One of the topics that is often discussed but rarely understood in the fitness space is how to improve your health if you’re a complete beginner. When you’ve been hitting the gym and eating healthy for a long time, it can feel like second nature; but getting started with a healthy lifestyle is actually pretty hard for most people.
There are many reasons for this: the stress of everyday life, a lack of knowledge about proper diet and exercise, poor habit formation skills… If you’ve been struggling to get on the right track with your lifestyle, we’re here to help.
In this series of articles we’ll explore what you can do to live a healthy lifestyle even if you have never exercised, eaten healthy or done many sports in the past. After all, most people who have never exercised, or not much at all, are still able to live a healthy lifestyle if they set their mind to it, provided they follow a good set of steps.
This first article will go through the outline of what we’ll learn in the following blog posts. Although we want to create a beginner’s friendly guide, we’re sure you can find some advice that will help you too even if you’re more advanced! Feel free to read through the sections that you think apply to you the most, and of course, hit us up if you have any questions 🙂
Let’s get started!
What Is a Healthy Lifestyle?
First things first: we need to properly define what a healthy lifestyle actually is. Some people think it’s all about eating the right foods or hitting the gym three times a week; but in fact, these are not the only important factors.
At Hypefive, however, we believe there is not a single way of getting healthy and taking care of your mind and body. We’re an agnostic community, after all; and our tribe is composed of people from all walks of life and with very different backgrounds.
But what, then, is a healthy lifestyle? According to WHO, it involves «a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, not simply just the absence of disease». This means that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to leading a life that’s aligned with what we naturally need.
Here at Hypefive, we believe leading a healthy life involves taking care of the following aspects:
1- Being physically active
2- Eating food that recharges your body
3- Sleeping well
4- Taking care of your mental health
5- Having a good social life
6- Creating empowering habits
7- Following a clear path
In the following articles we’ll dive deeper into each one of these topics; but let’s take a brief overview at each one of them.
The seven areas that’ll lead to a healthy lifestyle
1- Being physically active
Physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your overall health. It can help reduce your risk of developing diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer.
However, that’s not the only benefit of going to the gym from time to time or getting involved in some kind of team sport. Physical activity can also greatly improve your mood and mental health, reduce stress levels, and increase your day to day energy levels.
The problem? Getting started with any new sport or activity can seem like an impossible task. The good news is that any type of exercise (running, swimming, dancing, yoga) that you have been doing for a while should become easier and more comfortable over time.
There are many different types of physical activity that you can do to benefit your health, so find something that you enjoy and stick with it! If you’re stuck on what to try here, you can head over to our guide on how to find your next hobby.
2- Eating food that recharges your body
In the last few years, we’ve seen a surge in awareness of the benefits of healthy eating. We’ve seen television shows, magazine articles and «social media influencers» banging on about how important is to «eat your veggies» or reduce your calories.
These stories are usually well-intentioned, but often seem to be about what people are doing wrong instead of what they need to do right; and there’s also a lot of misconceptions about what «eating healthy» actually means. Should you go vegan? Is keto the best approach for you? The nutrition sphere can be quite confusing for a beginner.
However, giving your body what it needs doesn’t have to be so hard. We’ll explore this concept in more depth in the following articles, but for now here are a few quick tips:
1- Eat more vegetables and fruit.
2- Increase your fat and protein intake.
3- Focus on real food.
4- Avoid simple carbs.
3- Sleeping well
If you want to live a healthy lifestyle, it is also important to sleep enough. This is usually a neglected area for fitness enthusiasts; but according to the American College of Physicians, the average adult needs about seven to eight hours of sleep each night in order to avoid chronic illnesses, lack of energy and an overall poor health.
The idea that we should get enough sleep to be healthy – in fact that we need it – is proven by many studies. It seems that getting less sleep than you need on a regular basis can lead to inflamation, increased anxiety, depression, and even an increased risk of cancer and other serious illnesses.
4- Taking care of your mental health
Mental health is just as important as physical health. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) defines mental health as «a state of well-being in which individuals experience feelings of satisfaction with life, are able to function effectively in their roles and relationships, and have positive mental attitudes.»
It’s important to remember that mental health needs to be activelly maintained, as it can be affected by a variety of factors – from stressors in daily life to psychiatric illness. There are many ways to take care of your mental health, and it’s important to find what works best for you. We’ll explore this concept in more detail in future articles.
5- Having a good social life
People who have a good social life tend to live healthier lifestyles. Social engagement has been linked with many health benefits, including reducing the risk of developing obesity and heart disease, improving mental well-being, and reducing feelings of loneliness. In fact, research suggests that people who are socially engaged have a lower risk of dying from any cause.
So why does having a good social life matter? First, people who are around positive people tend to have more positive attitudes themselves. This makes it easier to stick to healthy habits and can help them resist any sourrounding temptations. Secondly, having friends helps us stay active and motivated. When we’re out and about, we tend to be more active and take better care of ourselves. And third, we’re social animals, and need other people if we want to be our best selves.
Again, we’ll explore this concept in more depth in future articles.
6- Creating empowering habits
Having good habits can be a key part of living a healthy lifestyle. Good habits can help you avoid health problems, reduce stress, and overall feel happier. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests good habits can be incredibly beneficial in terms of your overall physical and mental health, so it can be a great idea to focus learning how to build and maintain them.
At the same time, breaking your bad habits can be as important as creating good ones. A few weeks ago we recommended a very good book on habits on our newsletter; but we’ll talk more about this topic in the future.
7- Following a clear path
Last but not least, working on a life goal that you feel passionate about can help you live a healthier lifestyle and be happier, too. Having a clear and specific life goal can help you stay on track and make better decisions. It can also inspire you to keep progressing even when things get tough.
When you have a clear life goal, it becomes easier to stay focused and motivated. Many people find it difficult to stay on track because they don’t really know what they want. If that’s your case, setting up and sticking to a life goal will help you feel more in control of your life and give you an easier time with your habits, exercise, nutrition, sleep and all the other areas we’ve talked about.
This is just the beginning
As you can imagine, talking about how to lead a healthy life is a huge topic, one that’s completely out of scoped for a single article. For that reason, over the next few weeks we’ll be exploring all of the topics we’ve mentioned in more depth.
Stay tuned!