Lifestyle and Diet are slowly gaining more importance in people’s lives. Interestingly, Millennials have been labeled the most “health-conscious generation ever” according to a report from Yale. Even though this may be true, many people still don’t make it a point to pay attention to their diet and lifestyle choices. They do the same thing every day without considering the possible side effects or impacts. To live the healthiest life possible, it’s essential to make it a point to practice healthy diet and lifestyle choices.
People often don’t pay attention to the food they are putting in their bodies or the amount of sleep they are getting because they are caught up with work, family life, or other life stressors. Unfortunately, daily life stressors don’t ever truly go away, so this lack of attention develops into a lifestyle for many people.
Living an unhealthy lifestyle can have a number of negative impacts on a person’s quality of life and can even shorten a person’s lifespan or be the cause of a certain sickness or disease, such as diabetes. It’s important to take steps to learn how to live a healthier lifestyle before it’s too late.
Improving Your Lifestyle And Diet Impacts Your Overall Well-Being
It’s especially important for those with an underlying illness or progressive disease/cancer to pay attention to their diet and lifestyle choices in order to optimize their quality of life and keep their symptoms at a minimum. However, making an effort to live a healthy life by practicing certain diet and lifestyle habits is also extremely beneficial for all individuals because it will impact all-around health and wellness.
Though some people recognize that they are living an unhealthy life, they don’t know how to make the appropriate changes; or they have an excuse, the most common being that they don’t have time. However, living a healthier life is simple and doesn’t require much time as long as the person puts forth the effort. Here are some simple and easy ways to begin making lifestyle and diet choices that will improve your all-around health and wellness.
Make Sure To Prioritize Rest And Sleep
This can be both the easiest and the most challenging lifestyle change for people. Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep, and children/teens need even more. It’s common for people not to make sleep a priority because of their everyday demands. If a person doesn’t get enough sleep, he or she is at a higher risk for obesity, poor mental health, heart disease, and many other health risks. Having a scheduled “bed-time” is a solution to this issue. At the same time, every night, it’s important to put aside whatever task you are doing and make it a point to go to bed in order to get a good night’s sleep.
Similarly, it’s important to prioritize rest throughout the day in order to improve one’s lifestyle. It’s true that most people have busy lives that prevent them from getting the proper amount of rest they need. However, it’s crucial to set time out of your day to allow yourself to unwind and decompress. Setting a time to rest, whether it’s in bed at night or simply on the sofa at the end of the workday, will lower stress, which will directly impact mental and heart health.
Make It A Point To Spend Time Outdoors
Spending time outside can have a positive impact on mental health and vitamin D levels, which will improve a person’s overall well-being. Sunshine and sunlight improve serotonin levels, allowing people to feel good, not focusing on feelings of stress and anxiety, which can lead to health problems. Sunshine can also improve Vitamin D levels, which will regulate the sleep-wake cycle as well.
Spending time outdoors is also a great way to get away from everyday stressors for a short amount of time. Additionally, time outdoors should be spent doing something productive, rather than time spent on your mobile device or laptop. Consider going on a run, gardening, or even walking your dog.
Avoid Refined Sugar And Grains
Refined sugars and grains are extremely detrimental to human health, and not enough people pay attention to this fact. Though these ingredients aren’t too harmful in moderation, they are common ingredients that are found in most processed foods, so people don’t’ even realize that they are eating them. Refined sugars and grains can cause weight gain, heart disease, low energy levels, and even headaches.
Some waysto avoid refined sugar and grains include:
- Eliminating added sugar from your diet; making it a point to only consume sugar that is natural
- Choose low-carb snacks
- Cut back on bread
- Choose almond or coconut milk instead of regular milk
- Avoid processed foods and snacks
- Incorporate more plant-based foods into your diet
Avoiding refined sugar and grains can be challenging because it requires you to read all labels and be extremely diligent of what you are making for every meal; however, the benefits of a healthy lifestyle far outweigh the inconvenience.
Eat Wild-Caught Fish
Dr. Budwig was not opposed to a small amount of fish in one’s diet when travelling or on a very rare occasion; however, she promoted a vegetarian diet, especially for her cancer patients. If you do decide to include fish in your diet, there are some benefits, and eating fish is a great way to stay healthy. Fish provide the appropriate fats and vitamins our bodies need. Fish provide our bodies with protein and nutrients and can even lower blood pressure and the risk of a heart attack. However, it’s crucial to point out the importance of eating only wild-caught fish.
Wild-caught fish are fish that are caught in their natural habitat, meaning they were not raised on a farm with the intent to be eaten. Wild-caught fish do not have antibiotics in them that farm-raised fish do. Farm-raised fish are raised in pools of thousands of other fish so, in order to prevent infection, they are given antibiotics. If a person ingests too much of these unnatural antibiotics, it can greatly impact his or her health, potentially leading to weight gain and cancer.
Farm-raised fish also lack about 20% of the protein that wild-caught fish provide.
Incorporate More Protein In Your Diet
Protein is one of the most important elements of a healthy diet because it helps build and maintain muscle mass. Of course, it’s important to have a strong body in your younger years, but it’s especially imperative as you age because your body will naturally weaken, so maintaining as much muscle mass as you can is important- this can be done by eating more protein.
Protein can also reduce appetite and hunger levels, meaning you feel full longer, so you will not snack and put on unnecessary weight. Similarly, the protein will also boost metabolism and increase your body’s ability to fat burn.
As mentioned earlier, Dr. Budwig promoted a vegetarian diet, so getting protein from meat was not an option for her patients. However, as the recent popular documentary “The Game Changers” highlighted, there are many protein-rich foods available, such as:
- Cottage cheese
- Quinoa
- Oats
- Almonds
- Greek Yogurt
- Moringa
- Spirulina
Incorporating more protein into your diet is an easy way to improve your health and well-being in order to live the healthiest lifestyle possible.
Improve Your Lifestyle And Diet By Staying Active
In order to live a healthier lifestyle and get the most out of it, you must stay active; this will benefit you for the rest of your life. Some people may find it hard to find the time to stay active; however staying active doesn’t have to mean spending hours an hours at the gym, it could simply mean making small life changes such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator or going on a walk every morning before work. Staying active will not only promote a healthy life now, but it will also keep you healthy in your later years.
In fact, a caregiver from an in-home care service pointed out that the patients that stayed active in their younger years have significantly fewer health benefits than the patients that were not active.
Make The Switch To A Healthier Lifestyle Today
Making small, daily changes to our habits can ultimately prolong and improve your quality of life. It’s easy to make the switch to a healthier lifestyle and diet as long as you know where to begin. Our FREE ebook the Budwig Guide gives valuable advice on you can employ healthy habits, download your copy here. Keep these points in mind as you consider ways to begin living a healthier life to improve your health and wellness.
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