A healthy lifestyle is key to a happy and healthy life. Several things in our surroundings affect our lifestyle. The fundamental pillars of a healthy lifestyle are physical activities, healthy food, passionate activities, and positive energy.
It is well said that “Health is Wealth”, but we don’t understand or realize this statement unless and until we face some life-threatening health condition. It can cost you money, happiness, and in the end mental and emotional peace.
What is a healthy lifestyle?
Healthy doesn’t refer to physical fitness but it also attributes mental and emotional being. Whereas healthy lifestyle means the balance between the different dimensions of healthy being such as physical fitness, mental health, nutritious diet, and positive energy around you. (1, 2, 3)
A healthy lifestyle helps people in preventing chronic illness and offers a longer and happy life. The lifestyle doesn’t only help in keeping you healthy, but it boosts your self-esteem. It is often observed that people with a healthy lifestyle are happy and confident compared to placebo. (1, 3)
Though there is nothing right or wrong, one can maintain a healthy lifestyle by making the right choices to maintain the balance between different pillars of a healthy lifestyle. WHO recommends eating a lot of fruits, vegetables, reducing fat, sugar, and salt intake to ensure a healthy lifestyle? (4, 5)
What are the pillars of a healthy lifestyle?
These pillars are the fundamentals of building a healthy lifestyle. Though we can’t achieve a healthy lifestyle just in the blink of an eye however consistent effort can help you attain the perfect harmony between this core element. The core elements of a healthy lifestyle are discussed below:
Physical Activities
The WHO defines physical activities as any sort of bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy consumption for example sports, running, swimming. It may include activities carried out during office, playing, doing chores, traveling, and any sort of recreational activities. It has long-term as well as short-term benefits. A healthy lifestyle includes a healthy adequate amount of physical activities.
As per WHO statistics, globally 1 in 4 adults are not active enough and reduced physical activities are leading factors of death worldwide. More than 80% of the adolescent population is insufficiently physically active.
Insufficient physical activity is the major factor of increased mortality among people of various ages. Insufficiently active individuals have a 20% to 30% increased risk of death compared to active people.
Physical activities include exercise, running, sports, swimming, and yoga. Regular practice of either of the activities might help in achieving a healthy lifestyle. (1, 2, 3)
Healthy Diet
A healthy diet is key to a healthy lifestyle. Food habits are an integral part of the life cycle and it’s “Organic”, it changes through space and time. Different geographies have different food habit and its changes as the individual ages.
Whatever food habits we did have in our childhood it would not be the same in adulthood or old stage. The habits have a very big footprint in our life than we can imagine and especially on our health. These have a short, long, and very long-term impact on our health. The proverb “We Reap what we sow” is very apt about health and food habits. (6)
Food Habits have a great impact on our lives especially bodyweight which is the precursor to several deadly lifestyle diseases. However healthy food habits can reduce body weight and subtle its impact on health.
As per WHO, a healthy diet must include at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day however the unavailability and inaccessibility of fruit and veggies push millions of people toward an unhealthy diet leading to malnutrition and in extreme circumstances for a prolonged period causes deadly diseases. (1, 2, 3, 4)
Engagement in Passionate Activities
The fabric of the modern lifestyle is such that it attracts all the possible stresses coming from different dimensions and makes our life miserable. Stress is something which has very little to life-threatening impact in our life. Persistent stress is the result of an impaired lifestyle.
Stress is the foremost enemy of health in this contemporary lifestyle and it must be eliminated and if not possible must be avoided. There are several pathways to minimize or eliminate the stress however the best way to handle this situation is by engaging ourselves in the activities we are craving about.
We always focus on achieving different goals in our lives, one after another, and so on, and keep our hobbies and other activities that give us happiness at the brink of our to-do-list. These activities which give us happiness and joy are the real stress buster and help in growing a better person personally and professionally. (1, 2, 3)
Surround Yourself with Positive Energy
It has always been said that “Think Positive”, it not because positive thinking might get you better outcome however it gives better & positive perspective towards things and helps us take some positive decision that changes outcome in our favor.
Surround yourself with encouraging friends and people with a positive attitude which might help in shaping your life in a better way and give a better perspective towards life. We should always try to look on the brighter side rather than dwelling upon what is good or bad. There is always something good in everything and we should try to harvest those. (1, 2, 3)
These don’t need to be the only pillars of a healthy lifestyle however other elements of a healthy lifestyle might be clubbed in these major heads.
Summary
Achieving a healthy lifestyle is not difficult, you just have to live yourself in the happiest ways possible. You make minor modifications to your existing lifestyle such as the inclusion of fitness programs, healthy food habits, engage yourself in actives you love, & surround yourself with friends, and encouraging people that will help you achieve your goal of a healthy lifestyle. “Stay Happy, Stay Healthy”.
