How to have a healthy lifestyle?

A study by a Michigan State University epidemiologist finds that very few Americans are doing all they can to maintain a healthy life, a situation he said could have dire consequences if it doesn't change. The research of Mathew Reeves, which used nationally representative data from 153,000 adults and was published in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that only 3 percent undertook four basic steps that define a healthy lifestyle:

1. Not smoking,
2. Holding weight down,
3. Eating right and
4. Exercising.

This is a very scary finding since we are already suffering from the worst obesity epidemic, health insurance costs are exploding, and quality of food available in the supermarket continues to decline.

Of the 153,000 respondents, only 3 percent participated in all four of what are termed healthy lifestyle characteristics, or HLCs. Looking at these HLCs individually, about

• 75 percent reported they didn't smoke;
• 23 percent included at least five fruits and vegetables in their daily diets;
• 22 percent took part in regular physical activity, which is defined as at least 30 minutes of activity a day, five or more times a week; and
• 40 percent maintained a healthy weight, which is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or less.

Reeves said that women tended to follow more of the HLCs than men, as did whites compared with minority populations. But no one group, he said, came even close to what is necessary to lead a healthy life.

According to Reeves, all of the HLCs defined in the study are controllable, so the million-dollar question is, why are only a tiny minority of adults able to follow a healthy lifestyle? He said that in order to get a large segment of the population to change its ways of living, it will be up to society as a whole to shift the cultural norms in terms of how it views healthy lifestyles. Here are some suggestions on how to have a healthy lifestyle:

1. If you do smoke, consider quitting it as soon as you can. There is tremendous help available on how you can stop smoking.
2. Manage your weight. You can do that simply by consuming calories that are in proportion to your lifestyle. And to lose the extra pounds, if you have them, is to exercise.
3. Eat healthy. Without your realizing, a lot of the processed food that you buy in the grocery store is simply inedible. What you need to do is to buy raw food, cook it at home the healthy way, and eat in moderation.
4. There is simply no excuse for not exercising. In fact you need not even go to the gym and waste money. You can do many exercises right at home or at work without spending a penny. For more exercise choices, you can look at pilates, yoga, rope jumping, aerobics, bellydancing, etc., simply buy the DVD or video and simple equipment, and workout right in your living room (or your hotel room when you travel).

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