How to Design a Healthy Lifestyle That’s Right For You
With a bit of perseverance and diligence in making a few key lifestyle changes, it’s possible to realize significant improvements in energy, reductions in cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and weight management. In defining how to design a healthy lifestyle that’s customized to personal needs, let’s explore the behaviors and techniques necessary to make it work indefinitely.
Focus on Incorporating Enjoyable Fitness Activities into Your Weekly Routine
A recent study found that integrating cardiovascular exercise and strength training as part of a weekly fitness routine can support tremendous improvement in cumulative physical and mental wellness. Committing to at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic training each day helps lower blood pressure, promotes healthy weight loss, radically improves heart health and contributes to mental wellness.
One of the most common challenges which confronts aspiring healthy lifestyle devotees, aside from dedicating time, is finding a physically demanding activity they enjoy. Engaging in fitness activities that are uplifting, socially rewarding, and easily accessible makes it far easier to maintain the time commitment. Exercise should be an endeavor that is fulfilling and satisfying – the complete opposite of feeling obligatory.
Consider participating in a variety of exercise classes that align with recreational interests, such as team sports, or spending time outdoors (such as walking on a beach, trekking through mountainous terrain, or light jogging on park trails). The more options there are to explore, the more likely it is that an exercise opportunity which suits a personal ambition can be discovered. Keep in mind – regular exercise should be pleasurable, not miserable or daunting.
Additionally, set realistic goals when it comes to integrating enjoyable fitness activities into a weekly routine – it’s best to avoid committing to gym contracts, large group fitness classes, or intense personal training programs that are intensely demanding, or well beyond a “beginner” level. A healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean going from laying on the couch to running a marathon overnight. The key to designing a healthy lifestyle is to make sustainable progress in prioritizing personal wellness while setting realistic goals and achieving results consistently over time.
Improve Practical Nutritional Habits for Lasting Health
In tandem with prioritizing fitness, nutrition is crucial in creating and maintaining a sustainable healthy lifestyle. While adapting to a nutrient dense, minimally processed, plant-based diet may prove challenging at first, it doesn’t require meal time to be ungratifying or boring. There are a wealth of culinary resources available at pritikin.com, such as Pritikin Meal Plans, which provide the insights needed to create magnificently flavorful and nutritious dining experiences. Beyond that, it’s important to realize that “eating less” is not always the solution when it comes to healthy lifestyle design. The Pritikin Diet, for example, provides for the consumption of copious amounts of calorie dense, wholesome, and nourishing foods that maximize the feeling of fullness. Eating healthy does not, under any circumstance, require the sacrifice of flavor and satisfaction. That’s a fact.
When the commitment is made to enjoy a principally plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins, the reality is, an incredible spectrum of foods remain “on the menu”. The trick to eating healthy is to be creative with flavor combinations that provide for inspiring, delicious meals which create enduring gratification. The human body is exceptionally adaptable and that includes the palette! Over time, it’s absolutely possible to transform personal tastes to favor fresh wholesome ingredients over fats, oils, salts, and sugar.
Breaking free from the addictive dopamine triggering metabolically toxic foods that are over abundant takes a bit of discipline, but rest assured after a few days of “resetting”, cravings absolutely do subside. If your primary goal is to lose weight as a fundamental cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle, go wild with vegetables since they’re one of the best foods for weight loss.
If you feel at a loss when it comes to creating delicious, healthy meals, consider taking a cooking class to help with a wide variety of “go-to” recipes you can use each day. When you visit the Pritikin Longevity Center, cooking classes and nutritional guidance are provided as a part of the all-inclusive package.
Incorporate Mind-Body Health into Your Daily Routine
One of the most impactful behavior changes needed to create a healthy lifestyle is to factor mental health in tandem with physical health. Chronic stress, anxiety, anger, and other negative emotions can perpetuate or exacerbate medical conditions, ranging from high blood pressure to cardiovascular disease. Improvements to mental health have been scientifically proven to positively affect physical health. Investing in psychological well-being, either through self-improvement or in counsel with a professional therapist, should be considered equally important as establishing healthy nutritional and fitness focused lifestyle changes.
Realistically – there isn’t a person alive today who is not impacted by various stressors. American society, in particular, lends itself to occupational over-commitment that is often commensurate with financial obligations. When it comes to reducing stress, it’s important to be practical, rather than idealistic. Simple and small investments of time to practice relaxation techniques, or to develop effective coping skills, can significantly boost emotional resilience.
Create a Holistic Change for Lasting Results
Making an enduring lifestyle change is often perceived as an overwhelming task and it can be particularly difficult to take the first, and most important step – getting started. Finding the discipline, resolve, and motivation to create a healthy lifestyle must come from within, but that doesn’t mean small steps do not have powerful benefits. Each small change or behavior modification should be celebrated and incorporated into your routine naturally – not forcefully. Designing a healthy lifestyle that’s right for you is as much about experiencing the rewards as it is setting goals and achieving them. Think of the long term repercussions to overcome short-term obstacles – a healthy mind and body ultimately enables a healthier, happier life!
Designing a healthy lifestyle on your own can be a challenge. At the Pritikin Longevity Center, guests work with physicians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, psychologists, and chefs to develop a sustainable healthy lifestyle that targets their personal goals and health concerns. While at the health retreat in Miami Florida, guests are away from their normal routine and the triggers that often sabotage their best efforts, and just as importantly – they have time to establish new habits before returning home. After returning home, many guests continue working with the mentors they met at Pritikin to ensure their success. It’s a proven life-changing formula.