In a world where everyone is hustling hard, health gets neglected pretty often. No judgments here, I have been that neglectful person too. Well, I’m still a work in progress, but I can tell you that you can upgrade your health by focusing on some really basic things.
There are a few basic components of good health which will always affect your overall health and wellbeing, and if you just focus on those instead of some complicated lifestyle, I think you will be able to stay healthy for a long, long time.
Why a healthy lifestyle? From diabetes to hypertension and cancer, all modern day diseases are linked to unhealthy lifestyle. And we know this— it’s not a new information, and yet we don’t make the required effort, maybe because we don’t know where to start.
Now, the question is how to start then? Well, give your body a little bit of time to first get into the idea of being changing your lifestyle a bit to a healthier one.
And if you've decided to be a bit more healthy, start with the following basic steps, the ABC of the journey to healthy.
Here’s How You Can Upgrade Your Health Starting Today
1. Start by breaking some of your bad habits.
We all have some habits we are not proud of. And we know they are bad for us. Yes, I’m talking about those habits. Do your best to break old bad habits.
Not taking care of yourself, drinking too much, not sleeping enough, substance use, and many more— all come under this category.
But keep in mind that
habits are not just something you do. They are neural connections formed in your brain due to the repetition of a specific behaviour. Our brain forms these neural connections to save energy. The more times you repeat a behaviour, the stronger the neural connections become.
But, when it comes to quitting bad habits, this can be a problem. It takes a lot of effort to break these habits because the older the habit, the stronger the neural connection associated with it in the brain. The stronger the connection, the harder it will be to break that habit.
And so, falling back to old ways is a normal phenomenon and should not be counted as a failure or a matter of shame or demotivation.
Just keep going and start again. You may face difficulty going against your brain initially, but eventually, you should be able to replace those habits with newer, healthier ones.
Be patient as new habits can take up to
10 weeks to form.
2. Sleep Well
I can’t even begin to explain how important sleep is. You can never have a healthy body and mind without proper sleep.
Many of us take sleep for granted and treat it as a luxury. But it isn’t—- sleep is a necessity.
Not sleeping enough puts you at a higher risk of developing many health issues— starting from weight gain to cardiovascular problems, neurodegenerative disorders, shorter life spans, and many more.
Without proper sleep, you can’t be the best of yourself or be productive.
So, make sure you’re sleeping enough.
The average recommended sleep is as follows:
- 9-11 hrs — Children
- 8-10 hrs — Teenagers
- 7-9 hrs — Adults
3. Balanced And Healthy Diet
Our diet builds our body. If you want a healthier body, focus a bit on your diet. You need good food for a healthy body.
A healthy diet includes a variety of foods. So make sure your diet has:
- Cereals, like corn, rye, rice, wheat, etc.
- Legumes: lentils, beans.
- Fruits and vegetables.
- Food from animal sources, like milk, meat, eggs, etc. If you are vegan, ensure you are replacing the nutrients you naturally get from these foods from other sources to avoid any deficiencies.
I recommend traditional diets— whatever culture you come from. Traditional diets usually contain a lot of vegetables and natural food sources, so they are very healthy and balanced.
If you eat a healthy diet most of the time, half of the job is over.
Avoid processed and ultra-processed foods as much as possible. Limit sugar and excessive salts— which, by the way, are present in packed foods in high amounts. So, develop the habit of reading the labels.
Recommended sugar limits are less than 10% of your daily energy requirement. Reduce to less than 5% for additional health benefits. This means if your requirements are 2000 calories per day, less than 200 calories and less than 100 calories should come from refined sugar for it to be less than 10% and 5%, respectively.
Additionally, consume less than 5 g of salt per day. If you are at a higher risk of developing lifestyle diseases like cardiac issues and hypertension.
4. Drink plenty of water.
Our body is 60% water. So you can understand how essential water is for us.
Water is essential for the optimum functioning of every single cell and system of our body.
Even mild dehydration can cause irritability, loss of attention, headaches and poor focus— signifying how essential water is for our brain function and productivity.
Healthy intake of water is essential to make sure all the toxic wastes are eliminated from our body. It also lubricates and protects our joints and organs.
Do you want a healthy gut? A healthy set of kidneys? Smooth and youthful skin?
Drink more water!
Drink at least 2-3 litres of water each day to keep everything going well.
I have written a few posts on water. Click on the linked post below to read them.
— How much water you should drink each day?
— How do I make sure I drink enough water?
5. Stretch Your Muscles.
Stretching is a seemingly simple thing yet a very effective practice.
When we are kids, we are active and flexible. But as we age, our flexibility decreases, making our bodies stiff. You can avoid this and stay flexible by
stretching your muscles.
Warming up your muscles also reduces the risk of injuries, so stretch your muscles in the morning and get all your muscles and joints prepped up for the day.
I personally also like to use stretching sessions as a de-stressing routine. Day-to-day stress can lead to built-up tension in muscles. Stretching up your muscles can be a very effective method to relieve tension from the muscles and prevent body aches resulting from all the built-up stress.
6. Exercise
We have not evolved to lead a sedentary life. And because we no longer lead our lives like our ancestors used to, we need to add exercise to our lifestyle to compensate for the lack of natural physical activity that was once part of an average human’s life.
Exercise can help you lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. But it does more than that.
Exercise is good for our brain’s health. It boosts mood and reduces anxiety. On top of this, it can prevent many lifestyle diseases of modern times associated with a sedentary life.
So, add 30 minutes of moderate-intensity workout (brisk walking, cycling, etc) 5 days a week, plus a couple of days of stretching training (using your body weight is also great-- planking, squatting, pushups, etc). These are the recommended values by official health authorities.
While 30 minutes of workout is great, if you can’t do exercise for that long, that’s fine too. I believe some exercise is better than no exercise. So, you can start with 5-10 minutes of workouts at home (YouTube is a great place to start) and then increase the time and intensity as your capacity increases.
7. Spend some time doing the things you love.
We all work to earn and thrive in life. Everybody is hustling.
But here’s the thing— if you hustle hard and hustle for too long, you will probably burn out quickly. And trust me when I say this, burnout sucks!
Therefore, make sure you are taking a break from your work once in a while and do things that you love doing. Our hobbies can be a great source of inspiration, and they can help de-stress.
So, do things that fill your heart with love, joy and inspiration. Only then can you continue to stay mentally healthy and function well. Remember, life is not a sprint. So take a break when you feel tired and focus on something you love.
Sometimes I like to do nothing. You can also try that.
8. Socialise
Socialising is an essential part of good health as well.
Research suggests people who have good social connections live longer and healthier lives. They also make better decisions about their health.
Now, don’t panic. You don’t need to know tons of people to socialise. What is meant by socialising is having meaningful connections. You can have this loving connection with a couple of your friends or even your family.
It’s not a game of numbers but rather the quality of our relationships.
So, catch up with an old friend, maybe?
9. Mental health needs attention too.
Many of us do many things for our families and never prioritise ourselves. Taking care of our loved ones is indeed commendable. But we should stop looking at ourselves as less important.
Please remember, you matter, and so does your happiness.
We don’t realise that taking care of and prioritising ourselves is essential for good mental health.
Now, you don’t need to splurge a lot of money to be happy-- that’s not what I mean. But if once in a while you want to splurge a little or do something for yourself, don’t hesitate to do it. Do it guilt-free.
Besides, when you are happy, you can take better care of those whom you love. So it’s a win-win.
So, go out and buy something you want to buy, relax, and smile. Stop comparing yourself with others. Practice gratitude and mindfulness. Lose judgment towards yourself and others.
Health and happiness are often a byproduct of good mental health, so it should not considered any less important.
The Bottom Line: The Basics Of Good Health
As you can see, health is not just about food and exercise-- there’s more to it. Socialising and prioritising mental health is equally important. You should also de-stress and engage in hobbies. Doing this will keep your mood and happiness score elevated.
Kudos to you if you eat good food and workout regularly, but if you don’t sleep well, you will still be prone to developing many health issues associated with a lack of sleep in the long term.
So, I think you should start by relaxing a bit. Then, work on each of these nine elements one at a time. This way, you can build healthier habits without overwhelming yourself.
Go slow, go far.
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© Quirky Writes 2017
Updated: November 2024
These are some great tips... and I really need to follow them :-)
ReplyDeleteFirst time on your blog but certainly will be back :-)