Healthy Living Tips: 9 Ways to Stay Healthy For Life

Did you ever make a promise to yourself that you were going to get healthier?

Maybe you wanted to lose weight, get stronger, have more energy, or just feel better.

Or maybe you were under doctor’s orders to eat right and exercise more.

Well, that all sounds great. We all want to improve our health. But with so many choices and information about how to get healthier, it can be hard to ever get started.

So, instead of trying to learn about the latest fitness craze or nutrition fad, we think you should keep it simple. Stick with the basics.

After all, if you want to live a long and healthy life, you don’t need to run marathons or eat spinach every day.

But you do need to make smart decisions that will improve your health over the long run.

So, here’s 9 healthy living tips that will keep your mind, body, and spirit humming for years to come.

Healthy Living Tips To Keep You Fit and Well

1. Eat Right

Healthy eating is tougher now than ever. The average supermarket or restaurant is packed with unhealthy choices that cause weight gain and sap energy. Over time, making poor food choices can cause disease and illness.

But you don’t have to be crazy about it. Stick with the basics. Eat natural foods often and organic when you can. Build your plate around lean protein, healthy fats, and plant-based foods. Cut out the junk.

You’ll find that once you think about healthy eating as eating simply, it will be easier to eat more good, real food and cut out the bad, fake stuff.

2. Stay Fit

People who exercise regularly are generally happier and healthier than people who don’t.

So get motivated to exercise by finding a friend to work out with, do it outdoors, and schedule it in advance. Once a workout is on your calendar you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

And when all else fails just put on your workout clothes. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started.

3. Stress Less

In the US alone, 77% of people regularly experience physical symptoms of stress. That’s not a group you want to be a part of.

You can manage stress by exercising regularly, cleaning clutter and bad relationships from your life, and getting enough rest.

Speaking of rest…

4. Sleep Well

While skipping out on a good night’s sleep every now and then isn’t going to hurt, making a habit of restless nights and tiring days can wreak havoc on your health.

So sleep better by setting a sleep schedule, minimizing distractions, sleeping in a dark room, and most importantly, making sleep a priority.

5. Think Positive

Healthy living tips should only be about your body, right?

Wrong!

The mind-body connection is well established and lots of research shows positive thinking can benefit your health, personal life, and professional success.

6. Choose Happiness

Sure, some people are naturally happier than others. But there are things you can consciously do to be happier. And guess what…they’re all free.

So if you want to be happier…which, well, who doesn’t, there are a few things to do. Practice gratitude. Help others. Limit negative disruptions. Learn how to meditate.

This stuff is proven to increase happiness, so give it a shot…and turn that frown, upside-down!

7. Prioritize personal relationships

The benefits of friendship and romantic relationships are many. They can increase feel-good chemicals in your body (endorphins) and reduce stress hormones. All of that adds up to improved health.

So tell someone you love how you feel about them. Thank a friend for always being there. And prioritize the important relationships in your life so they’ll be a pillar of strength you can lean on when you need to.

8. Respect your body

There’s lots of money to be made in products that you put in your body. Medical drugs. Nutritional supplements. Vitamins and minerals. The companies that create these products spend billions of dollars each year convincing you to add them to your health routine.

But sometimes the healthiest choices you can make are about what you keep out of your body, not what you add to it.

This means never smoking cigarettes. It means drinking alcohol in moderation. It also means making junk food a thing of the past.

9. Follow your purpose

Everyone has a purpose in life. Yours may be focused on your career. Or your family. Or your hobby. Whatever it is, spend as much time following your purpose so you can align your spirit with your mission in life. Good health will follow.

Healthy Living Tips: Resources

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Dan Cassidy is CEO and Founder of Inspiyr.com, a personal growth site helping people be healthy, happy, and successful. A confirmed self-improvement junkie, Dan is a former collegiate athlete, personal trainer, and advertising executive.

Featured photo by hang_in_there