Healthy living with healthy eating habits

In today’s world of 2 minute instant noodles, there are lots of speculations about how to adopt the healthy eating habits to achieve those healthy families. A healthy eating plan is helpful to a great extent as it includes major calculations about the nutrients and ingredients that a human body needs.

One of the most important points of healthy living is never to skip breakfasts as they are the most significant part of a day’s meals and they are able to keep you going for the entire day. The other big thing to remember is not eating so many bigger meals. Instead, meals should be broken down into several smaller meals so that the body will be able to absorb the food in a better way.

Many healthy families have reported that as a part of healthy lifestyles, they follow a regular time table for their meals and by having meals at the right time daily, they are able to keep themselves in perfect shapes. When we talk about healthy food and healthy eating habits, the very first thing that comes to our mind includes fruits and vegetables. No doubt, they should be a mandatory part of a person’s diet without which, a proper nutritious diet is not possible at all. While looking for healthy eating foods, you should ensure that they are natural and organic as far as possible.

You should try to avoid artificial and canned foods as far as possible and also make sure that you consume some cereals also for your breakfast. These are healthy foods to be eaten in the morning as they are able to provide enough energy to the person’s body. It is also better to eat green foods as much as possible as they are extremely rich in nutrients like calcium, fiber and vitamin C. Some of the most popular healthy food items include Broccoli, wild salmon, grape tomatoes, milk and sweet potatoes. It is wise to make a list of which foods you should eat and which foods you should avoid so that it will become easier to understand which foods you should consume.

The main type of food that should be avoided are fats and foods that contain too much of sugar. Healthy foods such as different types of nuts not only provide a lot of energy to the body but also a great deal of body strength. People who believe in healthy lifestyle and healthy living are looking for ways through which they can prepare food at their own home. We all know the unhealthy ways of dealing with food in restaurants and unreliable quality of grains ground in grinding mills in the market.

Several healthy cooking equipments are available in the market including juicers, flour and grain mills, blenders, sprouters and cookers so that you can prepare your own food with your own hands and eliminate any chances of adulteration and unhygienic methods of cooking. All these healthy cooking equipments help the consumers to carry out all methods of cooking at their own home including sprouting, roasting, baking and blending and adopt a healthy lifestyle of living.

Small Steps to a Healthy Lifestyle – 2

51. Perform gardening or home repair activities.

52. Avoid laborsaving devices.

53. Take small trips on foot to get your body moving.

54. Play with your kids 30 minutes a day.

55. Dance to music.

56. Keep a pair of comfortable walking or running shoes in your car and office.

57. Make a Saturday morning walk a group habit.

58. Walk briskly in the mall.

59. Choose activities you enjoy & you'll be more likely to stick with them.

60. Stretch before bed to give you more energy when you wake.

61. Take the long way to the water cooler.

62. Explore new physical activities.

63. Vary your activities, for interest and to broaden the range of benefits.

64. Reward and acknowledge your efforts.

65. Choose fruit for dessert.

66. Consume alcoholic beverages in moderation, if at all. (Adults only, of course)

67. Take stairs instead of the escalator.

68. Conduct an inventory of your meal/snack and physical activity patterns.

69. Share an entree with a friend.

70. Grill fruits or vegetables.

71. Eat before grocery shopping.

72. Choose a checkout line without a candy display.

73. Make a grocery list before you shop.

74. Buy 100% fruit juices over soda and sugary drinks. (But stick to the AAP limit of 4-6 ounces for younger kids.)

75. Swim with your kids.

76. Flavor foods with herbs, spices, and other low fat seasonings.

77. Remove skin from poultry before cooking to lower fat content.

78. Eat before you get too hungry.

79. Don't skip breakfast.

80. Stop eating when you are full.

81. Snack on fruits and vegetables.

82. Top your favorite cereal with apples or bananas.

83. Try brown rice or whole-wheat pasta.

84. Include several servings of whole grain food daily.

85. When eating out, choose a small or medium portion.

86. If main dishes are too big, choose an appetizer or a side dish instead.

87. Ask for salad dressing "on the side."

88. Don't take seconds.

89. Try your burger with just lettuce, tomato and onion.

90. Try a green salad instead of fries.

91. Bake or broil fish.

92. Walk instead of sitting around.

93. Eat sweet foods in small amounts.

94. Take your dog on longer walks.

95. Drink lots of water.

96. Cut back on added fats or oils in cooking or spreads.

97. Walk the beach instead of sunbathing.

98. Walk to a co-worker's desk instead of emailing or calling them.

99. Carry your groceries instead of pushing a cart.

100. Use a snow shovel instead of a snow blower.

Small Steps to a Healthy Lifestyle -- 1

Today's lifestyle doesn't allow much room for health. And that's where Small Steps comes in. We know that it's impossible for many people to make dramatic lifestyle changes. Instead, we want to help you learn ways that you can change small things about your life and see big results.

Check out these 50 Small Steps to see what you can do to change your family's life.

1. Walk to work.

2. Use fat free milk over whole milk. (As long as your child is at least 2 years old)

3. Do sit-ups in front of the TV.

4. Walk during lunch hour.

5. Drink water before a meal.

6. Eat leaner red meat & poultry.

7. Eat half your dessert.

8. Walk instead of driving whenever you can.

9. Take family walk after dinner.

10. Skate to work instead of driving.

11. Avoid food portions larger than your fist.

12. Mow lawn with push mower. (Remember that the AAP says that children younger than 12 years should not use walk-behind mowers.)

13. Increase the fiber in your diet.

14. Walk to your place of worship instead of driving.

15. Walk kids to school.

16. Get a dog and walk it.

17. Join an exercise group.

18. Drink diet soda. (If your kids must drink soda and are already drinking enough milk.)

19. Replace Sunday drive with Sunday walk.

20. Do yard work.

21. Eat off smaller plates.

22. Get off a stop early and walk.

23. Don't eat late at night.

24. Skip seconds.

25. Work around the house.

26. Skip buffets.

27. Grill, steam or bake instead of frying.

28. Bicycle to the store instead of driving.

29. Take dog to the park.

30. Ask your doctor about taking a multi-vitamin.

31. Go for a half-hour walk instead of watching TV.

32. Use vegetable oils over solid fats.

33. More carrots, less cake.

34. Fetch the newspaper yourself.

35. Sit up straight at work.

36. Wash the car by hand.

37. Don't skip meals.

38. Eat more celery sticks.

39. Run when running errands.

40. Pace the sidelines at kids' athletic games.

41. Take wheels off luggage.

42. Choose an activity that fits into your daily life.

43. Park further from the store and walk.

44. Ask a friend to exercise with you.

45. Make time in your day for physical activity.

46. Exercise with a video if the weather is bad.

47. Bike to the barbershop or beauty salon instead of driving.

48. Keep to a regular eating schedule.

49. If you find it difficult to be active after work, try it before work.

50. Take a walk or do desk exercises instead of a cigarette or coffee break.

Simple Ways to Move Your Body

 

You can start the process of weight loss now by adding a little more activity to your life. If you're not ready for a structured program, start small. Every little bit counts and it all adds up to burning more calories.

    * Turn off the TV. Once a week, turn off the TV and do something a little more physical with your family. Play games, take a walk...almost anything will be more active than sitting on the couch.

    * Walk more. Look for small ways to walk more. When you get the mail, take a walk around the block, take the dog for an extra outing each day or walk on your treadmill for 5 minutes before getting ready for work.

    * Do some chores. Shoveling snow, working in the garden, raking leaves, sweeping the floor...these kinds of activities may not be 'vigorous' exercise, but they can keep you moving while getting your house in order.

    * Pace while you talk. When you're on the phone, pace around or even do some cleaning while gabbing. This is a great way to stay moving while doing something you enjoy.

    * Be aware. Make a list of all the physical activities you do on a typical day. If you find that the bulk of your time is spent sitting, make another list of all the ways you could move more--getting up each hour to stretch or walk, walk the stairs at work, etc.

Healthy Living Tips for a Better Life

In order to be super healthy, have more natural energy, stay well and live a long fruitful life, you have to develop healthy habits. These healthy eating and healthy living tips can guide your way.

1. Eat more nutritious high fiber foods. Healthy eating requires including plenty of colorful vegetables, fresh fruit, whole grains, beans, raw nuts and seeds and other high fiber foods.

2. Reduce and balance your fat intake. Research shows that it’s best to keep fat calories around 25 to 30% of total calories (the national average is 42%). And the vast majority of the fats you eat should be good healthy essential fatty acids and omega 3 with EPA and DHA.

3. Drink plenty of clean water. 8 glasses of pure drinking water a day supplies you with this essential nutrient that helps you digest your food, transport nutrition and get rid of toxins.

4. Exercise regularly and sensibly. Physical activity builds health and keeps bones strong. But daily walking and light weight training is better than strenuous high-impact exercises.

5. Cut out refined carbohydrates. High glycemic index foods are a nutritional nightmare, causing bursts of energy followed by bouts of fatigue. They take your emotions on a roller coaster ride to end up at depression and irritability. Choose a low glycemic diet instead.

6. Limit your salt intake. Consuming too much sodium throws your minerals off balance, causes excess water retention and possibly high blood pressure. You can get used to less.

7. Eliminate negative habits. Give up excess caffeine and other stimulants, reduce your alcohol intake and, if you smoke, quit. You can replace bad habits with healthy new habits.

8. Maintain a healthy weight. Both overweight and yo-yo weight loss puts extra stress on your body. Rather than relying on diet pills and crash fad diets, it’s best to finally get it right once and for all with healthy eating habits, moderate exercise and a good healthy lifestyle.

9. Take quality supplements. Numerous studies show that optimum nutrition levels, higher than the RDA's, can help you to feel better, lose weight, prevent disease and slow down aging – naturally. So add high quality nutritional health supplements to your daily menu.

10. Reduce the stress in you life. Good stress management and stress nutrition can improve both health and happiness. And, as Abe Lincoln said, “Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” So make up your mind to relax, enjoy life and be happy.

The Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

Life either happens to us, or we take hold of life and live it.

Here are 10 Ways to get a life and start living it.

1. Give yourself permission to claim your life. That's right — permission. You're the only one who can decide you are in charge of your life. Even though it feels like you're not supposed to do so, turn off the internal editors, the old tape recordings, the "shoulds, have tos, and musts", and the rules that didn't come from you.

2. Define what living means to you. It's not as hard as it sounds. Just picture yourself at the end of your life looking back. What words would you want to describe how you lived your life and who you are as a person?

3. Stop living in the future. Every time you think "someday" or "when I have time I will," stop. Ask yourself, "Why not now?" Think about this sentence, "I always wanted to, but never did." Start doing the things you always planned to do. Choose your life every morning. Plan one thing you will do that day to feel alive.

4. Surround yourself with people who enjoy living. They've obviously discovered how to have a life and live it. Why not hang with the pros?

5. Lay down your pain and your anger. Carrying them around makes living harder and less fun. It doesn't bring anything, and it steals a lot.

6. Let the losers win. Don't argue about things that you don't care about. Unless there's some real threat, let the folks who have something to prove, prove what they need to. Why waste your living time trying to fix what's wrong with them?

7. Create energy. Jump to forgiveness and love, then figure things out. Most conclusions we jump to are not only wrong, they're negative. Negative conclusions lead us to prepare a defense. Being on the defensive isn't living. It's hiding from life.

8. Learn the physical symptoms of when your head and heart become disconnected. We know when we're having a knee jerk reaction, when we're feeling sorry for ourselves, and when we're being blind to people's feelings. We can remember how it felt physically while we were behaving badly. Get to know those symptoms, and you can stop the behavior. Living life will feel a whole lot safer because you won't be in danger of shooting yourself in the foot.

9. Take small risks that push your boundaries in every way. The joy of life is packed in learning that matches our skill set. When we stretch just a bit intellectually, physically, emotionally, we grow. Living is growing. Even your cells know that.

10. Value and protect the people and the places you care about. A job isn't a life. It's just a part of one. Let the people you care about come first, and let everyone know that you do. Re-read numbers 1 and 2.

We come into life with whatever we've got. It's ours to do with. It took me a while to figure that out — that my life isn't just what happens to me, that I could take hold of it.

A healthy life free of cost!

Well articles on such lines are authentically entitled to be written by a doctor, or some health expert. However this piece, I would like to mention, has been built with inputs from journals, medical articles, excerpts from experts in columns on health issues and questions answered by them along with the knowledge that I gathered in bits and pieces from my mother who is a physician.
To start with,

Healthy Hair:

o Use a mild shampoo and use it twice or at the most thrice weekly
o Condition only if required
o Massage the scalp with oil
o Natural good quality oil with almond as an ingredient is helpful

Healthy Face Skin:

o Face is sensitive, it requires washing many times a day, not necessarily with soap each time
o Rinsing your eyes is required if irritation occurs
o Creams are a must in the winter season.
o Lip balms are indispensable, since it is important to make sure you are crack free (specially in wintry conditions)

Habits for a Healthy Body:

o Bathing once thoroughly with soap a day is a must, the second time on a given day don't use soap too much
o Keep your nails (hands & legs) trimmed.
o Don't touch any part of your body after dirtying your hands via various ways.

Healthy Teeth:

o Brush at least twice daily, once in the morning and before retiring to bed, the latter should not be forgotten at any cost
o Gargle after having beverages of any sort
o Avoid chocolates and drinks, same goes for cigarettes

To prevent yourself from common cold, make it a point to dry your hair completely after shower, don't wet yourself in the rains, and don't stay in air conditioned rooms for prolonged periods of time. AC can prove to be harmful to skin too. Skin dryness is the possible cause and to prevent that use some kind of ointment before entering an AC room.

Always bear in mind ‘Health is wealth'. Best of all, these ideas are nearly free of cost.