Working toward better health for yourself and your family will result in many positives — feeling more fit, improving your physical health and serving as a role model for your family and friends.
But true health also involves making sure you have a positive mental attitude that will make your life easier and more pleasant for you to live.
These two halves of our experience of healthful living combine to create a good life. There are many things you can do to nurture both your physical and mental health. It’s a continual process, but over time these practices become second nature.
Diet and Nutrition
The cornerstone of maintaining a healthy diet is to control what you consume, which becomes easier once you shift to making more home-cooked meals — not the type you reheat in the microwave. It does take more time, but using fresh, unprocessed ingredients to build nutritious meals and snacks will have huge benefits for your family.
Other components of controlling your food intake are understanding your daily needs and knowing how to recognize the true signs of hunger.
Exercise
Moderate to vigorous exercise can be critical to preventing or managing such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, depression and more. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says adults should get 150 minutes of at least moderate exercise per week, including strength exercises two days a week. Kids younger than 18 should get at least 60 minutes a day.
You and your family get to choose how you’re going to meet this goal. Walking, running, playing sports, dancing, bicycling, hiking or even video games based on physical activity work.
Attitude
Maintaining a positive mental attitude is often easier said than done but is the third primary piece to living a healthy, fulfilling life. Besides boosting overall happiness, it makes it easier to make healthy food and exercise decisions.
Spending your time doing enjoyable exercise, being around positive people, finding engrossing hobbies and volunteering are some of the ways you can improve your outlook on life.
