Just What the Doctor Ordered: A Healthy Lifestyle

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Start the New Year off right and set your family up for a healthy life. ​

It’s that time of year again, time for us to start reflecting on the previous year and start making plans to improve ourselves for the new year ahead of us. For many, these plans include eating healthier and exercising more frequently. 

While New Year’s resolutions are a great way to get motivated, many find that within a month or two, they’ve fallen short of their goals. To stick with your resolution and stay motivated to meet your end goals, whether that’s to lose weight, improve cardiovascular health, or manage stress, it needs to be a lifestyle change. 
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But a healthy lifestyle promises more than just fitting into the jeans you wore three years ago. It will help improve your health and set your family up for a long, healthy, and happy life.

Here’s a glimpse at what we’ll discuss in this article and how a healthy lifestyle can help improve you and your family’s daily lives. 

• Why a healthy lifestyle is important for both you and your family
• How to maintain a healthy weight and provide your children with the self-esteem they need growing up
• How healthy living is a great way to change your mood and decrease stress and anxiety
• The importance of eating right and exercise for managing a current condition

The Doctor’s Prescription: Healthy Eating and Exercising 
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In many cases, people don’t make a change in their lifestyle until it’s too late. It may only be when they are in the doctor’s office learning about a new diagnosis that they realize they need to make a lifestyle change. 

While there are medications available for many common diagnoses, a healthy and active lifestyle can also make a major difference. If you make the effort to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you may even see that the number of medications you need will decrease.

On the other hand, if you start getting active early and encourage your family, especially children, to do the same you may be able to fight off some of these illnesses. Children learn from their parents, so showing them how to live a healthy lifestyle from a young age will follow them throughout their lives. 
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Let’s take a look at some of the ways a healthy lifestyle will help improve your family’s health.

Managing Healthy Weight
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One of the most common reasons people make a healthy lifestyle change is to lose or manage their weight. Actively managing your weight by eating right and exercising on a regular basis can help reduce the risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. 

Teaching children how to eat right and encouraging them to exercise is one of the best lessons you can teach them. If they watch their parents practicing healthy habits, they are much more likely to carry these habits into teen and adulthood. 

Here are a few tips from the Cleveland Clinic to help you get started with your journey to a healthier lifestyle for managing weight. ​

-Practice portion control. We tend to find ourselves filling our plates more than we need to, and with the wrong ingredients. Doctors will encourage you to fill your plate with lean protein, unrefined grains, and colorful vegetables.

-Don’t skip meals. Even on your busiest days, skipping a meal is bad for your health. You should be eating three meals a day and having snacks throughout the day. Of course, breakfast is very important to get your metabolism going — so don’t skip it!

​-Drink lots of water. Drinking water can help prevent overeating. Make sure you drink 6 to 8 glasses of water each day.
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-Exercise daily. While eating healthy is a big part of managing weight, exercise is important too. Get outside and walk, or play with your kids in the backyard to get started.

Improve Mood and Mental Health
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It’s a known fact that doing good for your body is good for your mood and mental health. Whether you’re looking for a way to get out of a weird funk you’ve been in or a natural way to manage your stress and anxiety, a healthier lifestyle is just what you need.

Once again, teaching your children how to properly manage their stress and improve their mood in a healthy manner from a young age is important. They will gain a strong sense of self-esteem and confidence that they will take with them for the rest of their lives.

When it comes to improving mood and releasing stress, it’s not just a mind game. There are scientific reasons why exercise and healthy eating can make you feel better. 

-Exercise. Known to improve mood, decrease stress, and help reduce depression symptoms, exercise is an important step to feeling better. This is because when you exercise, your body produces serotonin and endorphins, two chemicals in your brain that help depression. Beyond that, exercise will improve self-esteem, confidence, and leave you with a sense of empowerment — all things that will make you feel great after working out.

-Healthy eating. Your brain needs nutrients to function, that’s why an unhealthy diet may not be enough. A healthy diet will produce neurotransmitters, which have the ability to provoke symptoms of anxiety or depression. Cutting alcohol out of your life will also make a big difference in your mood. Since alcohol is a depressant, it only makes you feel lower.

Managing Medical Conditions 

​Last, but certainly not least, healthy living can improve medical conditions. When it comes to diagnoses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol a lifestyle change may be needed to manage your condition. By eliminating certain foods from your diet and providing your body with proper nutrition, can help manage your condition. 

We often think of these conditions as something adults get later in life, but there are many times when children are affected as well. In fact, more and more children are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than ever before — meaning a healthy living is extremely important.

Here are a few ways that managing current medical conditions can be done through healthy lifestyle changes. 

-Managing diabetes. Always follow consistent meal plans and eat a balanced diet when doing so. Choose lower-fat options and manage your carbohydrate intake. Use less salt and sugar in moderation. In many cases, type 2 is linked to being overweight, so practicing regular physical activity will be very beneficial for your health. 
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-Heart health Eating healthy and exercising can help prevent premature cases of heart disease and stroke. Foods with high levels of vitamin E may help prevent blood clots while limiting trans fats in your diet can make a big difference. Reducing salt intake will help reduce blood pressure, and is essential for heart health.

​Create a Healthy Life and Family​
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Now’s the time to start living a healthier lifestyle. Maybe your motivation isn’t related to a doctor’s order, but rather to teach your children how to live a long, healthy life. Whatever the case is, get started today — even if it’s a small step each month, it will pay off in the long run.