9 Healthy Lifestyle Tips: The Complete List

This is the complete list of healthy lifestyle tips.

Did you know that the odds of being born is roughly 1 in 400 trillion [1]?

Each and every one of us is a miracle! However…

With over 31% of the U.K. population [2] (40% of the U.S population [3]) suffering from obesity and millions more from chronic illnesses [4], we need to be careful with the decisions we make and put in that extra bit of effort to stay healthy, happy and living this gift of a life to its fullest.

For this reason you’re going to find 10 special tips, which when combined: will help make you live the best possible life.

Here are the…

Top 9 Healthy Lifestyle Tips

1. Diversify your foods
2. Drink plenty of water
3. Get plenty of sleep
4. Become physically flexible
5. Detoxify your body
6. Become friends with brilliant people
7. Maintain a healthy weight
8. Engage in physical activities
9. Have a balance 

Ready for a healthier life? Let’s jump into the first tip!

1. Diversify Your Foods

Balance is the key to everything in life, and this is also true with your nutrition.

Did you know that there are 5 major food groups [5] to give you all the required body nutrients?

These are:

• Fruit and vegetables
• Starchy foods (carbohydrates)
• Dairy
• Protein
• Fat

Healthy eating is about eating a diverse range of food from all of the major food groups.

For example, a typical day could look like this:
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Note: The above daily meal intake is based on a 21 year old, 5ft 10 male looking to bulk with a 200 caloric surpluss.

Moving on…

Benefits of Eating Healthily:

• A reduced risk in cancer [6, 7]
• Weight loss [8]
• Heart health [9]
• The health of your children [10]
• Good mood [11]
• And many more

Good unprocessed foods will provide all the micro and macronutrients for a healthy life and… how much food you should eat depends on your age, gender and activity level [12].

Another quick and critically important lifestyle change you can easily make is to…

2. Drink Plenty of Water

Water plays an essential role in our bodies ability to function.

Our body needs enough water to carry out functions like supplying oxygen and nutrients to our body and discharging the wastes [13].

We lose water through urine, sweat, bowel movements, and breathing [14] yet… some people just don’t drink enough.
You might already know that 60% of your body is composed of water and… according to H.H. Mitchell JBC:

As animals composed of water, we must drink water. But what are the…

Benefits of Drinking Plenty of Water:

• Your mood and memory may improve [15, 16]
• Water can improve your exercise performance [17]
• It can reduce illnesses/common conditions such as headaches and migraines [18, 19]
• Water may prevent constipation [20, 21]
• Plus many more benefits

A healthy person should consume 3-4 litres of water per day. However:

Our food supplies 20% of water to our body so 2-3 liters (approx 8-10 300ml glasses) of water intake is recommended [22].

Now, this intake may vary depending on various factors like humidity, work activity, and your weight.

How Do You Know if You’re Dehydrated?

If you’re dehydrated your body may show symptoms such as:

• Dry lips
• Dark coloured urine
• And less urine [23]

Looking for these dehydration signs help remind each and every one of us to re-hydrate for a freshly replenished body and mind.

Quick tip: I always carry around this water bottle everywhere I go so that I can stay well hydrated and… when drinking plenty of water wasn’t a habit in the past, I would set myself the goal to drink 3 litres of water per day and now I don’t even have to think about it – I just drink.

3. Get Plenty of Sleep

There are dozens of benefits to sleeping but the most important one is: sleeping saves your life.

Without sleep, your mental and physical health would deteriorate as…

Sleep affects your overall body function and abilities such as:

• Learning
• Thinking
• Moving
• And memorizing:

How Can You Improve the Quality of Your Sleep?

There are a wide variety of factors which help or hinder your ability to sleep. Some of these include:

• Inconsistent bedtime routines: Having an inconsistent bedtime routine can lead to more frequent night awakenings and difficulty sleeping [24]. Studies show adults need at least 7-8 hours of sleep per night and children even more [25].
• Overusing electronics or bright lights before bed: Researchers have discovered that blue light (or light from your devices/some lights) can increase your serotonin levels (a hormone which makes you feel awake) and decrease your melatonin levels (a hormone which makes you feel sleepy). Scientists recommend turning off any bright lights/devices at least 30 minutes before getting into bed [26].
• Avoiding heavy meals: Eating too close to getting into bed may cause indigestion and sleep disruption [27].
• Reducing your intake of caffeine/nicotine/alcohol before bed: Caffeine blocks your adenosine receptor which is what makes you sleepy and nicotine and alcohol can also worsen sleep [26].
• Exercising earlier in the day: Sports Medicine have found that exercising vigorously within an hour before bed can negatively affect getting to sleep, the amount of sleep you get, and the quality [28].
• Wearing earplugs to prevent noise: Noise impacts the ability to sleep and it can be detrimental to your health if the noise is cumulative over a long period of time [29, 30, 31].
• Exposing yourself to heat before bed: Studies show that taking a hot shower/bath 90 minutes before bed can change your core body temperature to eventually drop so by the time you get into bed you can drift off easily [32].

4. Become Physically Flexible

One of the easiest and most straightforward ways to get a healthy life is to spend some time doing yoga or stretching.

There are a variety of yoga poses and routines which work to stretch, strengthen, mobilise your body and relax your mind.

You can also perform yoga with a variety of different equipment.

Here is an example of an intermediate yoga ball workout you can try:

A yoga ball is essentially an exercise ball which is constructed of soft elastic and air.

As you can see in the video above, you can do a lot with it and here are some of its benefits:

• It improves the health of your back and spine and is also useful to relieving and preventing back pain.
• Regular use can enhance an upright posture for body muscle balance.
• You may be able to reduce fat as sitting on the ball engages your abdominal muscles, which helps you burn fat and build muscle.

Even one minute of yoga ball exercising is enough for beginners and you can perform lots of intense full-body workouts as you can see here.

Now it’s time for tip number…

5. Detoxify Your Body

A health goal everyone should strive for is a lean, fit, well-rested body with soft and supple skin.

Unfortunately, there are so many temptations in life which our brains are so easily persuaded towards.

The foods which are most addictive are those high in sugar, fat, salt, and sometimes twenty other chemical ingredients which we may not recognise.

Alcohol is within itself a toxic beverage which if consumed in excess regularly, can cause many health problems [33, 34, 35].

Why am I saying all of this?

Because in the modern world, it’s very easy to overload your body with toxins which negatively impact how you look and feel.

But, the way of reducing the number of toxins is through:

Detoxification

Detoxification (or detox) is the process of eliminating toxic substances from your body and…

While the majority of the tips on this list will help you detox your body, there are even more things you can do such as:

Drink less alcohol: 90% of alcohol is metabolised in your liver [36] and your liver enzymes turn alcohol into acetaldehyde (a cancer-causing chemical [37]). You don’t even need alcohol in small quantities if you eat a well-balanced diet [38].
Decrease your salt intake: If you consume too much salt (without enough water) your body releases a hormone called Arginine Vasopressin which prevents you from urinating and therefore prevents you from detoxifying [39].
Eat food high in antioxidants: You can reduce oxidative stress (which causes free radicals and other toxins) by eating more antioxidants [40].
Consume more prebiotics: Prebiotics help keep your digestive system healthy and allow you to detoxify because of it [41]. Foods high in prebiotics include artichokes tomatoes, asparagus, onions, garlic and bananas.

6. Become Friends With Brilliant People

What makes a good, healthy life?

Good relationships!

Harvard conducted a lifetime study with hundreds of participants on the question: what makes a good life?

Here is the Ted talk which I believe you will find fascinating:

In the video above, psychiatrist Robert Waldinger explains how a good life is not built from money or fame, but instead: Good relationships.

But what is one of the keywords for the hallmark of a good relationship?

Positivity.

By simply thinking positively you bring about positive reactions from others, have a greater level of self-esteem, energy, and an improved mental health.

It’s ok and completely normal to be negative sometimes according to Dr. Elaine Ryan [42], but it may become a problem when you dwell on your negative thoughts.

How Do You Become More Positive?

1. Choose the right social group: Surround yourself with positive people as we become those who we spend the most time with.
2. Practice gratitude: You can practice gratitude either through prayer or simply by writing down three things you’re grateful for each morning – actually, give it a try now! What are three things you’re grateful for? It could be anything, like… having a smartphone? Keep reading once you’ve done this. 🙂
3. Give: A few acts of kindness go a long way and — whenever I think of giving — I have this memory of Morgan Freeman (playing God) in the film Evan Almighty:

4. Breathe deeply: Your lymphatic system is activated when breathing deeply, which may help you release carbon monoxide and other toxins.

7. Maintain a Healthy Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is the first and foremost step towards a healthier lifestyle

When you’re a good bodyweight you have a decreased risk of the following [43]:

• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Type 2 diabetes
• Some types of cancer
• Osteoarthritis
• Back pain

To check whether you’re a healthy weight, you can use this body mass index (BMI) calculator which will tell you what range you fall into (underweight, normal, overweight) by recording your height and weight.

If your weight is below the BMI, you should work to increase your weight and if your weight is above the BMI, you should work to lessen it to an optimal level. However…

The BMI calculator may not be right for you as many other things could impact your weight such as your muscle mass, age, gender, lifestyle, and genetics [44].

How Do You Obtain a Good BMI?

Here are some steps:

1. Eat your food with the awareness of its nutrient density and kcals.
2. To lose weight, eat less than your daily requirements.
3. In order to gain weight, eat more than your daily requirements.
4. Schedule physical activity at least three times per week with 150 minutes in total. This will help you maintain your weight and keep you fit and healthy [45].

This now brings us to tip number…

8. Engage in Physical Activities

We all know that physical activity provides long term health benefits.

The list of benefits is endless and… your chances of living longer will increase dramatically with plenty of exercise (in conjunction with good food).

In fact, scientists say that people who engage in exercise for at least 150 minutes per week have a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality in comparison to those who are inactive [45].

What sort of exercise could you do?

The exercise you do doesn’t have to be high-intensity or rigorous to the point of exhaustion.

Instead, you can start by getting a dog to walk or walking the children to school as opposed to driving.

You could get off your train or your bus one stop earlier and walk the rest of the way or start cycling instead of driving to work.

Regular physical activity can make you feel good about yourself while reducing health risks such as [45]:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Type 2 diabetes
• Osteoporosis

Also, in conjunction with your aerobic exercise… scientists also show that doing a couple of muscle-strengthening workouts each week is important for [46, 47]:

• Decreasing the risk of injury
• Controlling body fat
• Developing stronger bones
• And enhancing your quality of life

Movement is the key to life… Have you ever seen a granny like this before?

 

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9. Have a Balance

We all know that too much of a bad thing isn’t a good thing (like overeating), but…

Is too much of a good thing (such as work) really a good thing?

While the studies on this topic lack empirical evidence, what we know is having a work-life balance may contribute towards a:

• More fulfilled relationships with the family
• Reduced level of stress
• Improved work productivity [Thompson & Bunderson, 2001]
• Higher self-esteem
• Greater purpose
• And many more but… [48]

More research needs to be done on this difficult to measure topic.

However, how do you feel when you have a work-life balance?

Perhaps when you were in school, did you feel more relaxed after the school holidays and more stressed towards the end of term?

Subjectively speaking: Balance is the cradle of control.

I believe it gives people the opportunity to do the things they enjoy doing with the people they love.

In other words: A good life.

Here are some ways to enjoy a balanced life:

• Wake up early in the morning and start your day earlier so you can get more done earlier on in the day (you may even be able to have breakfast with your kids before school).
• Write down a morning and evening routine for a habitual ritual you can cherish.
• Spare some time for meditating and relaxing, and follow the tips on this article.
• Do not procrastinate and accept new challenges that are thrown your way.
• Turn your smartphone off, get somebody to hide it from you just one day per week.
• Keep your room clean and… make sure that your bedroom is your room, not your smartphones/electronics room.

By making a few changes in your life like going for a daily morning walk instead of smoking, working earlier and getting more sleep, you may release a lot of stress from your life and gain greater productivity and happiness.

Conclusion

Life is too wonderful to be bogged down with unnecessary health problems which is why…

I’d like to hear what your thoughts are now:

What does a healthy lifestyle mean to you?

What tip from today do you prefer?

Perhaps you disagree that a work-life balance is important?

Either way, I’d love to hear your insights in the comments below.

Lastly: Please follow us on Instagram because we want to continue providing healthy lifestyle tips in fun interactive formats, straight to your feed.