What does a healthy lifestyle mean?
A healthy lifestyle is one that includes sustainable habits designed to promote health, fitness, personal well-being and mental wellbeing. In other words, a healthy lifestyle consists of adopting simple but consistent habits in terms of diet, physical activity and daily routine that promote health in all aspects of our lives.Adopting a healthy lifestyle does not necessarily involve major, difficult changes. You don't have to follow a strict diet or exercise every day to preserve your health, extend your life by a few quality years, be happier and more energetic. Small, simple changes can make the biggest difference.
While it takes no more than 14 days to create a healthy habit, it can take several months for these habits to become routine, or even a year or more for them to become fully integrated into a new lifestyle. So the key is to proceed slowly, systematically and focus on the simplest changes we can make to improve our health.
Why live healthily?
What we eat, how active we are and how we look after ourselves have a direct impact on our physical and mental well-being. If we neglect ourselves, we can develop various illnesses or health problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity or atherosclerosis.
Risks associated with an unhealthy lifestyle
- overweight and obesity
- type 2 diabetes
- digestive problems
- high blood pressure
- high cholesterol
- heart disease
- psychological problems (anxiety, depression)
- oncological diseases
10 tips for a healthy life
It pays to live in good health. But where do you start? Discover ten healthy habits that can improve your lifestyle and strengthen your health.
1. Manger sainement
Règles de base d'une alimentation saine
- Take 4 to 5 meals a day, approximately every 3 to 4 hours.
- Include more vegetables and fruit in your diet. Vegetables should be part of every main meal. Eat at least 300 grams of vegetables and 100-150 grams of fruit a day.
- Choose wholegrain products. Choose wholemeal and rye breads instead of pastries. For pasta, choose wholemeal or spelt pasta. Include rolled oats and pseudo-cereals (buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth) in your diet. Wholegrain cereals are rich in fibre, which is good for your health.
- Include protein at every meal, including snacks. Good sources of protein include lean meat, fish, fermented dairy products, yoghurt, fromage frais, hard cheeses, eggs, pulses, tofu and tempeh.
- Limit consumption of saturated fats (fatty meats, fatty cold meats, full-fat dairy products, butter, lard, coconut and palm fats). Instead, opt for the unsaturated fats found in nuts, seeds, oily fish (salmon, tuna), avocados and good quality oils (olive, linseed, avocado).
- Reduce your intake of sugar and sweets. Try to limit sweeteners or replace sugar with chicory syrup. Satisfy your sweet tooth with fruit or chocolate with a high cocoa content (over 70%).
- Limit salt. Many foods contain salt without our knowledge (pastries, cold meats, cheeses). That's why it's best to save salt and season with more herbs and spices when cooking.
- Eat at least two portions of unflavoured, low-fat dairy products every day: white yoghurt with a fat content of up to 3%, low-fat and semi-fat fromage frais, kefir, buttermilk, curd cheese or hard cheese with a fat content of up to 30%. If you don't eat dairy products, add calcium-enriched vegetable drinks to your diet. However, beware of added sugars.
- Choose healthier cooking methods. Boiling, stewing, baking, steaming and gentle grilling (with less fat and on a non-stick surface) are ideal. Frying, on the other hand, is not very healthy.
- Adapt the amount of energy contained in your food to your lifestyle and physical activity.
2. Being active
Adequate physical activity has a positive effect on the whole body and helps us to stay healthy. Regular exercise strengthens the heart, blood vessels, muscles and immune system and helps reduce the risk of chronic diseases. It also improves our mood and contributes to mental health. What's the best physical activity? Quite simply the one we enjoy.
Try to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. This could be as simple as going for a walk or cycling to work - in other words, spontaneous movement. It's also worth adding a longer period of physical activity twice a week, whether aerobic (jogging, swimming, aquagym, Nordic walking) or anaerobic (weight training). If you have led an exclusively sedentary life, a short walk 2 or 3 times a week is an excellent starting point.
3. Drink more water
One of the most important and underestimated aspects of a healthy lifestyle is water consumption. Water is absolutely essential for a number of processes in our bodies, the elimination of waste and the transport of nutrients and oxygen throughout the body. As proof of the importance of drinking, the adult body is made up of over 60% water.
Adequate water intake has many positive effects on our physical, mental and emotional well-being. Yet many people find it difficult to stay hydrated and don't drink enough water. Over the course of a day, we should drink 30 to 35 ml of fluid per kilo of body weight. Fluid requirements increase even more during the summer months and with intense physical activity. Still in a rut and forgetting to drink? Set up a few notifications on your phone or smartwatch to alert you when you need to drink.
Pure water is ideal, but unsweetened teas and unflavoured mineral waters are not bad either. Soups, fruit and vegetables are also good sources of water for the body. Sugary drinks, on the other hand, are bad for your health. Sweetened drinks such as raspberry sodas, fruit juices, energy drinks and sweetened mineral waters are concentrated sources of sugar. Consuming them regularly can not only contribute to weight gain, but also put our health at risk.
4. Maintain a healthy weight
Being overweight or obese is associated with many health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and joint problems. In the long term, if you take in more energy from food than you consume in a day, the excess energy will start to be stored. The result can be weight gain and fat storage in the body. Try to consume about as much energy (calories) each day as your body burns (through resting metabolism, digestion and physical activity). If you're trying to lose a few kilos, create a calorie deficit of about 20% in your diet - subtract about 20% of your calorie intake from which you maintain your weight.
5. Adequate, good quality sleep
Don't forget to get good quality sleep and sufficient rest. During sleep, the body regenerates and regains its strength for the next day. Sleep is as important for our bodies as water and food. The recommended amount of sleep is 7 to 9 hours a day. Lack of sleep can be the cause of the development of many illnesses. As well as the amount of sleep we get, we need to focus on its quality. To get quality sleep, follow good sleep hygiene.
6. Don't let stress get the better of you
Stress is a normal part of modern life. Although we can't always avoid it completely, we should learn to work with it. It's important to try to avoid stressful situations and to learn techniques to relieve stress when it arises. Everyone needs something different to cope with stress, but tried and tested techniques include listening to relaxing music, meditation, yoga, visiting a spa or sauna and, last but not least, nature.
7. Limiter la consommation d'alcool
La consommation excessive d'alcool peut entraîner de nombreux problèmes de santé graves et des troubles mentaux.
Les principales conséquences de l'abus d'alcool sur la santé sont la cirrhose du foie, les maladies du cœur et des vaisseaux sanguins, une forte probabilité de blessures et un risque accru de certains cancers (de la bouche, du foie, du côlon et de l'œsophage). Dans le cas de l'alcool, il n'existe pas de dose sûre. Donc, si vous ne pouvez pas vous passer complètement de l'alcool, essayez au moins de réduire la quantité que vous consommez.
8. No smoking
Why are cigarettes so harmful? Smoking is associated with an increased risk of lung disease, heart disease and stroke. Each cigarette contains several thousand harmful substances. If you currently smoke, it's not too late to quit.
9. Strike a work-life balance
The imbalance between work and private life can lead to exhaustion, fatigue and stress and, as a result, increase the risk of various health problems. However, there are a few things you can do to balance work and family life. These include, for example, setting working hours and sticking to them, not answering work emails outside working hours or setting aside time for holidays. Work is important, but we mustn't compromise our health, well-being and family relationships in the process.
10. Boost your immunity
En période de grippe, de rhume et d'autres maladies respiratoires, il est bon de renforcer son immunité en prenant des suppléments, en plus d'une alimentation variée.