Guide To Living A Healthy Lifestyle

We are all encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle nowadays, but with the media telling us constantly what we should and should not do eventually we begin to tune out and ignore the messages. With that in mind, maybe it is time to go back to the basics of what living a healthy lifestyle means.

A balanced diet is essential and `five a day` of fruit and vegetables is still important and do remember to mix colours of vegetables in meals as different colours contain different vitamins. Low fat and low sugar options are available in many foods nowadays and this is one way to help you control your intake of fats and sugars. The link between fatty foods, sugars, heart disease, obesity and diabetes are well known. Try and keep dehydrated with water and reduce your caffeine intake - occasional cups of decaf or fruit tea may help.

A high fibre diet helps to maintain good digestive health as well as reducing the risk for some types of cancers. Adults should try and eat around 18g of fibre a day which equates to a bowl of bran for breakfast and a portion of whole wheat pasta at dinnertime, as well as your five portions of fruit and veg. Additional nutritional supplements are ideal to boost health by helping to increase energy levels and immunity, especially in those dark winter days.

It can be difficult to exercise regularly and gym membership may not always be affordable. Try and walk for at least twenty minutes a day. If you are able to get out of the office at lunchtime and go for a walk, then do so, or walk to the station each morning if you live nearby.

Stopping smoking can be difficult but there is plenty of support available from health professionals. It is recommended that in the UK women should not drink more than a small glass of wine a day, or more than seven pints of lager in a week. Men may drink slightly more. A small amount of red wine is acceptable as this contains antioxidants that can help maintain a healthy circulatory system.

Good mental health is really important for a healthy lifestyle and you need to relax and unwind at the end of busy days. Sleep is really important and if you are waking up to worry in the middle of the night your health will begin to suffer. Try some gentle yoga or breathing exercises to help to relax.

There are many other health issues that may arise from not maintaining a healthy lifestyle, in fact there are far too many to mention here, although as well as heart disease, other circulatory problems can occur such as deep vein thrombosis or DVT. Lack of exercise and obesity as well as dehydration can contribute to DVT formation in the legs and support hose alongside a healthy lifestyle can help to reduce the risks of this happening.

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