Sunny Health

The Health Promotion Board’s "Make Active Lifestyle Your Way of Life" is in full swing. You are now seeing more people jogging around your estate or working out at the gyms. You want to be as active and trim as them, but you just feel too tired, busy and lazy to move! Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Do you envy the fitness freaks who seem to enjoy exercise while you consider it a chore? What about people who eat healthfully and still enjoy their meal? Why is it so easy for them and such a struggle for you? One common reason is adaptation. If you have been leading a sedentary lifestyle, or eating rich foods and snacking on tidbits on a daily basis, it is going to require time and effort to adapt.

Trying to adopt a healthier lifestyle may be difficult in the beginning, but the longer you adopt healthy behaviours, the easier they become, and the best part is, you will actually start to enjoy them as part and parcel of your life. Your first step in getting to that happy place is to change your attitude.

What is it like leading a healthy lifestyle? Those who dislike exercise may consider it a burden and a bore. You have to slog through boring workouts, avoid having your favourite meals at the fastfood restaurants and force yourself to eat an apple a day when you hate fruits.

In truth, there are other options if you are just starting to get into a healthy lifestyle. The trick to healthy living is making small changes, taking small simple steps like adding fruit to your favourite cereal or having an extra glass of water per day. Leave the drastic changes to later when you are accustomed to your healthier lifestyle. By then, you will probably consider them natural transitions, rather than drastic changes!

First steps to a Happier Healthy You!

1. Use the stairs instead of the elevator: You need to get up there anyway. Why not kill two birds with one stone and lose some calories while at it? Climbing stairs improves cardiovascular function. It also helps to strengthen and tone the leg muscles.

2. Stretch in the morning when you get out of bed: It helps to relax your muscles while increasing blood flow. It is a great and refreshing way to start the morning! You might feel more inclined to go out for a morning walk or jog.

3. Grab a friend or anyone to exercise with you: Exercising with a friend is a lot more fun. You can motivate each other, while maintaining and improving your relationship.

4. Slowly reduce consumption of unhealthy food: Gradually cut down on eating fried, oily foods and snacks. You do not have to cut out all oily food and snacks out of your diet immediately. Start slowly, for example, by limiting the number of times you consume them and the amounts. Constantly remind yourself that unhealthy food may give you temporary pleasure, but the outcomes – obesity and obesity-related diseases, are there to stay. If you feel hungry, snack on a fruit. If you don’t like apples, there are always other delicious alternatives, like pears, strawberries, bananas etc.

5. Eat breakfast everyday: Research indicates that eating breakfast helps you to lose weight. It boosts your metabolism, giving you more energy and motivation for activities. You also tend to feel less hungry, reducing the urge to eat snacks or pig out during lunch.

6. Drink healthier beverages instead of soft drinks: Soft drinks are high in sugar content and regular consumption can lead to obesity and diabetes. Go for healthier and tasty alternatives, such as iced tea, milk, soya bean milk and fruit juice.

7. Do chores at home: Housework is a form of exercise that keeps you active . Cleaning and cloth-rinsing strengthens your arm muscles. Ironing is a good way to put your shoulder, neck and upper body muscles into use. Just be sure to adopt comfortable postures and not to stand in one position for too long or you may end up with vascular problems. By doing your own housework, you safe money from hiring a maid, and you are also exercising filial piety duties by relieving your parents of strenuous chores!

8. Whenever possible and safe, take the scenic route for a walk or jog: Compared to jogging on a running track, jogging past pleasant greenery, the romantic seaside, the group of hot babes or hunks at the basketball court, is guaranteed to make your walk or jog more fun, and keep you coming back for more! Do also keep altering your routes to prevent monotony from setting in.

Once you partake in these regularly, you will find that they will integrate naturally into your lives. You'll even derive joy from doing them!