Take Charge of Your Health

In today’s fast paced world, many people are eating unhealthy, not getting enough exercise , and getting too little sleep. Smoking, drinking, environmental pollutants, and chemically altered foods have increased the risk for diseases and conditions, which are now plaguing our society. It is vital to your health, not only physically but spiritually and mentally too, to take a look at your actions and make healthy changes, before its too late. Better health means making the appropriate time to exercise , eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, preparing healthy meals, relaxing, having fun and giving yourself down time. Otherwise you can get caught up in your life, which can lead to deterioration in your health.
It is part of our human nature that propels us to be fast paced and a go, go, go society. We are always striving for bigger and better things. However this need to continually evolve has also lead to more disease, less quality more quantity, and cheaper by products. These risk factor splay a role in how healthy we are overall. Risk factors increase the chance of getting a disease. Therefore by minimizing your risks you can better your everyday health. Risk factors included what and how much you eat, how often you exercise , whether you smoke or drink, or do drugs, if you have unprotected sex, take prescription medication, wear your seatbelt and on and on. Lowering your risk factors will reduce the likelihood for potential disease. Therefore it’s important to take a look at your lifestyle and see where you are taking risks and eliminate those actions as soon as possible.
Eating healthy is one of the easiest ways to reduce ones risk for potential disease. Replacing high fat, sugar, sodium foods with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, high fiber foods. Replace soda with water, chips with carrot sticks or an apple. Eliminate foods with high saturated fats, trans fats, high cholesterol, and added sugars. Choose foods with potassium, dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin D, and folic acid. Balance your calorie intake to meet your body weight and size. Don’t eat oversized portions. Make sure you eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, grains, fat free or low fat dairy, and lean protein.
Next start moving. Exercise is vital to keeping appropriate circulation; blood, oxygen and nutrient flow throughout the body. Regular fitness is needed for proper weight management. For those who have been in active start exercising slowly and build up, increasing a little more as you are able. To increase your ability exercise more often or for longer or increase you efforts. Exercise should include aerobic activity as well as strength training. Aerobic activity should be one 30 minutes a day, 5-6 days a week, where as strength training should be done 2-3 days a week. Aerobic activities increase the heart rate and breathing rate. Aerobic activities include jogging, jump roping, swimming, and ride a bike, walking , dancing, and raking leaves. Strength training should include weighted and body weight exercises and all major muscle groups.
Limit or quit bad habits completely. Alcohol, cigarettes and drugs are unhealthy vices, which should be limited for a healthy life. Smoking cigarettes increase the potential health risks that one may experience. As soon as you stop smoking, your health will begin to improve. Alcohol should be consumed in moderation, for women no more than 1 drink a day and for men no more than 2 drinks a day. Over consumption of alcohol can damage the live and increase the likelihood for disease. Drugs should be avoided since drugs are a huge risk for disease and ultimately death .
Increase healthy normal daily activities such as sleeping, brushing your teeth, practicing safe sex, and managing stress. Sleep is necessary to keep our mind and body regenerated and functioning properly. Limiting sleep can limit cognitive abilities and increase the risk for both mental and physical disease. Eight to nine hours of sleep each night is sufficient to keep on e healthy. Brush your teeth at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste. This limits the bacteria in the mouth, which can lead to dental diseases. Flossing should be done daily to remove leftover food particles from in between teeth and gums. Mouthwash isn’t a necessity for dental hygiene however it can be used in your routine to keep your mouth feeling fresh and clean.
Having unprotected sex can lead to a permanent sexually transmitted disease. For those who don’t plan on waiting until marriage to have sex, birth control and contraceptives should always be used. Avoid having multiple partners and get checked every six months.
Stress is an unavoidable occurrence in almost everyone’s life. Coping with stress in healthy ways is important to keeping mental and physical wellness . Take time out of your day to distress and relax. Choose activities that make you happy such as exercising, art, and gardening, anything that will relax you and keep your mind off your stress.
Modify the areas of your life that are keeping you from being healthy. Even if all aspects of your life need to be worked on every change you make will improve your health. All three aspects of health, physical, mental and spiritual need appropriate and adequate changes to better your health. By finding the unhealthy habits you can begin to take charge of your everyday health.