How to Build a Healthy Lifestyle Routine Perfect for You

Health is the pinnacle of our existence. A healthy body engages with the world in an entirely different way than one that is unfit, unwell, or is suffering from one reason to another. While not everyone can be in perfect condition, you can be in the best shape for yourself. Finding your healthy weight, which may not look like your picture of health, is one of the best things you can do for your wellbeing and your quality of life as a whole.

First Things First; Unlearn What You Know About Healthy Bodies

Everyone carries weight differently. This can make a room of people that weigh exactly the same look entirely different from one another. Going by weight or BMI is not conducive to finding where your body is healthiest. This is particularly true for women, for who the BMI test was not designed at all. It also cannot differentiate at all between muscle and fat, so going by your BMI, you are not accounting for genetic and gender differences, nor are you accounting for muscle mass.

A better way to focus on your health is to first go and get a health check-up. See if there are any health concerns. If your readings are healthy, then all that is left is for you to find the lifestyle that helps you feel better about yourself as well. If your cholesterol is high, or if you have high blood pressure, then these are concrete areas to focus on with your lifestyle changes.

It can be very hard to find a doctor that will look at your measurements without immediately attributing anything wrong to obesity, but if you can, try to hold out or at least hold your ground. You don’t need to be as thin as models or movie stars, but you do need to have good health readings and be active and stress-free.

What you look like at your absolute healthiest will differ entirely from someone else, even someone in your own family. By working to improve your health internally, you can find that happy weight. Do this, and you’ll both live better and feel better.

What to Remember When Exercising

Exercising isn’t about burning calories or fat. It is important to keep the body at a healthy weight for muscles and circulation. When exercising, know you’ll have four main goals:

Your strength
Your stamina
Your balance
Your flexibility

The type of exercise you choose will impact what you improve. For example, if you want to improve your stamina, running might be a good option. Some exercises, like yoga, engage all four criteria, especially as you become more advanced. The great thing about yoga is that it is perfect for beginners and experts alike. The added bonus is that it can be a lot of fun. Try out a fun yoga challenge from Movement for Modern Life. It is an excellent place to get started as a beginner or a great way to reignite your love of yoga again when you want to stay motivated and exercise.

What to Remember with Your Diet

While there are times where you will want to actively lose weight quickly, a far better approach for most will be to not look at how much you are eating and instead look at what you are eating. Eating well is by far the most important thing that you can do for yourself, and the best part is that eating healthy meals also tends to help reduce excess weight, clears your skin, and improves your mood.

Make a List of the Unhealthy Foods You Eat

To start, you’ll want to make a list of the unhealthy foods that you eat. This includes foods that are healthy in small doses that you might eat too much of (like milk, cheese, and other dairy products).

Make Replacements

Make replacements for the obvious unhealthy foods (foods that have minimal nutritional value at all). Enjoy crisps? Try replacing it with plain popcorn you’ve made yourself. Love chocolate? Switch it for fruit. Some replacements are just as good as the real thing. Others will need a new, healthy alternative for you to fill that part of your meal.

Test Your Diet

It’s also important to selectively remove some items from your diet for a week or two. Take dairy, for example. Many people would be better without dairy in their diet, and by selectively removing items, you can see how your body responds so you can make the right decisions for your health.