A healthy lifestyle is synonymous with a happy life. Since your lifestyle is a habit that is determined by the choices you make, only you can make the decisions that’ll impact your whole life. Even small changes like dedicating yourself to a 15-minute walk, making yourself go to the gym, and brushing your teeth twice a day can help you achieve a lifestyle that most seek but aren’t motivated enough to start with. We’re here to break the cycle. We present 10 ways you can lead a healthy lifestyle.
1. Exercise Regularly
Irrespective of gender, regular exercising should be a part of everyone’s health routine. Regular exercise doesn’t need to be intense weight lifting or running. A little more than a casual stroll around a park can also be considered exercise as long as you are putting in an effort.
The objective of regular exercise isn’t limited to losing or maintaining weight. Every man should indulge in regular exercise to decrease the risks of arthritis, heart issues, diabetes, and obesity.
Exercise has also been found to be uplifting for mental health. Adults who exercise more often have been noticed to be less inclined to develop chronic depression and anxiety.
2. Follow a Healthy Diet
Following a healthy diet, according to WHO, is considered one of the best preventative measures for diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer.
A healthy nutrition-rich diet varies from person to person. Depending on your BMR and activity level, the intake of macronutrients like fat, carbohydrates, and proteins should be regulated.
For adults, daily at least 400 g of intake of fruits and vegetables, sugars less than 10%, and fats less than 30% of total energy intake have been recommended.
For a man to lead a healthy lifestyle, pairing up a healthy diet with regular exercise is quite effective.
3. Practice Safe Sex
Safe sex or safer sex is the practice of using preventive measures to stop STDs from spreading from individual to individual. Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) can spread through oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, and sexual fluids. STDs like genital herpes are highly transmissible through oral sex. Despite the lack of treatment options, the symptoms can be mitigated through best over the counter treatments for genital herpes.
As a man, your best bet to practice safe sex is wearing a condom while having sex. Although uncomfortable, nitrile gloves are quite effective in case you’re inclined to go towards mutual masturbation or sharing sex toys.
In addition to both safe sex and a healthy lifestyle is not doing drugs and alcohol in a sexual environment. Your intoxicated brain may forget to play by the rules and you may indulge yourself in high risk-taking behaviors like unprotected sex with strangers.
If you or your partner have an STD and if it’s not curable, indulging in protected sex will prevent it from passing on to others. Consider testing regularly for STDs if you are sexually active to not transmit the disease to other individuals.
4. Groom Yourself
The frowned upon the land of grooming for men has now been pivoted to being welcomed by men of all ages. The 7 step grooming routine for men includes taking care of their face, hair, facial hair, teeth, pubic hair, genitals, and the whole body.
For the face, cleansing your face twice daily with a pH-balanced face wash and applying moisturizer is all you need. If you want to go beyond that, exfoliation, toning, and serum treatments can help.
Your hair needs proper care too. Washing your hair regularly with Argan oil-rich shampoos and applying silicone-free conditioner will help the cause. However, be careful when using shampoos. Frequent use of shampoo may leave your hair dry and destroy the natural oil present in the hair.
Be a regular at your barbers. Consider grooming your facial hair, even if not enjoyable, through shaving and trimming. The exfoliation caused by the shaving brush allows your skin to enhance the effects of scrubbing and treatments.
5. Socialize With Friends
A healthy lifestyle revolves around great social life. Don’t sit idle on your couch on the weekends and try to catch up with your friends or family. A healthy social life promotes better mental health and is effective to recharge your brain for the week-long fight ahead.
Social interactions also have been proved to lower the risk of dementia. As social animals, allow yourself to grab a quick cup of coffee with your peers and chat about personal events.
6. Follow a Periodic Check-Up Routine
Not every major disease throws away symptoms. As a promoter of a healthy lifestyle, an annual or biannual check-up will help you get ahead of anything that may hamper your quality of life.
Between the age of 30-60 years, working-age individuals are more at risk for lifestyle diseases such as insomnia, high cholesterol, COPD, and unregulated blood pressure. Keeping a check-up schedule will prevent such diseases from spreading more in addition to developing new ones.
7. Leave Your Car Home
If possible, take a walk or ride your bicycle to your work frequently. While the monetary aspects don’t necessarily fall in parallel with a healthy lifestyle, walking to your work reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and arthritis.
If improved lung capacity, heart health, and stamina aren’t enough motivation for you to start walking to work, it also helps you get better sleep and develop muscles that you didn’t know existed.
Jogging to your work may seem counterproductive, but in the long term, it will also save you a lot in terms of medical bills and gas.
8. Cut Back on Caffeine
Most of us can’t start our days without leaning back on a latte. The usual kick we get after having a cup is to be blamed on caffeine that’s present in coffee, chocolate, and some other beverages.
While caffeine may lift the mood for you, falling back on it may present some complications. Complications such as restlessness, insomnia, dehydration, and a faster heart rate are associated with a higher dose of caffeine.
Cut back on caffeinated drinks to get better sleep, fight anxiety, and discourage rebound fatigue caused by caffeine.
9. Drink a Lot of Water
Water is the most essential nutrient for our body. Drinking adequate amounts of water helps kidneys to function properly and excrete toxins out of our bodies. Not drinking enough water causes dehydration which makes the kidneys work overtime to save as much fluid as they can.
Drinking a lot of water may also help you limit your calories and help you maintain a healthy weight. Water is also essential for keeping body fluids responsible for circulation, digestion, absorption, and maintaining body temperature balanced.
10. Quit Smoking and Drinking
Smoking and drinking are the major causative factors for most diseases. While occasional smoking and drinking may not impact your health in severe ways, having a daily dose of nicotine and alcohol may present health hazards in the long term.
The complications associated with drinking and smoking include:
- Erectile dysfunction
- Emphysema
- Premature aging
- Cardiac arrest
- Various cancers
- Nervous system breakdown
- Live cirrhosis
Although it may not be as hazardous for most individuals to enjoy a drink or two with friends, making it a habit promotes lifelong complications and adverse health effects.
The Bottom Line
Making major changes in your lifestyle doesn’t require making a lot of effort. The healthy lifestyle choices you make should depend on what you want to see yourself in the next 10 months and not on what others may notice. Self-motivation is paramount when you seek a healthy lifestyle. The 10 lifestyle choices mentioned here are mostly easy to follow, but require a lot of practice and transforming occasional health thoughts into a habit.
Good luck.
