10 Awesome Habits for a Healthy Lifestyle

From celebs to common people, everyone is growing conscious about getting fit and healthy today. No one is taking their health lightly anymore – from making the right food choices to including some form of exercise routine, the idea is to work towards leading a healthy lifestyle. To lead such a lifestyle, we need to make positive changes and incorporate some habits that will help us a great deal to achieve our goals. Here’s a list of 10 awesome habits for a healthy lifestyle that you can incorporate into your daily routine, even before starting any diet program or exercise regime or even if you are not doing anything at present, yet want to embark on a healthy path.

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1. Eat a Healthy Breakfast every single Day!

Well, your body has been fasting about 8-9 hours or even more by the time you wake up in the morning and now needs good fuel as energy to last through the day. If you feed your body a good breakfast, it’s going to boost your metabolism and you’ll feel more active, satisfied and fresh to start your day. Your breakfast should ideally include protein, complex carbohydrates (whole-wheat, whole-grain products), calcium and fats in every breakfast. Don’t start your day munching on unhealthy snacks or junk food which would make you feel sluggish through the day and add unnecessary calories leading to weight gain.

2. Decrease the frequency of ordering in and eating out:

Celebs like Kareena Kapoor and Kiara Advani who are extremely fit and health conscious advocate the importance of eating home-cooked, simple food. They confess about not being too keen on eating out or ordering food in. It’s hard to avoid high-calorie food when we are bringing in food from outside; cutting down the frequency will definitely have a major positive impact in your life. Also, when you get hungry in between meals, keeping high-nutrition based snacks like fruits, nuts, low-fat cheese with crackers, low-fat smoothies, low-fat yoghurt with baked puri, etc., will keep your weight from going up.

3. Chew slowly, don’t gulp down your food:

Why?
This way, you will know when you are full; hence you will stop eating thereafter. When you stuff food into your mouth (when reading magazine, or watching TV), means you will be gulping half of it down your throat; hence you are not really eating. Smaller, bite-sized portions help you chew better, lets you taste the food well, and eases the whole digestion process. Experts suggest chewing food slowly at least 5 times in the mouth before swallowing it down so that digestive enzymes in the stomach can break it down further for better absorption of nutrients from the food in the intestine.

4. Eat whole fruits and vegetables instead of juices:

Why?
You get plenty of fiber when you eat the fruit on the whole, which helps you feel full for a longer time. You also have to chew your food for a little longer, which also contributes to feeling full. If you do have to have fruits in the liquid form, do not leave out the pulp. Fruit juices receive a drubbing from health experts due to the fact that juicing releases fructose and tears apart insoluble fiber from the fruit which delays absorption of sugar. Increased consumption of fruit juices through the day is often linked with increased risk of type 2 diabetes and obesity, so that’s why eat your fruits raw.

5. Engage in physical activity of any kind to make your body active, flexible and free of injury

Why?
Even picking up your clothes and dumping in your laundry is a stretch and bend activity. Similarly, carrying your own dish to the sink and rinsing off is walking and using your arms. If others do for you, then your health benefits get transferred to them. Warm-up, Stretch, Exercise, Cool-down at least 4-5 times a week. If you don’t have time to exercise, then accept that you are living unhealthy lifestyle. If you have a sedentary lifestyle with little to no movement, you are inviting a whole lot diseases into your life. Invest in a pair of walking shoes and walk or jog to a nearby park from tomorrow itself.

6. Keep yourself hydrated! Drink Water!!!!!

Your body needs water to sustain itself. All functions of the body can be done efficiently only if you are well-hydrated. If you drink less water, toxins do not get flushed out of  body easily, so you end up feeling sluggish, tired, lazy and thirsty if you go without water for a long time. In order to avoid that, keep water near you at all time, sip it as necessary.

7. Indulge in temptations once in a while, but don’t go over-board:

Why?
Most comfort foods are laden with high calories due to simple sugars, high-fats and simple carbohydrates. (maida or all-purpose flour is one such example). You may feel good when eating them, but your body is going to store most of them as fat and your weight will give up unchecked. High-calorie comfort foods make you feel like resting, sleeping, and spend the day like lazy person, and all that extra-available calories are going to go to your trouble spots like tummy, back, legs, and back. So, keep a day reserved to indulge in your favorite food, but eat clean during the rest of the week.

8. Strength-training is very important, do it 2 to 3 times a week.

  • It protects the bone density and makes them strong.
  • It helps builds more muscles and maintains your already existent muscles.
  • It tones your body, reducing flabby appearance.
  • It makes you stronger, more energetic and physical activity-prone.
  • It makes you fit and heart-healthy.

9. Know your food and its caloric measurement:

Why?
At the end of the day, calories do count. If you are eating more then you should be, then for most of us, it’s going to result in weight-gain. (Unless you are blessed with super high metabolism). Know your caloric requirement and follow it properly, it will soon become a habit.

10. Make weighing-scale your friend.

Why?
Monitoring your weight every day or every week, will make you more aware of your body weight, and if it’s going up, it will inspire you to work hard. If the scale goes down, it will motivate you to work more to achieve your goals. Allow for fluctuations, as that’s going to happen, don’t fret over it. Reduce the weight gain once it crosses five pound threshold.

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