Tips For Healthy Living
Simple Health Care Guidance From Traditional Wisdom
Right from school days the need for excellence, competitive instincts, ambition, hard work, etc. are taught to be the most essential qualifications for success in life. And success in life is projected to be materialistic success only. Result? Stress and tension are now interwoven in people's lives right from the childhood. And these two words are now termed as elements of present day “life style”, as though they are status symbols to boast of!
Health care expenses are rising to dangerous proportions across the globe. Unfortunately, instead of finding ways and means to live a life of better health which can reduce medical expenses, people are running around more and more hopelessly ignoring their well being in quest of money. And they think this money will fund them in the ever mounting medical expenses!
If you do not belong to this majority and you want to seriously know how to lead a healthy life that can drastically reduce your medical expenses, read on.
Your health depends on 5 major factors:
- Your food
- Your genetics
- Your exercise
- Your environment and
- Your immoderate cravings that decide your lifestyle.By bringing in control in what is controllable in these factors, you can live a healthier life.
Some of these suggestions may look outlandish and impractical. Some of them may be contrary to popular and widely prevalent advice. It is up to you to grasp them, try to adopt them, modify them to suit you or reject them.
Your Food and Your Health
Everyone knows the need for a balanced food containing carbohydrate, proteins, minerals, fats and vitamins. Many health conscious people are overly concerned about the calculation of calories in their food intake. Don’t worry too much about the calculations.
- Have a sumptuous breakfast. Whatever you eat in breakfast mostly gets burnt up. A good breakfast does not cause obesity. Let at least 50% of your day’s energy needs and nutrition come from breakfast.
- Eat moderately at lunch.
- Eat lightly at dinner.
- Never eat to your stomach’s full (even in breakfast). Leave empty space for intake of water and to allow gases of digestion to escape. A rough guide could be: eat to three fourth of your stomach's capacity in breakfast, eat to slightly more than half of your stomach's capacity at lunch and keep half of your stomach empty at dinner.
- Avoid munching snacks in between meal time just to satisfy your taste buds. Do not consume coffee, tea or other beverages unnecessarily in between.
- Switch over to vegetarianism. If not possible, reduce your intake of meat and increase your proportion of vegetarian food.
- Skip dinner at least once in a week. Consume some fruits instead, if you can’t fully skip eating.
- Avoid drinking alcoholic drinks altogether; if you can’t, at least drastically reduce their consumption.
Your Genetics and Your Health
Physical ailments like hyper tension, diabetes, asthma, obesity etc are passed to your genes by your parents and ancestors. It only means that you have a higher probability of getting these ailments genetically. If you are conscious of your eating habits, exercise and the influence of your lifestyle, then to a fair extent you can delay the arrival of these ailments and combat them in a better way if and when they come to you.
Your Exercise and Your Health
Obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes etc have every potential to spoil the health of one who does not exercise. On the other extreme, scientists say that undertaking strenuous and physically taxing exercises may be fun at young age but they may leave negative health imprints on your body as you grow older.
Doing moderate exercise that rejuvenates your body and does not strain it too far seems to be the best option. Hence,
- do walking regularly. Walking is by far the best form of exercise. A brisk walking for half an hour to an hour per day and moderate stretching exercises for about 10 minutes a day may prove to be quite adequate for majority.
- Do not miss opportunities to get unobtrusive and indirect exercises right through the day. These include walking up the stairs instead of taking the lift (up to 2 to 4 floors), doing domestic chores (sweeping the floors, hand washing of clothes and utensils etc).
Your Environment and Your Health
The environment where you live can affect your health by way of pollution, heat, cold, humidity, dust etc. If you are suffering from asthma, allergies etc caused by your environment, look into the possibility of shifting your residence to some other location where the detrimental factors are less.
Your Immoderate Cravings, Your Lifestyle and Your Health
Craving for more and more money, materialistic possessions, unbridled sexual thrill, craving for achievement, for getting recognition -- either through fame or through notoriety, craving for eating, for acquiring more and more creature comforts -- the list is endless and all these cravings pave the way for spoiling health in every way.
If you are willing to think differently, consider these:
- Moderation is the key to healthy and peaceful living.
- simplify your lifestyle -- your status consciousness, your eating habits, your dress and fashion, your mode of travel, and your creature comforts.
- Travel less. Excessive traveling affects eating and sleeping patterns. It robs you of your regular exercise.
- Be loyal to your married partner. Do not seek sexual relationship outside marriage.
- Minimize eating out and maximize eating at home.
- Reduce your goals and ambitions in life. Consciously slow down.
- Be health conscious but don’t make a fetish about it. Never run to a doctor for petty ailments. Learn simple home remedies. Do not acquire more than cursory knowledge about diseases and symptoms. Do not undergo periodic and regular medical checkups unnecessarily if your health is normal.
Human mind and body are intrinsically interconnected. A peaceful mind can help a long way in maintaining a healthy body. If our goal in life is tuned towards achieving mental peace rather than materialistic success, health will reign supreme in our body.
Healthy family
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