How is your lifestyle? Have you been able to take care of your health or have you prioritized your professional goals so much that you are leaving aside what is most important to continue living? This message can also be aimed at mothers who worry so much about their children’s lives that they end up forgetting to take care of themselves.
It may sound like a doctor’s scolding, but my goal in writing this content is to help people open their eyes to small details that make all the difference. I talk about what some doctors don’t reinforce for disease prevention: the importance of adopting healthy habits.
A constant exercise that allows the maintenance of life and longevity. After all, research proves that changing lifestyle contributes to reducing mortality.
The World Health Organization (WHO) itself states that changing habits could prevent 80% of premature deaths caused by heart disease and strokes. This is the case with an unbalanced diet, a sedentary lifestyle, and smoking.
To reflect on your current lifestyle, you first need to remember what the concept means. To better understand the importance of maintaining healthy habits and how to fit them into your routine. Let’s start.
Lifestyle what is it and how to understand what yours is?
According to the WHO, lifestyle is defined as a set of habits and customs that can be influenced, modified, encouraged, or inhibited through socialization. And they cause health consequences. This includes drinking alcohol, smoking, and exercising, among others.
So that you understand better, your lifestyle is directly related to the habits that are part of your daily life and the influence of the people you live with. Therefore, changing their lifestyle can also help them adopt healthier habits. A good example generates a good example.
Now, it is important to know that the lifestyle you have today, whether fitness, modern, sedentary, or vegan, already represents a choice. Many times, these are choices that you didn’t even realize. In other words, unconscious.
And, many of your lifestyle habits impact the results of your day-to-day life, whether professionally, with family, or romantically. An example that illustrates the case well is when a person overindulges in alcohol consumption one night, and the next day, is unproductive at work. Or even feel mentally tired to go to dinner with your boyfriend. It is necessary to review the causes to prevent possible problems.
Action and reaction to the habits you choose to call your own
Have you ever stopped to think about how every action in life corresponds to a reaction? It is not only proof of Newton’s Third Law but a principle that also works for your health.
Generally, each harmful habit causes a negative symptom or situation. Another example is an individual who knows that smoking causes serious health problems, continues smoking, and, consequently, discovers that he has lung cancer. Unfortunately, the WHO reveals that every seven seconds, a person dies from smoking.
However, it is never too late to change your life. And this doesn’t depend on your age, it just depends on your desire. Know that it is still possible to make new choices when adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Curiosity aside, the National Health Survey, carried out by the Ministry of Health, shows that Brazilians are looking for a healthier lifestyle. According to consultancy Euromonitor, the consumption of soft drinks and sweets in the Brazilian market will decline by 20.3% and 19.6%, respectively, by 2022.
In other words, there is awareness about the topic. Change only depends on those who are willing to leave their comfort zone to achieve a better quality of life.
How to change and adopt a healthy lifestyle?
As a doctor specializing in Lifestyle Medicine, I open the game with you: changing your life is not easy, but it is not impossible either.
Start by reducing your consumption of those things that you know are bad for you, such as excess fat, alcoholic beverages, or cigarettes. Then fit an hour of that physical activity of your choice into at least two days of the week.
Of course, nothing changes overnight, but over time, adopting healthy habits will have positive effects. Among them, improving self-esteem, increasing your disposition, improving sleep, and reducing stress. Factors that, when neglected, can lead to chronic diseases.
Still don’t know how to take the first step to improving your lifestyle? So, contact me. I’m here to help you better understand which habits may be harming your health and also help you improve your life.