How To Start Living A Healthy Lifestyle
It's 2025 and to start the New Year, many people create their resolutions around this time to change for the better. The most common resolutions, according to a blog by Statista.com, is to eat healthier, exercise more, and lose weight. While it's great to improve on this aspect of your life, there's a problem that many face. There are many that still believe that they have to follow this extreme notion of just eating salads, dieting to the extreme, and performing high intensity challenging exercises. It's even worse when all of this is set in an unrealistic expectation of 3 months just to look good for a wedding party. Before they know it, they'll go back to their old habitual way of living their life because of the difficulty in maintaining your health. So how should you start instead to avoid this outcome? Let’s outline a simple guide anyone can follow.
Benefits of Healthy Lifestyle
To start, we all know what the benefits provide when you manage to take care of your health. The benefits include:
Boost mental and physical energy levels: Ever wondered why you start feeling more energy after you wake up? Well this is the result of what happens when you continue to take care of your health. All the exercising, balanced diet, and recovery of a well rested sleep has given you a reward of more energy, resulting in you wanting to be more productive with mental clarity. You also start to realize that whatever challenging exercise activity you put yourself through at the start of your journey suddenly doesn't feel as big of an effort as it did previously. This is because your body has increased its resilience as well.
Improve health factor: Your typical chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure can be reduced or avoided depending on how early in your life you decide to take care of your health seriously.
Self-image confidence: When you start to see the obvious results of your health and fitness, the mirror truly reflects just how much work you've put in to take care of your body. You'll feel lighter on your feet and you're able to fit in clothes that you've always wanted to try.
With all of this in mind, it's easy to determine that taking care of yourself is a no brainer. Now to break down the details that everyone should know.
1. Good Habits For Daily Life
What I've failed to realize the first time around is that it's not just doing the diets and the exercise activities. It all starts with building the habits and getting comfortable in performing the activities consistently. Everyone loves to rush to the end goal because of the end result only to find out that it's a lot harder than they imagined. Trying to change your entire lifestyle and habits overnight is a recipe for disaster because you're not used to all of it yet. So instead of making a big change quickly, make small changes over a long period of time. Then afterwards you can increase the workload overtime as it becomes less challenging for you.
Don't get what I mean? Here are some examples:
Don't start going for a run in 45 minutes at the treadmill 5 times a week. Start jogging for 15 minutes 1-2 times a week then increase the workload to 30 minutes 3-4 times a week and so on after you've gotten used to it.
Don't completely give up your favorite unhealthy foods. Start eating less amounts of it or better yet find an alternative version of it that's healthier/less calories.
So why does this approach work? Well, by focusing on small changes and progressions, it will eliminate the overwhelming feeling that you have to be perfect in the first day, week, and/or month. Instead, this methodology will build a compounding effect for you to likely keep doing this as a habit long term, which is how you live a healthy lifestyle not just experiencing it.
2. How To Balance Meals
The standard diet of salads or the typical Chicken Broccoli Rice combo are great to have if you're able to continue eating those two things everyday. However, most people are more likely to get tired of consuming the same meals over and over. Luckily, there are options to open up your palette. Here are some tips to help:
Eating with variety: Whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins are all important for a great diet. But what matters is to start paying attention to the nutrition facts and calories from food items. You don't have to completely get rid of your favorite meals but if you can find healthier, lower calorie alternatives or ingredients then it makes your diet much more appetizing to cook.
Portion control: Just because you now have lower calorie alternatives doesn't mean that you should just eat endlessly until you get full. It's still vital to take note of the amount of calories that you're consuming from your everyday meals because if you're essentially eating the same amount of calories as you normally do even with a new diet, then you aren't really losing weight if that is your goal. But otherwise, lower calorie meals will result in natural loss of weight.
Pay attention to Nutrition Facts: It's very important that you start considering what's labeled on the back of foods you eat with nutrition facts label. It will tell you the amount of carbohydrates, proteins, sugar, cholesterol, sodium, and fats for a certain amount of serving size. Now all of these are not harmful for you to consume to live a healthy life. However, too much consumption of any of these long term can harm your health which is why portion control is very important.
3. Easy Physical Activities
Physical activity is another major component to a healthy lifestyle. It improves cardiovascular health, builds muscle, boosts metabolism, and supports mental health. There are a variety of exercises that you can do to get yourself more active. The question is: How do you start exercising?
If you're an everyday average person that's just looking to get some physical activity needed, then you don't need to do high intensity cardio that will exhaust you in 5 minutes unless you're competing for a sports event. On the other hand, if you're looking to build muscle then lifting weights would be your option. So what's the best form of physical activity for most people?
Moderate intensity cardio is what people should focus on.
This includes jogging, swimming, cycling, dancing, and anything that challenges you to move around at a moderate pace. You can pick one or a variety that you enjoy the most.
You don't need to dedicate hours to exercise each day to reap the benefits. Long term, aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. But you can start with 15 minutes 2 times per week then as you build the habit of getting used to it, you can progressively challenge yourself to increase the time you exercise and the amount of times you do it in a week.
4. The Importance of Recovery
Have you ever wondered why you feel miserable or sick in the morning when you wake up from your sleep? Well that's because you most likely don't have the right amount of sleep hours. Part of living a healthy lifestyle is involves sleeping adequately as it plays a critical role in recovery, immune function, and emotional well-being.
Creating a bedtime routine and reducing screen time before bed can help you wind down. Additionally, give your body time to recover between workouts. Rest days are just as important as active days for building strength and preventing injury.
5. Stay Accountable
Staying consistent with healthy lifestyle habits can be challenging, so it's essential to hold yourself accountable. Tracking your progress can help you stay motivated and adjust if needed. You can use a fitness tracker, food journal, or a mobile app to log workouts and meals.
Sharing your goals with friends or family or joining a community of like-minded individuals can also help you stay on track. Having a support system keeps you motivated and accountable when you face challenges.
Conclusion
The journey to a healthier lifestyle is a marathon, not a sprint. By starting with small, realistic changes and consistently working toward healthier living habits, you’ll soon experience the many benefits of healthy lifestyle choices. Remember, it’s about progress, not perfection. Focus on building sustainable habits that make you feel good inside and out. As you continue your healthy living journey, you’ll unlock a world of improved well-being, better fitness, and an overall healthier life. In conclusion, the start of a healthy lifestyle in 2025 is an achievable goal that can lead to significant improvements in both physical and mental well-being. By making small changes to your daily routine, such as incorporating more exercise, eating a balanced diet, getting enough rest, and managing stress, you can set yourself up for long-term success. Remember that living a healthy lifestyle is not about perfection, but rather about making consistent and sustainable choices that support your overall health and wellness. By prioritizing your health and well-being, you can look forward to a happier, more fulfilling life in the years to come. So, start taking steps today to begin living the healthy lifestyle you deserve in 2025 and beyond.