Healthy lifestyle. How to start?

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Healthy lifestyle. How to start?

Chmel-Dunaj G.M.,

Khmel O.S., teacher of the Institute of Anatomy Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, PhD in medical sciences (Lithuania

Keywords: healthy lifestyle, recommendation, nutrition, consistent plan

Recently, more and more people are thinking about how to live healthy. Someone tries to start a new life from Monday, someone postpones it until January 1, but the appointed date comes, and life remains unchanged. Someone lacks motivation, someone could not make a plan for transition to new, positive habits. The purpose of this article is to help those who have decided to start leading a healthy lifestyle now, how to start living in a new way and not get off this path. So let's look at the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the preliminary plan that gradually leads to it.

The way to a healthy lifestyle

There are many reasons why a person wants to lead a healthy lifestyle. For some, it became a necessity due to health problems, someone was inspired by the example of friends or relatives, someone realized that it is no longer possible to live the way we are now. A person's motivation should be personal, because it is what keeps him on the way to achieving his goal.

Baghdad doctor Ibn Butlan was the first to talk about the need to lead a healthy lifestyle, he was the first in history to create recommendations for a healthy lifestyle called «Takwim Asiha» or health calendar [1]. The collection of useful advice was compiled by order of the king of Sicily in the 13th century.

To begin with, let's define what a healthy lifestyle is.

A healthy lifestyle is an individual system of actions aimed at ensuring a person's physical and spiritual well-being [2].

Why is the system individual? Of course, it is based on such general principles as giving up alcohol and smoking, eating right, and exercising. However, not only a person determines the diet and physical activity for himself, because there are also recommendations of the World Health Organization [2].

Adherence to the basic principles of a healthy lifestyle, such as giving up alcohol and tobacco, significantly increases a person's life expectancy. Studies conducted in Germany and America have shown that a healthy lifestyle increases life expectancy by an average of 12-12.5 years [3].

This study shows that abandoning the system of «street (fast) food» and switching to a healthy diet reduces the risk of heart disease by 22 %. First of all, this is due to the fact that people who do not monitor their diet suffer from obesity, which is a risk factor for heart diseases [2-3, 6].

Separately, it is worth noting the positive impact of physical culture: according to researchers, physical activity for 7 hours a week reduces mortality from various causes by 24 % [4, 7].

How to start a healthy lifestyle

In theory, everything sounds clear, but how to move to a healthy lifestyle in practice? There is an opinion that our body needs 21 days to form any habit, even a positive one. Another important principle: consistency. If you immediately run to the gym and start counting every calorie, most likely, it will not bring any benefit. Once every three weeks, you need to introduce a new rule into your life. You need to start with something simple, for example, morning gymnastics. Get up 10 minutes earlier every day and do light exercises: twists, squats and push-ups. Observe physiological, rhythmic breathing. Gradually add new exercises to the routine. An excellent option for morning warm-up can be the Surja Namaskar complex, start its performance with an easier option [5]. When morning gymnastics becomes an integral part of your day, add a new healthy habit.

Another important aspect is the normalization of sleep. Most people need at least 7-8 hours of sleep. It is necessary to go to bed no later than 11 p.m. A full night's rest is necessary for our body, and in addition, it needs strength for physical exercises and productive work during the next day. Chronic lack of sleep can cause a feeling of constant fatigue, can cause a decrease in the level of attention, concentration, after which a person becomes less productive. Scientists have also proven that insufficient sleep leads to significant memory impairment.

When our body adapts to physical exertion and exercise becomes a necessity, a person will be ready to begin more serious training. Do not forget about the gradual increase in loads. It is not necessary to be in the gym for 8 hours every day or exhaust yourself with marathon distances. It is best to choose physical activity that you like and enjoy, and include walking before going to bed.

Every day before going to bed, it is advisable to walk for 20-30 minutes in the park, track the distance traveled during this time, gradually increase the time of walking, and then switch to jogging. Hatha yoga classes will benefit your body, start with simple and easy complexes after 30 minutes, do them regularly, at first 2-3 times a week, and then try every day. Over time, the duration of the training will increase, and you will complete a full 1.5-hour practice [4, 7].

Nutrition is the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle

Let this be the next step in changing life for the better. It is important to do this gradually, you do not need to turn into a person who counts calories on a plate with a manic desire.

At the beginning, it is necessary to refuse fast food and snacks «on the go», according to the physiological needs of the body, it is necessary to eat three times a day, between equal time intervals. It is important to normalize your diet. Replace chocolates and cupcakes with nuts and dried fruits, eat less sugar and flour [5-6].

It is necessary to give up bad habits, the sooner, the better. Alcohol and tobacco have a negative effect on the body, cause addiction and destroy our personality. Of course, it is difficult to give up cigarettes for those who have been smoking for decades, but it is extremely important to do so. There are many methods and ways to get rid of stupid habits, you need to choose in your life. It's important to keep fighting the addiction and keep trying.

Healthy Lifestyle. Recommendations

After getting acquainted with some basics of a healthy lifestyle, consider the recommendations of the World Health Organization, they are suitable for most people. These recommendations will help preserve health for many years.

12 steps to a healthy diet according to WHO [8]:

1. Eat a nutritious diet based on a variety of foods, mostly plant-based rather than animal-based.

2. Eat bread, whole grains, pasta, rice or potatoes several times a day.

3. Eat a variety of vegetables and fruits, preferably fresh and local, several times a day (at least 400 g per day).

4. Maintain body weight within recommended limits (BMI 18.5-25) by engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity, preferably daily.

5. Control fat intake (no more than 30 % of daily energy) and replace most saturated fats with unsaturated fats.

6. Replace fatty meats and meat products with beans, legumes, lentils, fish, poultry or lean meats.

7. Use milk and dairy products (kefir, sour milk, yogurt and cheese) with low fat and salt content.

8. Choose foods with a low sugar content and consume free sugars in moderation, limiting the frequency of consumption of sugary drinks and sweets.

9. Choose a low-salt diet. Total salt intake should not exceed one teaspoon (5 g) per day, including salt found in bread, processed, smoked and canned foods. (Iodization of salt should be universal where there is a problem of iodine deficiency).

10. WHO does not set specific limits on alcohol consumption, as evidence shows that the ideal solution for health is not to drink at all, so the less, the better.

11. Prepare food in a safe and hygienic way. Steam, bake, boil or microwave to reduce added fat.

12. Encourage exclusive breastfeeding up to 6 months and the introduction of safe and adequate complementary foods from about 6 months of age. To promote the continuation of breastfeeding during the first 2 years of life.

What is the point of keeping a healthy lifestyle?

It seems that the answer to this question is obvious - to preserve your health. Along with this, there are many different advantages that will make you think about the need to switch to a new way of life.

1) We save resources by giving up bad habits such as alcohol and smoking. Now with this money you can, for example, buy fresh vegetables and fruits.

2) Find a suitable life partner. It is unlikely that you can meet a potential life partner who follows a healthy lifestyle in a night club or bar.

3) Raise healthy children and be an example for them. In connection with the previous point, if the parents lead a dubious lifestyle, and alcohol and tobacco have become their reliable friends, then it is not necessary to talk about the fact that they will give birth to healthy children.

4) Improve the quality of life.

5) More free time appears. For example, it takes a person 2-3 minutes to smoke a cigarette, and how many cigarettes does a person smoke per day? How much per year? This free time will be enough to read a postponed book or take up a new interesting hobby.

A consistent plan for transitioning to a healthy lifestyle

We have already considered how to start a healthy life and what are the advantages of such a transition, now it's time to act. Below is a step-by-step plan for transitioning to a healthy lifestyle, it is recommended by nature and can be used as a base, it can include aspects that are relevant for anyone. It is necessary to remember that a healthy lifestyle is an individual system. This plan is the first step to changing your life for the better.

It is worth taking as a basis the well-known fact that any habit is formed within 21 days. For your convenience, the step-by-step plan will consist of 12 steps lasting 1 month each, covering the basics of a healthy lifestyle (nutrition, physical activity, etc.). You should not wait for the beginning of the new year, do not postpone your aspirations to be healthy and beautiful, you should start implementing them today.

Step 1. Where to start a healthy lifestyle? From keeping a diary where you can note all your achievements, setting goals and marking their achievement, measuring your physical activity and the amount of water you drink. First, write down your weight and height, you can write down the width of the waist or other characteristics. Set yourself the first goal: exercise every morning and go to bed no later than 11:00 p.m. Find a set of exercises that you can perform and start. Do gymnastics every day, note it in the diary. Also record how your mood changes. Nutritional recommendations: eat regularly, three times a day, avoid a strong feeling of hunger and excessive snacks.

Step 2. At the beginning of the month, weigh yourself, measure your waist and make appropriate entries in your diary. There must be changes over time. Perfectly! Now to new tasks. Walks are part of our life. Every day, replace a trip in transport with walking distances. Track your steps with a pedometer and record how many steps you've taken and for how long. It's time to give up sweets like candy, chocolate bars, and replace them with healthy foods like nuts and dried fruits.

Step 3. If you start the month with regular weighing, the results will be better. However, this is not a reason to stop. In the new month, you should add sports training three times a week to walks and morning exercises. Switch to controlling liquid consumption, drink more than a liter of pure water during the day (individual norm), coffee - no more than 2 cups.

Step 4. During the month, start to actively rest, use trips to nature, instead of a sofa with a monitor screen, you can also actively spend time playing active games (volleyball, football). Everything that has already become a habit: exercise and sports three times a week - must be preserved and continued. Time to reduce the consumption of animal food in the diet, once a week do not eat meat in any form.

Step 5. Sports activities should become everyday. It is advisable to give up the elevator, gradually increasing the number of steps we take per day.

6-7 steps. Practice self-control and gradually increase physical activity. Exclude fried foods from the diet, reduce the use of salt, replace coffee with clean warm water. Steps 7-12. At this stage, the main task is to maintain the achieved result and not lose motivation.

Possible difficulties and obstacles in the transition to a healthy lifestyle

Having considered in detail how to lead a healthy lifestyle and seeing all its advantages, it is worth evaluating the difficulties that may arise on the way. The most important thing is motivation. So that it does not die, start keeping a diary, make training plans, your progress may not be as fast as you want, but the results will be there and it will strengthen your faith in personal strength.

Another difficulty is collectivism. Many non-smokers join their colleagues in the smoking area because of the desire to be together with the team and to create communicative bonds. It's important to remember that it's really a personal choice for everyone. But such covert behavior is a bad example in raising children. Children copy the behavior of adults, especially their parents, they want to grow up sooner, they try smoking. Children's body systems are formed in certain periods of individual development: for example, the respiratory system reaches «maturity» at the age of 21.

A healthy lifestyle is our choice, and we should not be ashamed of it.

Not knowing where to start to lead a healthy lifestyle is probably the biggest difficulty in making the transition, but after reading this article, you can start changing your life using the new information. The main thing is, don't lose faith in yourself and your strength, don't give up if you can't perfectly execute the plan and become a better version of yourself from the first days, everything takes time.

References

1. Gschwandtner A., Jewell S., Kambhampati U. S. Lifestyle and Life Satisfaction: The Role of Delayed Gratification. JHappiness Stud, 2022. Vol. 23, pp. 1043-1072.

2. What is a healthy lifestyle? World Health Organization regional office for Europe. Nutrition policy infant feeding and food security. Copenhagen, 2015. 21 p.

3. Li K., Husing A., Kaaks R. Lifestyle risk factors and residual life expectancy at age 40: a German cohort study. BMC Med, 2014. Vol. 12, p. 59.

4. Woodcock O., Franco H., Orsini N., Roberts I. Non-vigorous physical activity and all- causemortality: systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2011. Vol. 40 (1), pp. 121-138.

5. Schincaglia R., Pimentel G., Mota J. Nuts and Human Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Nutrients, 2017. Vol. 9 (12), pp. 13-21.

6. Ventriglio A., Sancassiani F., Contu M. P., Latorre M., Di Slavatore M., Fornaro M., Bhugra D. Mediterranean Diet and its Benefits on Healthand Mental Health: A Literature Review. Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health. 2020. Vol. 16 (1), pp. 156-164.

7. Manferdelli G., La Torre A., Codella R. Outdoor physical activity bears multiplebenefits to health and society. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. 2019. Vol. 59, pp. 868-879.

8. A healthy lifestyle - WHO recommendations. URL: https://www.who.int/europe/news-room/ fact-sheets/item/a-healthy-lifestyle---who-recommendations.

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