How should we live to be healthy. |
We always hear a lot about living a healthy lifestyle, like if everybody has it. The sentence “Healthy lifestyle” describes the life we need to live if we want to feel and look good but, what does it really mean? Well, there are many things you can say to describe how a healthy person is. Healthy people don’t smoke, they have a healthy weight, then they eat healthy foods and exercise regularly. That sounds so simple but it's funny to see how hard is trying to do all of those things in our daily life. The good news is that we do not have to change everything at the same time. In fact, we can start eating healthier and then doing some easy exercises in order to prepare ourselves to afford the new changes. So why aren’t we all living a healthy life if it is so easy? First of all I think that in the last decades, people have become lazier than before. They prefer going to the fast food and buy/eat prepared food instead of preparing their own meals. And surely is better lying and chilling on the coach watching TV than going to the gym and work out. But being lazy doesn’t mean that you do not have to take care of ourselves. In fact, adopting a healthy lifestyle is also the best way to prevent cardiovascular disease. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 17 million people around the world die from cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke, every year. Around 1 million of these deaths occur in the US alone - the equivalent to one death every 33 seconds. With figures like these, it is no surprise that heart disease is the main cause of death, but what is surprising is that many of these deaths could be prevented, simply by taking better care of our health. So why are we putting our heart health at risk? And what can we do to improve heart health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease? We just have to try to change our lifestyle. One of the biggest reasons people have a weight problem these days is because we sit around too much. We know we need to exercise, but we have so many excuses not to do it. We're too busy, we don't know where to start, we're not motivated or we're afraid that we'll injure ourselves or that that exercise has to be vigorous for what our bodies can handle. The truth is: everything counts and the more you move, the healthier you'll be. Exercising doesn’t mean just that you're sweating, working in your target heart rate zone and/or doing something to strengthen your body. You can also do exercises doing the activities you prefer like gardening or hang out with your dog. With just adding a little movement in your lifestyle can: • Reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes • Improve joint stability • Increase and improve range of movement • Help maintain flexibility as you age • Maintain bone mass • Prevent osteoporosis and fractures • Improve mood and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression • Enhance self esteem • Improve memory in elderly people • Reduce stress Then, eating a healthy diet is another part of the healthy lifestyle. Not only can a clean diet help with weight management, it can also improve your health and quality of life as you get older. So let’s start with little steps: Move more and add fruit and veggies wherever you can! |