Whenever I go out, no matter what the time I see people buying or eating food at the numerous stalls, markets, restaurants, malls, food courts and so on. I even see people eating on the go from a plastic bag or holding a large container of aerated drinks or coffee. Is this a fashion statement? Has this lifestyle come to stay? Is this what we want for ourselves and our future? Nobody it seems cooks or wants to cook at home. Everybody is too busy making a living and getting unhealthy day by day.
What then, does it take to to healthy and fit for life? It does not have to be complicated at all. People were much healthier in the past, before all the dieting and “health products” took hold of our society. Eating healthily is all about balance. Every now and then it’s normal to indulge in a favourite dessert or snack but it’s important to remember that the majority of our diet should be made up of balanced, nutritious everyday foods.
The rules haven’t changed – our genetics are the same and what worked for us back in the day can also work for us now.
To gain optimal health, lose weight and feel better every day, then all you need to do is follow these simple rules.
Eat A Balanced Diet
Aim to eat a balanced diet that contains each of the food groups in the correct proportions. Variety is the key.
Fill your diet with a wide range of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, pulses, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and naturally low fat dairy foods. When it comes to fruit and veg, different colours provide your body with the different nutrients it needs to stay strong and healthy – it’s not just greens that are good for you! In short, eat a rainbow everyday.
Understand what you are eating.
Make an effort to learn about the food you’re eating – we all need to understand where food comes from and how it affects our bodies. Do Not Put Toxic Things into Your Body!
The simplest and most effective way to eat healthy is to just focus on real foods. Nourish your body with real food.
Make sure the majority of your energy intake comes from food that provides your body with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre and good fats. Avoid empty calories and foods that are prepackaged and sold in a can, box or plastic container.
Eat foods with 5 or fewer ingredients that a child can pronounce. If you take the time to read the ingredients in most processed and unhealthy foods, you will almost surely see that the list is long and contains lots of additives that you know little about. On the other hand, when your grandmother cooked from scratch, she probably used 5 or fewer ingredients.
Choose unprocessed, whole foods that resemble what they looked like in nature.
It is best to eat a combination of animals and plants… Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, as well as healthy fats, oils and high-fat dairy products. Eat lightly and highly processed foods less often.
Do NOT skip breakfast.
Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism and helps you to be alert and awake throughout the day. Make sure you always eat a delicious high protein breakfast.
Cook From Scratch
This is one of the most important life skills you can learn. It allows you to have complete control of what goes into your food. Cook more than eating out. Eat as much home-cooked food as possible. Eating at home allows you to avoid processed ingredients more easily. If You Eat Junk Food, Cook It Yourself.
Cook with family and friends. Shop for the ingredients yourself. Choose the best. Eat with other people, especially people you care about, as often as possible. This has benefits even outside those of nutrition. It will make you more likely to cook. It will most likely make you eat more slowly. It will also make you happy. Stop eating before you are full and make it a habit to eat at the dining table, never in front of the TV or your desk. Food that is cooked from scratch has a short shelf life and will spoil in a few days. Healthy food does not contain loads of chemicals that preserve it and allow it to sit on a shelf for a year without going bad. If the food in question lasts for months, it is probably unhealthy for you. When you determine the amount of salt and sugar that goes into your food you will be happy and healthy and eating high quality foods everyday.
Use salt and fats, including butter and oil, as needed in food preparation. Things like salt and fat aren’t the enemy. They are often necessary in the preparation of tasty, satisfying food. The key here is moderation. Use what you need. Seasoning is often what makes vegetables taste good. Don’t be afraid of them, but don’t go to extremes either.
When you do eat out, try to eat at restaurants that follow the same rules. Ideally, you should eat at restaurants that are creating all of their items from completely unprocessed foods. Many restaurants do.
Drink More Water
Water is an essential part of your diet. Drink plenty of water everyday.
Treat all beverages with calories in them as you would alcohol. This includes every drink with calories, including milk. They’re fine in moderation, but keep them to a minimum. You can have them because you like them, but you shouldn’t consume them as if you need them.
Eat your calories don’t drink them.
Lift Things and Move Around 
It is extremely important for optimal health to use your muscles.
Lifting weights and exercising goes way beyond just looking good. Exercise
is also crucial for your body, brain and hormones to function optimally.
Lifting weights lowers your blood sugar and insulin levels, improves cholesterol and lowers triglycerides. It also raises your levels of testosterone and growth hormone, both associated with improved wellbeing.
Then lifting weights (and other forms of exercise) can help reduce depression and your risk of all sorts of chronic diseases, including obesity, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and many more.
Exercise can also help you lose fat, especially if it’s combined with a healthy diet. Not just because it burns calories, but because it improves your hormonal status and overall function of your body.
Exercise is an extremely important factor in staying healthy so try to be as active as you can.
Sleep Like a Baby
Make sure you get enough sleep – it’s an essential part of being healthy and directly affects how well we are able to learn, grow and act in life. While we’re asleep, our bodies have that all-important time to repair and studies show that sleep deprivation correlates with many diseases, including obesity and heart disease.
Avoid Excess Stress
Stress can wreak havoc on your health, leading to weight gain and all sorts of diseases. There are many ways to learn how to deal with stress.
Being healthy is about more than just diet, exercise and sleep.
The way we feel and how we think is also very important… and being stressed all the time is a recipe for disaster.
Excess stress can raise cortisol levels and cause severe harmful effects on metabolism. It can increase junk food cravings, fat in the abdominal area and raise your risk of all sorts of diseases.
There is also evidence that stress is a significant contributor to depression, which is a massive health problem today.
In order to reduce stress, try to simplify your life. Do some exercise, practice deep breathing techniques and maybe even meditation.
You have to stick with it for life!
It’s important to keep in mind that the “dieting” mindset is a bad idea, because it almost never works in the long term.
For this reason, it is critical to aim for a lifestyle.
Make healthy food a priority in your life and allow it to bring your family and friends together. Learn to love how it makes you feel, how delicious it is and remember that a healthy balanced diet,regular exercise, sleep and de stressing are the keys to a healthy lifestyle.
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