Rebuild every day with the fresh challenge of renewing your resolve to live healthily. Here are some practical health tips to help you initiate a healthy lifestyle and feel energetic and confident every day.
1. Eat a healthy or balanced diet
A combination of fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains must be eaten. Adults should consume at least five servings (400g) of fruits and vegetables every day. You should include vegetables in your meal, eat fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks, use a variety of types during meal preparation; and eat them in season. By eating healthily, you have lowered your risk of malnutrition and chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.
2. Reduce your intake of sugar and salt
A daily intake of five grams or so is all you really need; that’s about a teaspoon. To accomplish this goal, you could try to reduce your use of salt, soy sauce, fish sauce, and any other condiments high in sodium when preparing meals; keep salt, seasonings, and condiments off your dining table; forgo salty snacks and select low-sodium food items.
Excessive consumption of sugars contributes to poor oral health and obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) advises that free sugars should comprise less than 10% of the total energy intake for adults and less than 5% for children for added health benefits. With that, avoid snacks high in sugar, candy and sodas.
3. Decrease on bad fats
The fat intake should be less than 30% of total energy intake to help prevent unhealthy weight gain and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Even though fats are classified into different groups, unsaturated fats are better than saturated and trans-fats. According to the WHO, it is recommended that saturated fats constitute less than 10% of total energy intake, while trans-fats should be less than 1%, and both saturated and trans-fats should be replaced with unsaturated fats.
Healthful unsaturated fats are chiefly obtained from fish, avocado, and nuts, as well as from sunflower, soybean, canola, and olive oils, while saturated fats come from fatty meat, butter, palm and coconut oil, cream, cheese, ghee, and lard. Trans-fats come chiefly from processed, baked, and fried foods, as well as prepackaged snacks and foods, such as frozen pizza, cookies, biscuits, and cooking oils and spreads.
4. Avoid smoking
Tobacco smoking is associated with NCDs such as lung disease, heart disease, and stroke. It kills both direct smokers and non-smokers through second-hand exposures.
It is not too late to quit smoking if you are a smoker. You will start enjoying the long-term and immediate health benefits. In case you do not smoke, that is good. Do not ever try out smoking and advocate for your smoking-free air to breathe.
5. Obey the various traffic laws
Every year, over a million perish from various traffic accidents and millions more are injured in different other ways. Governments have a number of strategies for preventing traffic accidents, including IC implementation of laws, safer infrastructure, better laws for vehicles, assistance to survivors after crashes, etc. But it is possible to take precautions against the occurrence of traffic accidents through obeying various traffic laws; for instance, adult safety belts, child restraints like helmets for motorcyclists and cyclists, refraining from drunk driving, not using a telephone while driving, among many other actions.
6. Keeping fit and active amid challenges
Physical activity is any movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. It includes both exercise and activities undertaken during work, play, daily chores, transport, and recreational activities. The required amount of physical activity differs according to your age, but in general adults (age group: 18 to 64 years) should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity weekly activity. For additional health benefits, moderate-intensity physical activity should further be increased to 300 minutes per week.
7. Clean your hands well
Hand hygiene is important for everyone, not just healthcare workers. Disease transmission in the community can be checked by cleaning hands. Wash your hands immediately with soap and water or hand sanitizers when unsoiled surfaces are visibly contaminated.
8. Get your blood checked on a regular basis
Hypertension or high blood pressure is referred to as a silent killer. This is because most people with hypertension are unlikely to know they are ill because the illness may not give any symptoms. If hypertension goes uncontrolled, it may result in the compromise of blood circulation to and in the brain and possibly later to kidney diseases amongst other conditions. Blood pressure should therefore be determined periodically by a health worker, so you can know your pressure ranges. If blood pressure comes out to be high, follow the advice of a health worker. This is crucial in high blood pressure and hypertension prevention and control.
9. Take only the prescribed antibiotics
One of the biggest risks to our generation’s public health is antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance makes treating bacterial infections extremely difficult, which significantly raises medical costs, lengthens hospital stays, and increases mortality. Antibiotics are becoming less effective because both humans and animals abuse and overuse them. Always remember to only take antibiotics as directed by a qualified and licensed healthcare provider. When prescribed, though, antibiotics should be taken according to the doctor’s instructions until all doses have been taken. They must never be shared.
10. Importance of Yoga in Health
Yoga, therefore, is all about nurturing the body, soul, and spirit and combines being a complete discipline. Its origin can be traced to ancient India, where various practices of the same name have been developed, such as asanas, pranayama, meditation, and ethical living. It has wonderful relevance in today’s context especially in regard to mental and physical health.
Yoga has a plethora of benefits for physical and mental health, where joining a class or practicing yoga on your own makes for a good personal journey toward a healthy lifestyle. From relieving stress to improving flexibility and all-around well-being, yoga is recognized worldwide for its numerous contributions to a healthy lifestyle.
Read more articles for fitness :-
