The basis of everything: healthy living habits and a healthier lifestyle - why adopt and maintain them?
You certainly have one or more goals in life: things you want to achieve, have, do, enjoy, feel or give to other people. And you know that these things very rarely “fall from the sky”: you you'll have to identify these objectives, think about them, plan how to achieve them and then take action, which is to fight and act to get what you want, right?
To achieve all this - from material goods to health, from weight loss and a good body to status and power - there is one thing you will always need to achieve your goals: you need to be alive. But living is different from surviving... Those who aren't healthy merely survive and find it much harder to pursue their goals, don't you agree?
In fact, the healthier you are, the more well-being and productivity you can achieve, which makes the road to success much easier in every respect!
So, what is health? It's physical, mental and spiritual well-being. All together. Therefore, “real” health can only be achieved when body, mind and spirit are well. Those who take care of these three basic aspects of their existence, without neglecting any of them, truly live (and not just survive, often “dragging” from the time they wake up until the time they go to sleep).
In other words, if you want to recover and maintain your health, take care of it:
– Your spirit - Always try to do good and maintain a good, regular relationship with God or “something higher” (here, a belief or religion according to your ideas and that brings you comfort and help; or, at least, faith in something greater. After all, you, who are intelligent, can only have been created and supported by something greater and more intelligent than yourself, don't you agree?) In this respect, daily prayers always help.
– From your mind - Cultivate good thoughts and always keep studying, acquiring more useful knowledge (and reviewing or improving the ones you've already acquired) and taking care of your emotions and desires, your intellectual and emotional brain.
– Your body - Your mind and spirit act on the world around you (and receive information and effects from it) through your body, don't you agree? In other words, it has to be very well looked after so that you can interact with the world and thus strive to achieve success in your life goals!
✅ How to take care of your body's health?
Your body basically needs two things in order to exist: to recover daily from the aggressions it suffers, to improve itself (for example, to gain muscle and bone when necessary) and to function properly: fuels e structure.
Structure is the set of materials that make up your body (i.e. what your body is made of: head, torso and limbs). Fuels are the materials that your body transforms into energy in order to function (think, move, feel, breathe, beat your heart, etc.).
So when your body has enough materials (in quality and quantity), supplied regularly, to serve as structure and fuel, it functions well. But when you don't, it gets sick.
Think of your body like a house, which needs building materials to be built and repaired periodically (structure: bricks, sand, cement, among others) and a regular supply of good materials to function (fuels: water, electricity, telephone, gas, among others), without which it becomes defective and “gets sick”. It's as simple as that.
✅ How do you get these materials?
The materials your body needs to function properly (and the conditions for them to be used correctly, where they are needed, in the right way and proportions) can only come from one source, for any human being: healthy lifestyle habits.
The life of every human being is mainly determined by their lifestyle habits: they determine how long the body will live and with what quality, mobility, resistance to infections, recovery capacity, productivity, organ function, brain function, its characteristics (body fat, muscle and bone mass, appearance of the skin, hair and nails) and even sexual activity. In other words, how you lead your life and look after your body is the most important factor in determining your own destiny!
Put another way: your metabolism is your overall speed and quality of functioning, and it depends on your lifestyle habits (watch the video on metabolism in the videos section of the icaro.med.br). The better your lifestyle habits, the better your metabolism and thus the better the condition of your body as a whole.
So what are these very important and fundamental healthy lifestyle habits? They are (summarized below, so that this text doesn't get too long):
1 - Drink water
Every 1 hour or 2 glasses (about 200 ml) every 2 hours. Don't wait for thirst - never go longer than that without drinking water.
Most of the body is made up of water, which means that without it, everything is impaired and works worse. Water should be drunk several times a day, totaling around 3 liters a day (for an adult).
Its lack causes the metabolism to fall and is involved in practically all diseases and symptoms, from obesity and headaches to high blood pressure, inflammation and circulatory diseases in general.
And remember that “water is water”: no other liquid hydrates as well as pure water itself.
2 - Eat every 3 hours and eat fiber daily
Always have an excellent breakfast and, from then on, eat regularly, even if you're not hungry. Avoid going more than 3 hours without eating - remember your metabolism!
Look for quality, varied foods in smaller portions at each meal. Food provides energy and “raw material” for our body to rebuild itself. Anyone who goes too long without eating is like a car with fuel problems: it simply won't run properly. The lack of food in the body and mind causes damage to the metabolism.
Find out more about this at: https://icaro.med.br/alimentacao/
About fibers: leafy greens, fruits, cereals, granola, sprouts, mushrooms and the like are rich in them and should be consumed at least twice a day, totaling between 25 and 40 grams a day (every day).
Why are they important? Because they help cleanse and detoxify the body, and no intestine works properly without them.
When it comes to proper nutrition, the ideal is to be accompanied by a good nutritionist and follow their advice.
3 - Regular physical exercise
Never go more than 48 hours without the minimum recommended practice routine: at least 3 times a week (at least 30 minutes each time) and at least once a week strength exercises, involving all the muscles in the body.
Regular physical exercise (walking, gym memberships, swimming, dancing, cycling, etc.) improves blood circulation and breathing, strengthens muscles and bones, helps with weight loss, optimizes hormone levels and the functioning of the immune system. For all these reasons, it brings well-being and helps control or prevent numerous diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, thrombosis, embolisms, heart attacks and strokes.
Just don't forget that it's safest to seek medical advice before starting a physical activity.
When it comes to exercise, the ideal thing is to be accompanied by a good physical education professional and follow their guidelines.
4 - Sleep well
Always sleep in the dark and in a quiet environment, preferably early, on your side, on a good pillow and mattress, and up to 2 hours after a light meal, hydrating properly.
It is mainly during sleep that your body and mind recover from the day that has passed and prepare to live the next one, selecting thoughts and fixing memories (brain), replenishing nutrients, manufacturing hormones and neurotransmitters, eliminating the unnecessary, among other processes.
If you don't sleep properly, you're constantly falling ill, little by little.
5 - Breathe bettere
Breathe deeply several times a day, doing at least 3 cycles of deep inhales and exhales per hour.
Due to stress or sheer inattention, we breathe more and more shallowly, and this damages the body's oxygen supply. Always remember that the three main fuels for generating our precious energy are the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink - problems with any of them will make us ill.
Regularly optimized breathing can be learned and trained in techniques such as meditation, yoga, tai chi chuan, pilates, lian gong, self-massage, among others.
6 - Get informed
Regularly access (read, listen to, watch) quality material from reliable and up-to-date sources.
With the internet, we have more and more information available, but there are still a lot of people who aren't interested in it in the health area or don't care about the origin of the knowledge they believe in (if it's really reliable).
Understand: in order to act for the benefit of your health, you need to plan this action correctly, based on quality information. After all, how can you do the right thing without knowing what the right thing is?
7 - Manage your stress better
Reduce your stress, plan better and more often, have leisure activities every day (even if only 15 minutes a day) and avoid dwelling on problems.
Stress is one of the biggest causes or aggravators of disease in modern times and it affects both body and mind, above all by altering the balance of hormones and neurotransmitters and therefore changing your metabolism.
Learn to “switch off” periodically. After all, even a machine needs time to cool down - or it will “break down”. It's as simple as that.
8 - Be positive
Always try to act positively, which is only possible when based on positive thoughts. Negative thinking is detrimental to the body's functioning, while positive thinking helps, as numerous studies have shown.
Positive thoughts make it easier to plan the best course of action for each situation and help maintain a constructive state of mind. Practices such as a good (and constant) relationship with God (or “faith in something greater”, in which you believe), listening to good music, laughing, saying prayers, avoiding access to negative content (movies, news, bad news), cultivating friendships, having healthy leisure time, among others, also help.
9 - Avoid excesses and intoxication
Stay away from and avoid substances and behaviors that overload your body. Every time your body is exposed to excesses and toxins, it will lose its balance and will need to expend energy (and time) to recover it. This energy, in part, will have to be diverted from activities that are important for the functioning of detoxifying systems, which leads to the symptoms of low metabolism already mentioned (tiredness, headaches, low immunity, among others).
Remember that there are substances that are always toxic (drugs, smoke, among others), but that any substance or behavior, in excess, “works” as a toxin.
Beware of the “intoxication” effects caused by excessive exposure to cell phones and electronics.
10 - Sun: expose yourself regularly, but with due care
The ideal would be daily exposure, but a minimum of three times a week helps for two purposes: signaling the brain when it's day and night (regulating the so-called “circadian rhythm”) and allowing the skin to use cholesterol for vitamin D synthesis.
For this purpose, we recommend exposure to the sun without a filter, at any time of the day, until the skin begins a slight process of glowing and reddening (which can take just a few minutes, especially on lighter and more sensitive skin).
Life on Earth depends on the sun - so why should it be any different for us humans?
11 - Consult good health professionals
Be accompanied regularly by a doctor, nutritionist, dentist and other professionals you trust, following their advice. Just make sure you choose professionals who are truly human, who treat you as such, who take a real interest in your case, are up-to-date and, as far as possible, free from prejudice.
Regular consultations make it possible to identify and treat disorders in their early stages, as well as receive advice on prevention and treatment. After all, even those who take care of themselves sometimes get sick.
It's also essential to follow the treatments exactly as the professionals prescribe, so that they have a better chance of achieving the desired effects.
If you promote as many of these habits as possible in your daily life, you will be healthier and your body will be better able to respond to the many unbalancing factors to which we are exposed on a daily basis. The result? Fewer illnesses and much better quality of life and well-being, factors that lead to greater productivity, capacity, longevity and, as a result, much greater chances of success!
It's worth pointing out that no one here is talking about “8 or 80”, meaning that either you have all 11 healthy habits in order at once or nothing will do. The more of them you adopt and maintain, to the best of your ability, according to your real effort and personal conditions, the greater and better the beneficial effect on your health will be, cumulatively.
Of course, everyone has their own pace for implementing changes... The important thing, however, is to actually put them into practice, even if gradually.
Health: if you do your part, everything will work out!
“Every great walk begins with a single step.” (Confucius)
I wish you success and health on your journey!
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