What Motivates People to Make Healthier Lifestyle Choices?
What is the secret to making resolutions and healthier lifestyle choices that stick? The “carrot” is usually a better motivator than the “stick.”
Unhealthy lifestyle choices lead to the majority of deaths in the United States. A study by Matthew Reeves, a Michigan State University epidemiologist, found that only 3% of Americans maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The four keys to healthy living include: exercising for at least 30 minutes most days of the week, not smoking, not drinking too much alcohol, maintaining healthy weight, eating a variety of fruits and vegetables every day, and. How would you rate yourself on these four?
When coaching yourself, or someone you care about, to make healthier lifestyle choices the results will be better if the message is positive and hopeful.
Negative reinforcement or evoking fear is much less effective than reminding yourself, and the people you love, that changing any unhealthy behavior will have infinite positive consequences that include staying alive.
Choose to live well
The choices we make about how we live can have a powerful effect on our health. Doing regular exercise, eating a healthy diet, not smoking and not drinking too much alcohol can help you stay well and enjoy a healthy long life.
You’re never too old or too young to go on a healthier lifestyle. Children who learn healthy smart habits at a young age will benefit from them throughout their life, and giving up bad habits can improve your health at any age.
Choosing to incorporate a healthy lifestyle will lead to a longer, happier life with decreased risk of chronic illness. While some of these changes, such as eating a healthier diet and increased exercise can be challenging to implement, a variety of available resources can help you work toward the end goal of achieving and maintaining optimal health.
This is a summary of 7 major choices that you can make to stay healthy. The main benefit of these lifestyle choices is that in the future you are less likely to develop stroke, heart disease, diabetes, lung problems, liver problems and certain cancers. Read on for some simple ideas to help you and your family get into the habit of healthy living and healthy life.
1. Get active, do regular exercise, sit less, live longer
Make a deliberate effort to move more and sit less to increase physical activity and good health. Physical activity that gets you mildly out of breath and a little sweaty is good – for example: heavy gardening, jogging, swimming, cycling. To gain most benefit, you should do at least 30 minutes of exercise on most days. However, two shorter bursts are thought to be just as good – for example, two 15 minute bouts of activity at different times in a day.
A study published in the American Heart Association’s journal “Stroke” showed a reduction in risk of dementia with 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity three times each week. They recommend 2.5 hours of physical activity per week, which would be about 30 minutes of activity on five days a week in order to maintain a healthy weight. You may need to do more physical activity if you need to lose weight. Other benefits of physical activity include increased muscle, bone strength, improved cardiovascular health.
Physical activity is not limited to exercise. For example you can: take the stairs at work, park at the end of the lot when grocery shopping, change your TV channel manually, go on a long walk with your kids or grandkids.
Walk Every Day – Daily walk might transform your life. Walking is an easy way to get exercise into your daily routine, and it also has a positive impact on your mental health as well. Walking does more than just give you a little cardiovascular exercise, it gives you a boost in feeling, and the feeling is what you carry with you the rest of the day. When you feel good, you choose to make choices in your food, how you treat others and how you speak, which translates into health.2. Eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight
We need food to live, and in order to live well we need to eat well. A healthy, nutritious diet can help you look and feel your best, and is easier than you think. Eating a healthy diet can reduce the risk of getting many major diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
While maintaining your weight is essential, it isn’t everything – especially if you are eating junk food. Make sure that your diet is filled with healthy choices: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, , lean meats, and dairy. These choices are full of minerals and vitamins that will keep you from getting deficiencies which can lead to illnesses. There are also other benefits to fruits and vegetables called phytochemicals, or compounds in plants that have benefits for your health, but are not vital for day-to-day function. For example the lycopene in tomatoes which may decrease risk of prostate cancer, according to “Experimental Biology and Medicine,” but is not an essential vitamin or mineral.
Eat More Raw and Whole Foods – Eating healthy doesn’t only mean cutting back on fat and reducing the amount of sugar you eat, it’s also very important to eat more wholesome, nonprocessed and nonheated foods. Eat raw food 50 percent, at a minimum because raw foods are high in water content, high in fiber and high in micronutrients.”
Lose weight if you are overweight or obese – You don’t need to get to a perfect weight. If you are overweight you can gain great health benefits by losing 5-10% of your weight. This is often about 5-10 kg.
According to 2009-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 35.7 percent of Americans are obese. The health implications of obesity include hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke, arthritis and cancer. Maintaining a body mass index of 25 or less is considered to be healthiest, though this calculation does not account for muscle mass. Maintain a lifestyle that promotes a low body mass index this includes balanced diet and regular exercise.
Know what makes you overeat – The key to staying motivated is to know where your problem areas are and have a system for dealing with them. Do you use food to cope with rejection, disappointment, boredom, or even personal success?
Find some healthier ways to cope with mood swings that do not involve food. In addition, control your environment to avoid bingeing on junk foods when you do feel rejected, disappointed, or bored. Keep your kitchen stocked with lots of healthy options such as sugar-free gum, low-fat yogurts, chunks of fruits and veggies.
3. Rethink your drinking and smoking
Keep an eye on the amount of alcohol you drink. Men should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week, no more than four units in any one day, and have at least two alcohol-free days a week. One unit is in about half a pint of normal strength beer, or two thirds of a small glass of wine, or one small pub measure of spirits. Women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, no more than three units in any one day, and have at least two alcohol-free days a week. Pregnant women should not drink at all.
Drinking too much alcohol could increase your risk of getting a major disease. Alcohol abuse can lead to car accidents, liver failure, mouth and throat cancers, stroke, alcohol overdose and other poor choices. Alcohol abuse also is related to increased risk of mental disorders. Keep in mind that it’s not just binge drinkers who are at risk, regularly drinking more than the recommended limit can cause significant health problems.
Tobacco and alcohol can not only decrease quality of life, but also can cause an earlier death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 25,000 alcohol-related deaths in 2010. Furthemore, tobacco use specifically cigarette smoking, is associated with increased risk of respiratory issues, heart disease, cancer, stroke, causing approximately 443,000 deaths yearly. It increases the risk of heart disease two to four times, and lung cancer 13 to 23 times, depending on your sex.
If you smoke, stopping smoking is often the single most effective thing that you can do to reduce your risk of future illness. The risk to health falls rapidly as soon as you stop smoking and it takes a few years before the increased risk reduces completely.
Giving up smoking is probably the best thing you can do to improve your health. Smoking increases your risk of developing many cancers and lung diseases. It also kills about 80,000 people in England every year, almost enough people to fill Wembley Stadium.
4. Avoid Labeling Foods
In order to gain and maintain a healthy weight, labeling foods as “good” or “bad” may lead to poor decision-making and psychological battle with food. It is important to reject a “diet” mentality and stop being the food police or beating yourself up for “bad” foods. Michael E. Oaks, the author of the book “Bad Foods,” also explains why you should avoid labeling things, pointing out that all people have a different idea of what’s “good” and “bad.”
5. Remember That Change Takes Time
It’s easy to see thin people and think how lucky they are. The truth is that if a thin person is over 30, chances are they are working hard at being thin each day. Learn from them. Find out how they stay thin but also healthy.
According to Kathy Kater, a LSW and psychotherapist in St. Paul, Minn. the research on body diversity is conclusive: “Even if we all ate the same optimal, wholesome diet and exercised to the same high degree of physical fitness, we would still be very diverse in our shapes. Some quite thin and some quite big, but most in the middle.”
Make the commitment to change some lifestyle habits and allow yourself plenty of time to see your goal. In addition, accept the fact that your body is meant to be a certain size, although that size isn’t skinny, and feel good about it.
6. Start by making little lifestyle changes first
Don’t exhaust yourself by making large gestures toward health without addressing the small stuff too. Instead of attacking your veggies and snacking distractedly in front of the computer or TV, set time aside to slowly enjoy each meal and prevent mindless overeating. Get your new habits to stick by tackling them at the grass-roots level.
7. Do everything in moderation – including moderation
Turning each aspect of your life into something you need to check off a list can not only make you feel trapped, but also make you more likely to fall or even throw yourself off the train. Allow yourself the occasional indulgence to blow off steam, that will make you much more satisfied with your new lifestyle choices. Give yourself healthy rewards when you complete a week of your new workout regimen or healthy eating plan.
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