Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Lifestyle - Live It the Healthy Way

Lifestyle is the way that you live your life and it is a composition of habits, some healthy, some not so healthy, the choices we make, the priorities we set. This short article gives some tips on how to live a healthier life on a personal platform.

Smoking, Drinking And Drugs

If you are on any of these, I am sure you know where this path leads. The final destination of where this journey is going to end is called "misery". Along the way, you will come across many health problems, lose all your hard-earned money to find solutions to treat it and your social and family life may be disintegrated. This is a fact what these 3 poisons will do to harm your body, what it will do to your personality, how it is going to jeopardize your career, your family and friends. Quit now, before its too late. It is not worth putting your whole life on the line for poisons.

Sleep

Seven to eight hours sleep is the norm for most people and 5 hours is the minimum to wake up in the morning recharged and energized. Studies show that 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep promotes strong physical health, emotional well-being and longevity.

After a real good night's sleep, yo wake up fresh, think better, emotions are stable and productivity high. Sleep deprivation will lead to a whole list of chronic illnesses such obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even early mortality.

Why is sleep important?
Your body is busy producing extra protein molecules to help boost your immune system to fight infection,building new cells, repairing old cells and help you stay healthy while you sleep.

When you are awake, your heart is constantly under pressure and sleep is when it helps to reduce the levels of stress and inflammation, lower blood pressure. Sleep induce a state of relaxation and in so doing slows down the aging process, this is why a person looks so much fresher after a good night's sleep, haggard and with eye bags when sleep deprived.

While you are sleeping your brain is busy organizing and correlating memories, and retaining information, this is why after a good night's sleep you find it easier to concentrate and your memory is better.

When you are lack of sleep, you feel sluggish and you will burn glucose slower and hence a spike in sugar level and this is one reason for the cause of type 2 diabetes.

When you lack of sleep, you will have mood swings and gets irritated and agitated and blow small incidents that could be easily resolved out of proportion creating a very incongenial atmosphere and the result at the end is stress.

Some tips on getting quality sleep:

• Determine and follow a regular sleep schedule and keep to it. It is easier said then done, but if you put your mind to it, your body will be able to adapt and this healthy habit will form.

• Set a bedtime routine such as reading a book, lowering the lights or play some soothing music. Your brain will soon recognise these triggers and prepare you brain and body to wind down for sleep.

• Avoid eating a big meal, watching horror suspence movie or engaging in office work at least 2 hours before your bedtime.

• Check and ensure you have a conducive environment for sleep, have your room clean and smelling fresh, with comfortable mattress and pillows.

If you do have problem sleeping try having a tea to help you to sleep. Hot water over 3 gms of matricaria flowers,(chamomile) soak for ten minutes before putting it through a strainer. This herb will hep you sleep like a baby. You can also get this over the counter in capsule form.

Supplements

Though we may be cooking our own meals, there are still times where we may not be able to cook the varitey needed to have complete nutrition or some nutrition may not be found in food. We cannot go without and what we can do is to take supplements to compensate.

You cannot go wrong with multi-vitamins as this is almost what everyone needs. They are affordable and they supplement what is missing in food. When taking supplements, do follow maufacturer's label on dosage and instructions.

Money Matters

Money makes the world go round and without it, it is definitely one BIG stressor. So for a healthy and long life, you need to get your finances in order, you must know your income and from there what you can or cannot afford. Live within your means.

Some tips here to manage your finance:

• It is tempting to always want what others have, but cut your coat according to your cloth so the saying goes. Consider your finances and your budget before you embark on unnecessary expense.

• For convenience you may want to buy on credit, but settle within the same month to avoid paying the related interest.

• Share the household budget with members of the family to create a sense of responsibility and so everyone is aware how much is coming in and how much is going out and everyone can help in their own way to save cost.

• Eating out is not only bad for health, for your weight, it is also hard on the wallet. Eat out only if necessary to celebrate occasions. Further more, if you eat out often, celebrations will not be special anymore.

Spend within your budget, control, check and balance and you will lead a happier and stress free life. Share finance problems with your spouce. Two heads are always better than one especially when it comes to numbers and you need all the brain

Rewards

It does not mean that you have to scrimp all the time, reward yourself where appropriate. Set mini reachable goals in your daily life. It helps you to move forward and spur you on to the next. Reward yourself as you meet the goals.

Rewards can be simple such as having an ice-cream (for meeting your weight target), a night out with the gals or guys, or a romantic dinner for two with your spouse.

In this way, the going will be easier and you will soon find that keeping and maintaining healthy lifestyles are not that difficult.

Focus on changing the unhealthy ones, or eliminating them, cultivating new healthy ones and this will help you to live healthier and longer.

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