“It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” - Mahatma Gandhi.
A lot of times in life people tend to keep health on the backseat. Whether it’s having a better career, more money or a nice house, everything only matters if you have good health. Then what stops us from making it a priority? Good health is like money, we never realise the value of it until we start losing it. So, it’s important not to take it for granted. Are you still not convinced if taking care of your health should be your topmost priority? Then let’s have a look at how ignoring a healthy lifestyle can cost you later on in life.
Obesity
The foremost consequence of maintaining an unhealthy lifestyle is the onset of obesity. Obesity generally occurs when the intake of calories is high and the burn off is too little. In other words, if you consume huge amounts of refined or processed foods and sugar and do not burn off the energy through physical activity, you are at a higher risk of obesity.
Besides food, poor sleeping patterns and other psychological factors such as stress also contribute to excessive weight gain. But gaining weight isn’t the only concern, obesity also brings with itself a host of other problems like high cholesterol, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Which is why keeping a check on obesity by swapping the sedentary lifestyle with clean and active living is imperative for good health.
Early Signs of Aging
Aging is a part of life but ageing sooner than you have to is not. When you stop taking care of yourself and neglect the importance of a healthy diet, your body starts suffering from a lack of required nutrients.This in turn results in nutrition deficiency that breaks down your DNA pattern, thus making you age a lot sooner than you were supposed to. If you start experiencing achy joints, dry and blotchy skin, breathlessness and difficulty climbing stairs amongst a host of other early aging symptoms, it's a sign for you to start taking your health seriously.
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a health condition that is caused due to a lifelong lack of calcium. The condition causes your bones to become brittle and fragile while you are still in your late 30’s. Some of the most common symptoms of osteoporosis are severe back pain, loss of height and stooped posture, vulnerability to fractures and difficulty in movement. The condition sounds alarming and it is indeed but if you start taking a calcium and protein rich diet, have plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and do regular exercise and strength training, you can easily prevent this brittle bones disease.
High Blood Pressure and Scope of Cardiac Arrest
Due to an unhealthy lifestyle, fat starts getting accumulated in the blood vessels, and prevents the smooth flow of blood in the body. The pressure keeps on increasing, thereby leading to high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. And it is certainly not good for heart health.
Research from the Cardiological Society of India shows that one in five young adults in India have high blood pressure. It may sound like it's nothing but when you look at actual numbers it makes up 80 million young people which in fact is the entire population of the UK. What do you think can be the foremost reason for such frightening rates of hypertension in India? It’s the lifestyle and long hours of sitting. So it goes without saying that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is indispensable to longevity of life.
5 Steps to a Healthy Lifestyle
While we were young, we were taught in schools that our body is our temple and we should treat it with respect. But as we grow, we start ignoring the fact that a healthy living is all that matters. Taking care of ourselves should not be a burden, it should come naturally. In order for self care to become a habit, you must practice it everyday. And if you are struggling where to start from, below mentioned is the holy grail of self care.
- Take a Balanced Diet: The word diet has a lot of misconceptions around it. Diet doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself or follow a fad just because others are doing so. A diet, particularly a healthy and balanced diet is all about making sure that your body gets the right amount of nutrients. The seven essential components of a balanced diet are carbohydrates, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water.
- Drink Plenty of Water: Staying hydrated is the key to staying healthy. You must drink 2-3 litres of water at regular intervals throughout the day. Sometimes we try to swap or confuse thirst with cravings. Which is why, generally in between meals, we try to munch and eat junk food. Whereas, all we needed was to hydrate ourselves.
- Exercise Regularly: Physical activity of any sort is important for a long and healthy life. You must work out for at least 30 minutes every other day and include strength training in your workout rituals to improve your quality of life. If you are a beginner and just starting out, some of the best exercise tips for you can be to set realistic goals for yourself, stay consistent and set out a time everyday to engage in physical activities.
- Meditate Everyday: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can’t possibly be confined to just losing weight. It also incorporates other factors such as mental health, a positive attitude, self-confidence and much more. And all of this can be achieved by incorporating the practice of meditation into your daily schedule.
- Get Proper Sleep: Sleep is a vital yet neglected part of a person’s overall wellbeing. A sleep of 7-8 hours every night enables the body to heal and repair. Especially the interval between 10 p.m. - 2 a.m. is said to be golden hours of sleep. So, make sure that you get to bed early and get adequate sleep if you want to stay fit.
Nowadays, staying consistent and sticking to your health goals has been simplified with the help of various tracking tools and apps. All you need is determination to start working on yourself, your health because the decisions you take today will decide your future.
