How to achieve a healthy lifestyle? 5 Tips for you

We all want to know how to be healthy, but it seems like such a lofty goal. Setting out to make healthy lifestyle changes can feel simultaneously inspiring and intimidating. I mean, where do you even start? Do you need to overhaul your entire life in one fell swoop?

The answer, you may be happy to know, is no. When it comes to adopting new healthy habits and making them stick, you can do many little things that will make a big difference in the long run. Here at DBS Check Online, we tend always to promote a healthier lifestyle, that’s why we made a list of 5 tips for a longer life.

1. Eat a variety of foods 

We need more than 40 different nutrients for good health, and no single food can supply them all. It is not about a single meal, it is about a balanced food choice over time that will make a difference!

A low-fat dinner could follow a high-fat luncher.
After a large meat portion at dinner, perhaps fish should be the next day’s choice?

2. Base your diet on plenty of foods rich in carbohydrates

About half the calories in our diet should come from foods rich in carbohydrates, such as cereals, rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread. Including at least one of these at every meal is a good idea. Wholegrain foods, like wholegrain bread, pasta, and cereals, will increase our fibre intake.

3. Drink plenty of fluids

Adults need to drink at least 1.5 litres of fluid a day! Or more if it's very hot or they are physically active. Water is the best source, of course, and we can use tap or mineral water, sparkling or non-sparkling, plain or flavoured. Fruit juices, tea, coffee, soft drinks, milk and other drinks, can all be okay - from time to time.

4. Ease yourself into getting more sleep with five-minute increments.

Altogether abandoning your to-do list, whether it’s business or personal, to go to sleep three hours earlier isn't feasible. But if you do it bit by bit, you’ll acclimate yourself to your new, well-rested reality in a manageable way, Researchers suggest to try going to bed five minutes earlier each night (or every few nights, if this is really tough for you) until you hit the seven to nine hours the National Sleep Foundation recommends for adults.

5. Start now! And keep changing gradually.

Gradual changes in our lifestyle are easier to maintain than major changes introduced all at once. For three days, we could write down the foods and drinks we consume throughout the day, and make a note of the amount of movement we made. It won’t be difficult to spot where we could improve:

Skipping breakfast? A small bowl of muesli, a piece of bread or fruit, could help slowly introduce it into our routine
Too few fruits and vegetables? To start with, we can introduce one extra piece a day.
Favourite foods high in fat? Eliminating them abruptly could fire back, and make us return to the old habits. We can choose low-fat options instead, eat them less frequently, and in smaller portions.
Too little activity? Using the stairs daily could be a great first move.

Check out some of our other articles by visiting our blog section. 

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