Start a healthy lifestyle with 4 simple steps

Everyone wants a healthy lifestyle, but it is not easy to make the change. Throwing bad habits and replacing them with good habits is a challenging task. Many give up half way.

To start living a healthy lifestyle, you need to see from many aspects such as good diet, mental health and physical exercise. Many knew the basics, but why are they still failing?

One of the factor is doing changes at a very sudden rate. If you have not done any exercise before, you should not start running at 5 km. You will end up in pain for 2-3 days and in the end you are discouraged to continue doing it.

Sudden change may last for 1-2 weeks, but after that you will become tired and in despair. Start making small changes in your lifestyle and gradually increase the rate based on your comfort level; the important thing is consistently maintaining a healthy lifestyle till the end.

Let’s start living the lifestyle with these 4 steps:

1. Control what you eat

Among the mistakes made when changing your diet is following extreme dieting tips to lose weight fast but once over, you will gain back the weight and even more after that.

Good eating habit is being aware of what you put in your mouth, not eating to your heart’s content. Does this mean we can’t eat doughnut, cake or fast food anymore? No, the key is control, unhealthy food are to be eaten only at certain occasions such as birthday celebration or as a reward after achieving something. And eat in small portions.

One easy way to control your eating is using the Malaysia Healthy Plate #sukusukuseparuh which is suggested by the Ministry of Health Malaysia. You can still eat rice, but in controlled quantity. 2 things that you need to remember in good eating habit are aware and control.

2. Increase physical activity

Most of us work in the office and do not require a lot of physical movement for 7-8 hours daily sitting in front of the computer. Before you do regular exercise, try being active using these 5 suggestions:

• Walk for short distance journey (below 1km)
• Use the stairs instead of the lift 
• Park further away from the office 
• Stretch your body for 10 minutes every 1 hour
• Do house chores (sweeping, mopping)

For exercise, find the most suitable activity for you; dancing, yoga, running, rope skipping or soccer. Do any of these at least 3 times a week, for 30 minutes each session. Exercise not only help you to lose weight but also reduce your chance to get diseases. It also can increase your energy and make you happier through the production of these hormones; dopamine, adrenaline and endorphin.

3. Take care of your mental health

There is no use if only the body is healthy but our mind is stressed. With stress at work and tired of going through the traffic jam, today’s generation is prone to get mental stress. Life is not just about work, eat and sleep, it is more than that.

These are a few activities that can help with your mental health:

• Research shows that meditation can help to control stress and anxiety. For Muslims, praying and supplication are also a form of meditation. When praying, we are in tune with our spiritual needs and help us to unburden the problems that we have through supplication.
  
• Learn new skill or start a new hobby to keep your mind young and active. You can write, draw, do gardening or learn to play music. 10-15 minutes daily should suffice
  
• Spend time outdoors. Once in a while, we need to escape from our hectic life. Go picnic at a waterfall or beach, walk in public parks or hiking. Looking at greenery is proven to be good for your eyes.
  

4. Get enough sleep

A good night sleep is an important element in building a healthy lifestyle. Not enough sleep will cause your brain to lose focus and prone to falling sick. Maintain a regular sleep schedule; don’t sleep at 12 midnight today, 1 am tomorrow and 2 am the day after. Sleep for 6-8 hours daily. No matter how busy you are, make sure you have enough sleep.

Start a healthy lifestyle by making changes gradually in all life aspects. Start with small steps and increase the level from time to time. Remember, it is a journey not a destinations.

Lastly, to complete it all, you need to protect your healthy lifestyle. If misfortunes happen such as accident, illness or death, takaful protection can safeguard you and your family.

No matter how healthy you are, death is certain, so prepare a fund via hibah takaful for loved ones. We also cannot guarantee our health in the future. Even though we take good care of our body, the risk of falling sick is still there. You can participate in a medical card plan to protect your financial.

Browse our Health Protection Takaful Plan at https://www.greateasterntakaful.com/en/personal-takaful/our-products/health-protection.html

Source:

• Panduan Pinggan Sihat Malaysia
• 10 Reasons Why Good Sleep Is Important: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-reasons-why-good-sleep-is-important
• Why is physical activity so important for health and wellbeing?: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/why-is-physical-activity-so-important-for-health-and-wellbeing