The start of a year can be a great time to make lifestyle changes and break bad habits. Although very few people can stick to their resolutions, there are several resolutions that can be made for health and wellness in the Year.
If you are overweight for your height, losing weight is important for good health. With weight loss, the risk of diseases like heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and high blood pressure starts to decrease. If you want to lose weight, eat healthy food and exercise regularly.
healthy food
Healthy eating involves 2 factors. First, what you eat, and second, how you eat it. It is important to have fruits and vegetables in the daily diet. Because fruits and vegetables are low in calories and fat, high in fiber, and good sources of vitamins and minerals. Foods rich in fiber help in weight loss.
Eating too fast can cause weight gain. So should be chewed slowly and thoroughly. While eating, the food should be enjoyed away from television and mobile phones. It can take up to 20 minutes for that message to get through to the brain when your stomach is full when you eat. So you should stop eating before you feel full.
Avoid sitting and lying down
In addition to regular exercise, one should avoid spending idle time in order to keep the body active all the time. It is possible by making some small changes in daily activities. For example: instead of parking close to the door of the store, park a little further away and walk to the store, use the stairs instead of the elevator, and do some light exercise while watching television. The more physically active you can be, the better you will feel over time.
Regular health checkups
Regular visits to the doctor every year, and regular health checkups are essential for good health. By doing this, it is possible to detect and prevent minor health problems before they become major. Even if you feel physically healthy, don’t forget to get a regular health check-up every year.
Reduce stress
Knowing how to reduce stress is an important part of staying mentally and physically healthy. Simple activities such as breathing exercises, walking, or listening to music can help when feeling overwhelmed. Chronic stress affects health and well-being. So there is no option to find a way to get rid of it.
Adequate and good sleep is essential
Good sleep boosts immunity and mental well-being. Establishing a routine for a comfortable sleep, reducing mobile or television viewing before bedtime, and creating a good sleep environment is essential. If insomnia is a problem, stress reduction measures should be taken.
Stop smoking
Smoking damages almost every organ in the body. In addition, tobacco consumed by various processes, including rust, causes mouth cancer and can cause nicotine addiction. So plan to quit smoking in any process to stay healthy.
Implementation of resolutions
The resolutions you make to stay healthy become harder to implement throughout the year. Therefore, you should set a resolution that suits your lifestyle and follow it regularly. This will increase the chances of success. Creating healthy new habits takes time and patience.
Specific goals should be kept regarding the resolution. For example: Instead of wanting to lose weight, decide exactly how much weight you need to lose or how much weight you want to lose. Instead of wanting to exercise, set a goal to exercise 30 minutes per week.
It is important to be realistic in setting goals. Too much exercise suddenly may not be good for the body. Gradually increase the amount of exercise.
Similarly, if you want to start a new habit, it is not right to take too much pressure suddenly.
Trying to be perfect from the start can be a barrier to success when creating new habits. If eating healthy is your goal, don’t suddenly cut out all of your favorite foods. Make changes to the diet gradually.
Health awareness
Health is physical and mental well-being. Between birth and death, man has to depend on the social and natural environment around him. Both these types of environments affect the physical and mental health of people. Health consciousness is the behavior of certain habits, by which we can live a healthy and normal life physically and mentally. ‘Health is wealth’ is a well-known saying. All citizens need health awareness to live a healthy life.
Various aspects of health awareness can be divided in this way:
- Health awareness in daily activities.
- Dietary health awareness.
- Health awareness about diseases.
- Behavioral health awareness.
Health awareness in daily activities will include drinking purified drinking water, and washing hands with soap after defecation and before eating. Use of sanitary toilets. etc.
Dietary health awareness will include not using harmful food and drinks. Abstain from drug use. Be aware of junk food.
Health awareness about illness refers to knowing the cause of illness. There is a misconception about the use of food during illness, stay free from it. Avoiding the use of unnecessary and harmful drugs. A rational treatment system needs to be introduced.
Keeping the environment pure and clean is called health awareness in behavior. Do not litter everywhere.
Living a social life. Important aspects of keeping the environment clean are
- Maintaining air quality. Reducing the amount of carbon in the air.
- Keeping surface and groundwater free from pollution.
- Avoid exposure to toxic substances and hazardous wastes.
We have more or less an idea about physical health. It is very visual, and tactile. But mental health? This cannot be directly seen or touched. But I saw in the definition of the World Health Organization that mental health is an integral part of health. There are also mental health experts like physical health experts. What do they say about this? According to them, we call a person mentally healthy only when he possesses the characteristics of a mentally healthy person.
Characteristics of mentally healthy individuals:
- They feel good about themselves.
- They feel comfortable with others.
- They are able to meet the demands of life.
It means they feel good about themselves
- They do not allow themselves to be overwhelmed by emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy, guilt, etc.
- They can easily overcome the disappointments of life.
- They have a tolerant and easy-going attitude towards themselves and others and can easily accept everything about themselves.
- They neither underestimate nor underestimate their power. They accept their inability. They are self-respecting people.
- They can adapt to different conditions. They derive pleasure from simple and casual things. They feel comfortable with others which means they love others and consider others’ interests.
So it is clear from the discussion on health, that the World Health Organization’s definition of health may be a jargon for experts in a particular subject, but it is a normative standard for us as human beings. Being physically, mentally, and socially well-being as human beings is our highest desire in life. Keep that goal in mind and move forward.