatively affect our weight and cardiovascular health. Different kinds of fats have different health effects, and some of these tips could help us keep the balance right.
You can limit the consumption of total and saturated fats (often coming from foods of animal origin), and completely avoid trans fats; reading the labels helps to identify the sources. Eating fish 2‑3 times a week, with at least one serving of oily fish, will contribute to our right intake of unsaturated fats. When cooking, we should boil, steam or bake, rather than frying, remove the fatty part of meat, use vegetable oils.
Fruits and vegetables are among the most important foods for giving us enough vitamins, minerals and fibre. You can try to eat at least 5 servings a day. For example, a glass of fresh fruit juice at breakfast, perhaps an apple and a piece of watermelon as snacks, and a good portion of different vegetables at each meal.
The right weight for each us depends on factors like our gender, height, age, and genes. Being overweight increases the risks of a wide range of diseases, including diabetes, heart diseases, and cancer.
Excess body fat comes from eating more than we need. The extra calories can come from any caloric nutrient, protein, fat, carbohydrate, or alcohol, but fat is the most concentrated source of energy. Physical activity helps us spend the energy, and makes us feel good. The message is reasonably simple: if we are gaining weight, we need to eat less and be more active!
Eating a variety of foods, regularly, and in the right amounts is the best formula for a healthy diet.
Skipping meals, especially breakfast, can lead to out‑of‑control hunger, often resulting in helpless overeating. Snacking between meals can help control hunger, but snacking should not replace proper meals. For snacks, we could choose yoghurt, a handful of fresh or dried fruits or vegetables (like carrot sticks), unsalted nuts, or perhaps some bread with cheese.
Paying attention to portion size will help us not to consume too much calories, and will allow us to eat all the foods we enjoy, without having to eliminate any.
Cooking the right amount makes it easier to not overeat. Also some reasonable serving sizes are: 100 g of meat; one medium piece of fruit; half a cup of raw pasta. Using smaller plates helps with smaller servings. Packaged foods, with calorie values on the pack, could aid portion control.
Physical activity is important for people of all weight ranges and health conditions. It helps you burn off the extra calories, it is good for the heart and circulatory system, it maintains or increases our muscle mass, it helps yo focus, and improves overall health well‑being. We don't have to be top athletes to get on the move! 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity is advised, and it can easily become part of our daily routine.
You can use the stairs instead of the elevator, go for a walk during lunch breaks (and stretch in our offices in between), make time for a family weekend activity.
Strength or resistance training, such as elastic-band workouts and the use of weight machines or free weights, is important for building muscle and protecting bone.
Bones lose calcium and weaken with age, but strength training can help slow or sometimes even reverse this trend. Not only can strength training make you look and feel better, but it can also result in better performance of everyday activities, such as climbing stairs and carrying bundles. Stronger muscles also mean better mobility and balance, and thus a lower risk of falling and injuring yourself. In addition, more lean body mass aids in weight control because each pound of muscle burns more calories than its equivalent in fat.
Stretching or flexibility training is the third prong of a balanced exercise program. Muscles tend to shorten and weaken with age. Shorter, stiffer muscle fibers make you vulnerable to injuries, back pain, and stress. But regularly performing exercises that isolate and stretch the elastic fibers surrounding your muscles and tendons can counteract this process. And stretching improves your posture and balance.
Your body has a natural time‑keeping clock known as your circadian rhythm. It affects your brain, body and hormones, helping you stay awake and telling your body when it's time to sleep. Natural sunlight or bright light during the day helps keep your circadian rhythm healthy. This improves daytime energy, as well as nighttime sleep quality and duration. In people with insomnia, daytime bright light exposure improved sleep quality and duration. It also reduced the time it took to fall asleep by 83%. In older adults found that two hours of bright light exposure during the day increased the amount of sleep by two hours and sleep efficiency by 80%
While most research is in people with severe sleep issues, daily light exposure will most likely help you even if you experience average sleep. Try getting daily sunlight exposure or ‑ if this is not practical ‑ invest in an artificial bright‑light device or bulbs.
Exposure to light during the day is beneficial, but nighttime light exposure has the opposite effect. Again, this is due to its impact on your circadian rhythm, tricking your brain into thinking it is still daytime. This reduces hormones like melatonin, which help you relax and get deep sleep.
Blue light ‑ which electronic devices like smartphones and computers emit in large amounts ‑ is the worst in this regard. You may wear glasses that block blue light, install an app that blocks blue light on your smartphone, and stop watching TV and turn off any bright lights two hours before heading to bed to reduce nighttime blue light exposure.
While short power naps are beneficial, long or irregular napping during the day can negatively affect your sleep. Sleeping in the daytime can confuse your internal clock, meaning that you may struggle to sleep at night.
In fact, studies show that while napping for 30 minutes or less can enhance daytime brain function, longer naps can negatively affect health and sleep quality. However, some studies demonstrate that those who are used to taking regular daytime naps do not experience poor sleep quality or disrupted sleep at night. If you take regular daytime naps and sleep well, you shouldn't have to worry. The effects of napping depend on the individual.
Your body's circadian rhythm functions on a set loop, aligning itself with sunrise and sunset. Being consistent with your sleep and waking times can aid long‑term sleep quality
Therefore, if you struggle with sleep, try to get in the habit of waking up and going to bed at similar times. After several weeks, you may not even need an alarm.