Living a healthier style just isn’t about eating healthier and exercising, a healthy lifestyle should be a complete way of life. Your body, mind and soul should be in complete harmony and by following a few simple steps we can all achieve this in our lives. Your body needs a healthy diet which consists of vitamins, minerals and nutrients but it also needs mental energy:

Mental energy

• all the exercise, healthy food and sleep in the world won’t help if you’re wasting mental energy.
• mental energy levels go up and down in the course of a day this can be through stress at work , problems in relationships, too many bills and not enough money to pay them or if you are feeling generally unwell.
• the key to mental energy is taking control of your life.

Try to take one step at a time to address issues, if you’re having problems in relationships then sit down quietly and talk them through, shouting at each other doesn’t get anything accomplished and can often make you feel worse.

If your problems are work related then ask to speak to the boss and discuss any work related issues with him/her. If you have money problems there are several ways of dealing with these issues but ignoring them and hoping they go away isn’t the answer.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

If you are the type who likes to be neat and tidy and well organised then you are probably classed as a perfectionist and anything below perfection will be frowned upon by you. If this sounds like you then try to remember these points:

• perfection causes anxiety which affects your lifestyle and happiness.
• living by such high standards can be a cause of high blood pressure.
• If you’re always pushing yourself in striving for perfection you can miss out on a lot of the good things in life.
• perfectionism can be a way of escaping like drinking, the perfectionist idea can be that people only like them because of their achievements and so failure isn’t an option.

Try to learn to relax more and de stress there are several exercises that are excellent for relaxing particularly Tai- chi and yoga. Learn that there is more to life than achieving and working towards goals, learn to just relax and enjoy life.

We know the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, eating a healthy diet and exercising can help us to look after our heart and ward off heart disease and other major illnesses. Having a daily exercise plan will also leave you feeling less tired and stressed and can also make you feel happier.

Research has shown that people suffering from depression have felt a lot better when taking some form of activity on a regular basis. Exercising not only makes you feel good but also makes you look good, it helps to tone and strengthen muscles which will improve your posture and help burn body fat.

Your health in the long term

Benefits to your health in the long term are numerous, exercising for as little as 20 minutes per day 5 days a week will reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and the development of diabetes. It can also have a positive effect on people who suffer from high blood pressure, often helping to bring it lower.

Exercise such as walking can help you reduce the risk of developing brittle bones later in life and help with problems such as constipation, menstrual problems and pre menstrual problems.

All-round fitness

An all-round fitness plan would involve three areas, aerobic exercise and flexibility exercises and strength exercises.

Your health can be improved by developing your aerobic capacity, aerobic exercise is basically any exercise that raises the rate of your heartbeat and makes you sweat slightly, for example a brisk walk or jogging.

The aerobic system is your heart, lungs, muscles and blood vessels. Your capacity is based on how well your body can deliver oxygen to the muscles and how much oxygen they use for energy.

Exercising on a regular basis for a specific time and level will help you to increase the ability to take in and use oxygen while exercising. This will then improve your aerobic capacity.

How to improve your aerobic capacity

This can be achieved by exercising for about 20 minutes per day 3 times a week at an intensity that is within your training zone. Your training zone is calculated by subtracting your age from 220, this will give you your maximum heart rate.

You then multiply this number by 65% the number you get is the number your heart rate should stay when you are exercising aerobically.

Exercise machines in gyms will have a built in heart rate monitor but if you are exercising at home then you can purchase a pulse rate monitor cheaply. These are often in the form of wrist bands or chest bands.

Iron

Iron is an important mineral that is needed in a healthy diet, people who don’t receive enough iron in their diet become tired easily because their bodies are starved of oxygen.

What foods contain iron?

Iron is found in oysters, meat, poultry and fish as well as in leafy green vegetables, dried fruit and wine.

How much iron do we need?

The average adult will need 100mg of iron per day, some factors can prevent us from receiving the correct amount of iron in our diet for example those that donate blood and sometimes because of this your Doctor will recommend iron tablets or iron supplements.

Are there any side effects from taking iron supplements?

If your Doctor has prescribed iron as a supplement then he will have given you clear instructions on the daily amount needed to be taken, however iron tablets can have some side effects the most common being constipation.

If you are taking supplements then be sure to drink plenty of fluids throughout the day and increase the amount of fibre you have in your daily diet.

Drinking a lot of coffee, foods that are high in fibre and calcium supplements all affect the absorption of iron into your body and taking Vitamin C supplements will slightly increase the absorption.

Potassium

Potassium is a trace mineral that is essential for good health and strong bones; it helps to regulate the blood pressure and helps the cellular enzymes to function properly.

What foods contain potassium?

Around 400 milligrams of the following foods contain potassium

• 1 medium banana
• 1 8oz cup of orange juice
• 1 medium baked potato
• 1 cup of tomato juice
• 1 large nectarine
• 8oz of honeydew melon

How much potassium do we need?

Eating between five and nine servings of fruit and vegetables every day will ensure that the body receives enough potassium, the minimum amount of potassium that we need per day is around 2,000 milligrams.

Phosphorous

Phosphorous is essential for skin and bones and also makes up part of DNA and RNA; it serves as the main regulator of energy metabolism in cells and helps the body with the absorption of glucose.

What foods contain phosphorous?

Almost all foods contain phosphorous, including milk, meat, fish and eggs.

Excellent sources of phosphorous can be found in the following foods

• 1 cup of all bran cereal – 792mg
• 3 small pancakes – 430mg
• 1 8oz cup of milk – 245mg
• 8oz of bran flakes – 174
• 1 large egg – 90mg
• 120z of coca cola – 63mg

How much phosphorous do we need?

The recommended daily allowance of phosphorous is 700 milligrams a day for adults and 1,250 for children.

We all know how easy it is to put on weight so why then is it so hard to lose that weight once it has been gained. Experts suggest that if we were to simply return to eating a healthy diet then left to its own devices our body would take care of itself and it would increase the rate at which we burn calories therefore bringing us slowly back to our ideal weight.

In a recent study undertaken a group of average weight men and women were asked to dramatically increase there body weight by raising there calorie intake for two weeks.

They were then asked to return to there regular eating habits and by doing so without any extra form of exercise or severe cutbacks there weight gradually decreased back to normal.

The explanation for this is thought to be that the metabolism increase is greater once a person returns to a normal healthy diet than during a period of over eating.

If our metabolism can speed up why then do we have trouble losing weight?

Research has shown that people either eat more than they need or cut back far too much and this is why many people find it hard to lose weight even if they are on a diet. So why is it when we cut back too much on our intake of calories we don’t lose more weight?

It has been proven time and time again that if we restrict ourselves too much then we usually don’t stick with the diet long enough for results to show. Also if we cut down on the amount of calories we eat per day too much then our metabolic rate actually decreases which then slows down calories burning.

Research has also shown that we are often misguided about the amount of food we need to eat per day or recommended portion sizes and more of us eat portions that are two or even three times those recommended without even realising it.

Studies have also shown that if the food is there before us then we will eat it without really being hungry but simply just because it’s there in front of us.

Another way in which we can over eat is what is termed calorie density; the same amount of food can vary greatly in the amount of calories it holds, so for example half a cup of meat has a lot more calories than the same quantity of vegetables.

If more people paid attention to this then they would eat less foods of higher calorie content and more lower in calories. It is recommended by health experts that if weight has been gained then reducing your intake of calories by 200 to 250 per day and being active will help you lose the weight you have gained.

This can be done by slightly reducing the portion sizes you eat at every meal. Weight can even be lost without reducing the portion size but rather by altering what you eat, instead choose food that has less calories such as eating more vegetable with your meal and just a very small portion of foods with higher calorie content.