Before discussing healthy habits, Marriam Webster defines a habit as a “usual way of behaving: something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way”.
Healthy habits improve your physical, mental, and emotional health. Like everything in life, it requires commitment and consistency. These habits can form a healthy lifestyle when practiced consistently.
Repetition is the only way to stay healthy. If you stop working, these goals can be reversed.
Healthy habits develop gradually. However, what one considers healthy may be unhealthy for another. Thus, know your stage and start healthy habits for yourself.
12 Healthy Habits That Guarantee Longevity
1. EAT REGULARLY
To get the energy it needs to function, we need to eat regularly. Eating regularly boosts metabolism and immunity. Skipping meals won’t help you lose weight.
You may compensate by eating more at the next level. Instead of fasting, starving, or bingeing, eat normally and at the right time to see results. Regular meal planning promotes a healthy diet and lifestyle.
2. Eat well.
Eating well is different from eating regularly. We often eat regularly but the wrong foods. Junk food is unhealthy and has become the norm. It has replaced meals today, which is wrong. Our fathers, who once ate pounded yam and garnished melon soup, are now eating pasta and noodles. As many adults say, this generation is indomitable.
Yogurt, cheese, pickles without vinegar (pickled cucumber), almond fruit (popularly known as “Ebelebo”), and well-prepared, nutritious meals should be eaten often.
We may not know about these superfoods. You can eat well without eating much. Nutrition is key to eating well.
“When you eat well, you eat large.” -DollyMchottney
3. EAT LIGHTLY
Eating regularly doesn’t mean overeating. Eating lightly keeps you healthy and alert, while overeating makes you tired. Eat five to six smaller meals and snacks instead of three large ones. It prevents hunger between meals and overeating at meals.
Light eating is crucial at night. Light dinners prevent fat hangovers and help you sleep. Additionally, the body stores more calories at night, making weight issues more likely.
4. Avoid between-meal snacks.
Regularly eating light doesn’t mean you can eat anything. A light meal takes four hours to digest. If you eat another meal within four hours, your body will digest one and then the other. Stomach upset, heartburn, drowsiness, and constipation result.
5. Adequate water intake
Water is vital. It accounts for most body weight. Water is essential to health and beauty because it reflects on the skin. Hydrate daily. Most people only drink water during or after meals. Health experts recommend eight 8-ounce glasses, or 2 liters, or half a gallon, daily.
Water flushes out waste, absorbs nutrients, aids digestion and cognitive function, regulates body temperature, helps the brain function, improves blood oxygen circulation, lubricates and cushions joints, spinal cord, and tissues, and more.
Water is essential to the body, so the list goes on. Water refreshes the mind, body, and soul. Water intake is crucial for good health. Keep water nearby to remind yourself to drink.
6. Adequate sleep
Rest and sleep are vital to health. The body needs it. Sleeping well, especially at night, improves thinking.
Did you know: Losing 1 minute of sleep at night increases your risk of obesity (hilarious, right?).
Sleeping too much can also do that.
Sleeping too much or too little can cause weight gain. “Adequate Sleep”
Like eating, drinking, and breathing, sleeping is essential. Sleeping, like these other needs, is essential to lifelong health and well-being.
Sleep helps your body and brain stay healthy. Sleep helps kids and teens grow. If untreated, sleep deficiency can cause physical and mental health issues, fatigue, injuries, lost productivity, and even death.
People go to bed but can’t sleep. This simple tip helped me:
Sleeping is hard because your brain keeps working. So grab every activity and thought an hour before bed.
7. Exercise regularly.
Regular exercise is essential for good health. It improves mind and body. The body is meant to move. Idle brains and bodies are at risk of Alzheimer’s. Get up and move, even if it’s just walking.
Exercise releases feel-good chemicals. It aids mild depression and low self-esteem. Interestingly, beating a personal best can give people a sense of accomplishment and pride.
Obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure are reduced. It helps control weight. Exercising burns calories and tones muscles. 30 minutes per day or 200 minutes per week is ideal. Walking, running, swimming, or using exercise equipment can accomplish this. Every day, flex every joint.
8. Buckle up.
DollyMchottney dislikes front seats because of seat belts. I’m not sure if you’re like me, but sometimes it feels like real work to me. Unfortunately, my mother and brother were in an accident, and they stressed how seatbelts saved their lives (you know besides grace). I imagined driving without a seatbelt. Stop imagining and focus on healthy habits.
Seatbelts save lives. They, like airbags, reduce injuries in a crash. Seatbelt-less drivers risk serious injury or death. In an accident, not wearing a seatbelt could hurt your insurance claim and increase your injury risk. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death before 35.
Anyway, nobody reminds me to buckle up anymore. So wearing seatbelts while driving is a healthy habit.
9. Avoid smoking.
Smoking damages nearly every organ and causes many diseases like heart disease. Smoking is linked to thirty-two diseases, including lung, oesophagal, throat, stomach, and health issues. Smoking kills more Americans than alcohol, HIV, drugs, and cars combined. Smoking cuts men’s lifespans by twelve years and women’s by eleven.
See also smoking’s dangers.
10. Moderately drink alcohol
Moderate alcohol consumption may reduce the risk of heart disease, ischemic stroke, and diabetes. Studies show that one or two glasses of wine per day aid digestion and improve health. Anything over that can cause overeating, traffic accidents, personality issues, anti-social behavior, and more.
11. Avoid cosmetics.
Unfortunately, society needs cosmetics. Social media beauty is a goal for everyone (you know, melanin popping, bronze on fleek and all of that). Cosmetics are more popular today. We forget that some cosmetics contain harmful chemicals that can harm the skin. Cosmetics are chemical bombs and the skin is the largest organ.
Chemical-based cosmetics, especially low-quality ones, can damage your skin and cause discoloration, acne, inflammation, anaphylaxis, skin irritation, discomfort, blotches, burns, and blemishes. It also increases skin cancer risk.
12. Avoid artificial sweeteners.
Artificial sweeteners, also known as sugar substitutes, taste like sugar but have zero or low calories. Plant extracts or chemical synthesis produce these artificial sweeteners.
Most foods and drinks today contain artificial sweeteners, which can have mild side effects if consumed in excess. Some artificial sweeteners have been linked to digestive issues, headaches, and dizziness.
Self-discipline is the key to each of these twelve longevity factors. They’re optional. They’re optional. You control them and they ensure healthy habits.