Whether you are a man or a woman, married or single, rich or poor, everybody wants to be fit and healthy. It is especially true if you have family and others depend on you.
Here are three of the best pointers to achieving family health.
Your Surroundings Matter
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, in the United States alone, close to 35,000 people die of heart disease related to secondhand smoke every year. An additional 8,000 succumb to lung cancer even if they have never smoked a cigarette in their lives.
These frightening numbers tell us that when it comes to your health, your surroundings play a fundamental role. Furthermore, you must do everything at your disposal to put yourself and those you love in the best possible situation as often as you can.
From a family health perspective, this entails different things. First, you must make sure you are not inhaling dangerous chemicals or drinking water that isn’t clean. To do this, it would be in your best interests to contact your local air conditioning, heater, and ventilation systems expert every once in a while for routine maintenance. The same goes for the plumbers. Simply waiting until something gets damaged or it is too late is often not the best course of action to take.
Second, you must make time at least once a week to engage in the general cleaning of your property. Aside from making it more comfortable and visually appealing, you will be going a long way in preventing all household members from getting sick.
An Issue of Habits
Sad to say, if it is in your destiny to get sick, you will get sick. Likewise, if, for one reason or another, today is the day you will be involved in a car accident, there isn’t much you can do to prevent it. Still, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at least try to control what you can and make the daily decision of being as healthy as possible.
One of the best ways to do this is taking the time to build the right habits as it pertains to your well-being. While this is certainly something that you will not be able to do overnight, if you make a conscious effort to keep it in your head, slowly but surely, it will become a routine. And when that happens, you will not even have to think about it, and being healthy will be ingrained in your system. As a result, it will become something easy to do.
But where do you start? The answer to this question can be divided into three parts: your nutrition, the amount of physical exercise you do, and your mental health.
As far as your nutrition, you should make sure you eat the right foods at least three times a day. In terms of exercise, 30 minutes three to four times a week is advisable. Finally, better mental health begins with adequate sleep and making time to relax.
Flexibility and Open-Mindedness
The great martial artist and Hollywood icon Bruce Lee once said, “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.”
If you want to give yourself the best chances to flourish in life, you need to be open-minded and flexible. Whether at work, in your personal and professional relationships, or your health, a rigid approach will not yield the best results. It is true irrespective of how effective the method is or how much effort you put into it.
There will be days when you don’t want to work out or are craving a pizza, a giant bowl of ice cream, or a bag of chips. If you can eat them in moderation and then get back on track, there is no reason why you shouldn’t indulge a bit. Doing so might even give you the motivation to keep moving forward.
A specific physical or mental exercise routine may cease to be productive one day. It is then that you need to have the flexibility and open-mindedness to try something else or seek the advice of those with more expertise. Keep in mind that trying out new things is rarely a bad thing, and you may find yourself gaining valuable knowledge.
Three of the most effective tips to a healthier, happier you are taking care of your surroundings, incorporating good habits into your lifestyle, and tackling your health and fitness with flexibility and the openness to change. These are things we can all do to live longer, more productive lives.
