Living Healthier

Whether lowering cholesterol or having more energy is the priority, anyone can benefit from living a healthier lifestyle.

Making the change toward a healthier lifestyle might seem like an insurmountable task, and the first 30 days are definitely the hardest. Here’s some good news: Once you decide to live healthier, you can do a lot to reverse the damage done to your body. If you remember nothing else after reading this, keep three things in mind: get moving, eat a balanced diet, and get some sleep! You’ll feel healthier in no time.

Healthy Living: Mind and Attitude

“The truth is that if you want to live a long and fruitful life, you’ll need to make significant changes to your lifestyle,” says Walter Willett, M.D., the pioneering nutritionist and author of Eat, Drink and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. He acknowledges the common excuses we make (time, etc.) but stands firm that everyone can start somewhere.

Regardless of your starting point or your personal goals, living healthier begins with a change in your mindset. There may be many emotions you have to grapple with during the first 30 days of living healthier—including fear of failure.

Joanne Dalsasso knows this fear all too well. When a friend challenged her to live healthy for five weeks, the worries and self-doubt crept in. “Because of my past experiences with weight loss and weight-loss programs, I fear that once the novelty wears off I’ll get bored with it all and give up,” she says. “I ask myself, ‘What will make this time different?’”

Quash these fears by setting small, achievable goals. Achieving those will get you to the long-term goal of being healthy! There may be slip-ups, but it’s when you pick yourself back up and persevere that you become a success.

Eating Your Way to Healthy Living

There’s no compromise on this one: Developing a healthy eating plan is a mandatory part of healthy living.

The key elements of a good diet include high amounts of fiber, vegetables and fruits, moderate amounts of protein and small amounts of healthy fats (read: there’s a reason for the USDA food pyramid). This diet does not contain foods with excessive sodium, trans fats, sugar and empty calories. Can’t pronounce the ingredients? Put it back on the shelf.

A trip to an animal slaughterhouse led Steve Zitsman to give up meat and become a vegan. “I went from a person who had some kind of meat at every meal to a person who ate no animal products at all.” Steve explains that he educated himself on how his body works and structured a diet around the fruits, vegetables and legumes that he enjoyed.

There’s no need to cut out meat or animal products altogether, but if you need more structure to your nutrition, find a diet plan you’re comfortable with. Some of the most popular ones—Atkins, Weight Watchers, South Beach and Jenny Craig—incorporate total lifestyle changes.

Robin Eiseman, who weighed 264 pounds, found success with Weight Watchers. “I knew I needed a structured program with a support group,” she says. “Instead of focusing on how much I ‘should’ be losing, I focused on getting healthier and developing a better mind set,” she says. Robin has since lost 60 pounds and no longer feels like life is passing her by.

Get in Motion

The research is clear—almost everything in your life can improve from exercise. From promoting happiness and strengthening memory to improving self-esteem and immune function, exercising for at least 30 to 45 minutes three or more times a week is a key component to healthy living.

There is no magic potion that will help you get out and exercise, but it doesn’t have to be a chore. During the first 30 days, you should start slowly by walking or cycling with some friends, or go bowling, roller skating or swimming. Just make sure you ease into your new routine.

“People jump in too hard, too fast,” says Carol Espel, the national director of group fitness programming for Equinox fitness clubs. “Working harder is not better. You don’t have to do a lot to get the benefits, but anything worthwhile won’t be super easy.”

The best part about exercise is that anyone can do it at any pace they like. For Robin, joining a women-only fitness club like Curves helped jump-start her routine. “I needed to find a way to incorporate exercise in my everyday life,” she says. “Today, I walk anywhere from 15 to 30 miles a week,” she says. “I have a better outlook on life and I’m happier.”

Other Health Factors

Two more factors that directly impact health are sleep and stress. The National Sleep Foundation reports that approximately seven out of 10 Americans say they experience frequent sleep problems. Stress is also a huge factor in living healthier. As much as 80% of all diseases and illnesses have a link to the amount of stress you feel.

“Sleep, in addition to nutrition, physical fitness and emotional well-being, is one of the most basic necessary conditions,” says Tracy Kuo, Ph.D., a psychologist and clinical researcher at Stanford University’s Sleep Disorders Clinic. “Quality sleep is a barometer of well-being and health. When a person does not get enough sleep, or if sleep is disruptive or disordered, mood, cognition and physical functioning start to disintegrate.”

Though the amount of sleep you need is unique to your body, experts generally recommend an average of seven to eight hours of sleep every night.

Changing your diet and exercising are great first steps in alleviating stress symptoms. If those changes don’t help, try something else. Use this time to experiment with stress-reducing techniques like controlled breathing, meditation, listening to music, soaking in a bathtub or doing yoga. Now what were those three things we asked you to remember at the beginning? If you need to go back and look, it’s OK—but go on and get to doing them today! Your body and mind will thank you.

*name(s) changed.