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Tips to Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle |
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Being healthy does not always mean anything to do with your weight. While it certainly is a part of it, it is not the whole focus of a healthy lifestyle. You’ve worked hard to reach a weight that you are comfortable with. This article is about keeping you at that weight, but also keeping you happy and overall healthy while living your life to the fullest.
Getting enough rest and sleep is crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Lack of sleep makes you irritable we all know, but it also makes a chemical imbalance in your body. These chemicals cause you to want to overeat, and your body to hold onto extra weight, due to the stress you are putting yourself under. It is also simply not safe to go for long periods of time with little to no sleep. Studies have shown that lack of sleep has the same or harsher effects on your motor skills as being drunk does. Over seventy thousand drivers a year fall asleep at the wheel of their car and that’s only the reported numbers. To maintain the healthy lifestyle, you have to be alive to live it.
Set time aside for you. Many people thinking nothing of skipping their morning at the gym, or evening walk if a friend calls and needs a favour. While once in a while, in an extreme emergency it’s okay, doing this as a habit is detrimental to your own health. Most “emergencies” would wait an hour while you still got your work out in. Exercise helps keep a healthy body weight, but it is also good for your mental health. Constantly feeling like you live every second of your life to benefit someone else, increases the risk of depression and suicide. It also creates stress hormones in your body that have been linked to an increase in bad cholesterol in your blood stream.
Plan for the unexpected, although that’s a contradiction in terms, it is possible. Things are certainly going to pop up, but that doesn’t mean you have to be forced to hit a drive thru or give up your workout. You know you’re going to be eating three times a day, have a few things on hand for those days that just don’t coincide with cooking a full meal. Having healthy snacks, and meal choices on hand, will help with those grab and run days. Have a few frozen dinners on hand, that are easy to make, watch the calorie count, some of these are not good choices. Extra fruit, nuts and veggies in the house always make good snack options, which can be eaten on the way to a meeting, and real dinner gotten later.
Moderation is key to maintaining anything, including a lifestyle change. Most people can not live with the idea of “never” being allowed to ever do something again. If left with the choice of never having your favourite food again, or celebrating at a party and being overweight, most people will choose the food over health. Allowing yourself to work out a little extra harder that week for the piece of cheesecake later, is what maintenance is all about. |
Health Tips 