How healthy are you? Do you have a healthy diet? Do you exercise regularly? Do you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day? Do you get enough sleep every day?
In this article, I’ll share with you 45 tips to live a healthier life. Bookmark this article and save the tips, because they are going to be vital in living a healthier life.

1 Drink more water. Most of us actually don’t drink enough water every day. Water is essential for our body to function – Do you know over 60% of our body is made up of water? Water is needed to carry out our body functions, remove waste and carry nutrients and oxygen around our body. Since we lose water every day through urine, bowel movements, perspiration and breathing, we need to replenish our water intake.
Water
Furthermore, drinking more water alone actually aids in losing weight. A Health.com study carried out among overweight/obese people showed that water drinkers lose 4.5 more pounds than a control group. The researchers believe that it’s because drinking more water helps fill your stomach, making you less hungry and less likely to overeat. I agree with that, and I have an added take that your body tries to retain whatever water you take when you don’t take in enough water, leading to increase in weight. Whereas when you regularly drink water, your body knows that it’s going to get its supply of fluids, so it doesn’t try to retain more water.
The amount of water we need is dependent on various factors such as the humidity, our physical activity, and your weight, but generally we need 2.7-3.7 litres of water intake! Since food intake contributes about 20% of our fluid intake, that means we need to drink about 2.0-3.0 litres of water, or about 8-10 glasses (now you know how the 8 glasses recommendation came about!). One way to tell if you’re hydrated – your urine should be colorless or slightly yellow. If it’s not, you’re not getting enough water! Other signs include: Dry lips, dry mouth and little urination. Go get some water first before you continue this article!
2 Get enough sleep. When you don’t rest well, you compensate by eating more. Usually it’s junk food. Get enough rest and you don’t need to snack to stay awake. Also, lack of sleep causes premature aging, and you wouldn’t want that.
Meditate. Meditation quietens your mind and calms your soul. If you don’t know how to meditate, don’t worry – learn how to meditate in 5 simple steps.
Meditation at the field
3 Exercise. Not just a few times a week, but every day. Movement is life. Research has shown that exercising daily brings tremendous benefits to our health, including increase of life span, lowering of risk of diseases, higher bone density and weight loss. Increase activity in your life. Choose walking over transport for close distances. Climb the stairs instead of taking the lift. Join some aerobics classes. Take up a sport of your liking (see tip #5)
Pick exercises you enjoy. When you enjoy the sports, you’ll naturally want to do them. Exercise isn’t about suffering and pushing yourself; it’s about being healthy and having fun at the same time. Adding variation in your exercises will keep them interesting.
Work out different parts of your body. Don’t just do cardio exercises (such as jogging). Give your full body a proper work out. The easiest way is to engage in sports, since they work out different muscle groups. Popular sports include basketball, football, swimming, tennis, squash, badminton, frisbee, and more.
4 Eat more fruits. Fruits are a plethora of vitamins and minerals. Do you know that oranges offer more health benefits than Vitamin C pills? Taking in synthetic supplements are not the same as consuming the foods direct from nature. Fill your palate with these nutritious fruits: Watermelon, Apricots, Avocado, Apple, Cantaloupe, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Guava, Papaya, Strawberries.
Fruits
5 Eat more vegetables. Like fruits, vegetables are important for the well being of our health. Experts suggest that we should have 5-9 servings of fruits/vegetables, and unfortunately most people don’t even have at least 5 servings! Some of my favorite vegetables include: Kidney beans, black beans, asparagus, long beans, french beans, sprouts, button mushrooms and carrots. What are your favorite vegetables and how can you include more of them in your diet today?
6 Pick bright colored foods. Fruits and vegetables with bright colors are usually high in anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are good for health because they remove free radicals in our body that damage our cells. So get your fill of fruits/vegetables of different colors: White (Bananas, Mushroom), Yellow (Pineapples, Mango), Orange (Orange, Papaya), Red (Apple, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Watermelon), Green (Guava, Avocados, Cucumber, Lettuce, Celery), Purple/Blue (Blackberries, Eggplant, Prunes). Here’s a full list under the color wheel.
7 Cut down on processed food. Processed foods are not good because (1) most nutritional value is lost (2) the preservatives added are bad for our health. Many processed foods contain a high amount of salt content, which leads to higher blood pressure and heart disease. Processed foods are anything that are not in their raw form. In general, most of the food in supermarket are processed – the more the ingredients on the label (especially the ones ending with ‘ite’ or ‘ate’), the more processed they are. Watch out for those with salt/sugar as the first 5 ingredients and go for natural foods as much as possible.
8 Love yourself. How much do you love yourself on a scale of 1-10? Why? How can you love yourself more starting today? In Day 20 of 30DLBL, we explore the notion of self-love and get you started on loving yourself more.
Pink hearts
Barefoot walking/running. There have been many proven positive benefits of barefoot walking/running, from better posture, less stress for your feet, less stress for your joints, etc . I’ve been running barefoot since May ’10, and loving it. Read more: 10 Reasons To Run Barefoot
9 Purge negative people from your life. Positive mental healthy is an important part of a healthy life. You don’t need toxic people in your life. If you feel that a friend is overly critical or negative, then let him/her go.
Purge negativity from yourself. You don’t need negativity from yourself either. Listen in on the thoughts that come up in your mind and get rid of the negative thoughts you hear. A lot of eating happens because one feels unhappy, so by staying in a positive, up state by yourself, you cut out that unhealthy dependence on food to be happy.
10 Journal out unhappy thoughts. One great way to purge negativity from within is to do brain dumping exercises whenever you feel frustrated. This is something I do with my 1-1 clients as well, where I ask them to journal out their deepest thoughts so we can address them. Don’t keep these thoughts pent up inside of you – it’s not healthy.
11 Avoid trigger foods. Trigger foods are the foods that make you go berserk and binge like crazy after you eat them. Everyone’s trigger foods are different (mine are donuts, pastries, pasta and chips), but generally trigger foods are candy bars, chocolate, confectionery, chips, cookies, or anything with high level of refined sugar, salt, fat or flour. These foods cause a blood sugar imbalance, hence triggering one to eat more. What are your trigger foods? Identify them and remove them from your diet.
12 Breathe. Deeply. Oxygen is a vital source of life. You may know how to breathe, but are you breathing properly? Most of us don’t breathe properly – we take only shallow breathes and breathe to 1/3 of our lung capacity. Athletes are coached proper breathing techniques to get their best performance. A full breathis one where your lungs are completely filled, your abdomen expands and there’s minimum movement in your shoulders.
Woman breathing
13 Address emotional eating issues. Emotional eating is eating to fill an emotion, rather than real hunger. Do you eat when you feel stressed out, down or frustrated? Do you reach out for food when you hit a block at work? Chances are, you’re emotional eating. However, emotional eating will never make you feel happy, because you’re trying to fill a void that has nothing to do with food. Food doesn’t give you love or happiness; it’s just food. Why do you reach out for food when you’re down? How can you address it?
14 Eat small meals. Choose several small meals over a few big meals a day. This balances out your energy distribution throughout the day. In general, eat when you feel hungry, and stop when you’re full (see tip #20). You don’t need to wait until official meal times before you start eating. Listen to your body and what it tells you.
15 Stop eating when you feel full. Many of us rely on external cues to tell when we’re full, such as whether everyone has finished eating, whether your plate was empty or not. These are irrelevant – you should look at internal cues, such as whether your stomach feels full or not. Don’t feel obligated to eat just because there’s still food at the plate. Personally I like to stop when I feel about 3/4 full – if I eat till I’m totally full, I feel uncomfortable as my digestive system goes into overdrive. Use your gut as your indicator (literally).
16 Go for brown carbs vs. white carbs. White carbs are refined grains like white rice, pasta, white bread, crackers, noodles, tortillas, wraps, anything with white flour and breading. The nutrients have been removed in...continue reading here http://echosamconsult..com.ng/2016/07/45-tips-to-live-healthier-life.html#more