Leading as long, healthy and carefree a life as possible – that’s what we all want. Genes play a crucial role here, but so does our lifestyle. Diet, exercise, relaxation, and sleep form the four pillars that can positively impact our health. So if you want to do something good for yourself, you should pay special attention to them.
Healthy Lifestyle Through Healthy Eating
The inhabitants of the Japanese island of Okinawa are considered to have the people with the longest average life expectancy. Okinawa is also called “the island of the 100-year-olds”. The residents’ diet may play a unique role: lots of fruit and vegetables, seafood, algae, bitter lemon (Goya), little meat, fat and sugar, no processed products and plenty of vegetable proteins.
The Mediterranean cuisine, also known as the Mediterranean diet, is one of the healthiest diets in the world. Not surprisingly, it’s not all that different from the eating habits of Okinawan islanders. The cuisine, which originally came from southern Italy and Greece, is particularly typical: lots of vegetables, fruit and legumes, nuts and seeds, virgin olive oil, little dairy and a preference for white meat.
- Eat enough fruit and vegetables (5 servings a day).
- Use vegetable oils instead of butter.
- Eat only a little meat (white rather than red meat).
- Include legumes (red lentils, chickpeas, beans) in your diet.
- Prefer whole grain products.
Very important: Always drink enough to supply the organs with enough liquid. Doctors recommend at least 1.5 liters of water a day.
Exercise Keeps You Healthy
If you move a lot, you significantly improve your health. Sport strengthens the immune system, reduces stress and prevents cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. You don’t have to become a competitive athlete. Even a short walk every day is enough to increase life expectancy significantly. This was the conclusion reached by researchers from the Norwegian School of Sport, which evaluated eight studies with over 36,000 people with a mean age of 63 years and a mean observation period of 5.8 years in a meta-analysis. The study also showed that those who spent more than 9.5 hours a day sitting had an increased risk of dying prematurely.
Here are a few tips for more mobility in everyday life:
- Endurance training such as swimming or cycling is the ideal sport for beginners. It protects the joints and strengthens the cardiovascular system.
- Walking in nature ensures sufficient exercise and provides the body with fresh air.
- Small sports units at work bring variety to everyday life. In addition, strengthening the back muscles, in particular, affects the entire posture and prevents problems with the musculoskeletal system.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator to strengthen your muscles. This also reduces the risk of falls in old age.
- Use a pedometer: Almost every cell phone has a built-in pedometer that keeps track of how much you’ve moved throughout the day. Aim to walk around 10,000 steps a day.
- Find like-minded people. Sporting activities are much more fun in a group. This way, you can motivate each other and strengthen your social contacts. Because they are also part of a healthy lifestyle.
Health Factor Stress: Relaxed Through Life
In hectic everyday life, stress and excessive demands are not uncommon. And this also hurts health. If you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you should make sure that you take time out regularly, relax sufficiently and keep your stress level as low as possible.
Because if you are regularly exposed to stress, your body and mind are in a permanent state of alarm. The result: You feel increasingly exhausted, and numerous diseases are encouraged.
Various relaxation methods can help to reduce everyday stress and significantly increase well-being.
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