Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy Lifestyle Tips

Healthy Lifestyle and
A Comfortable Retirement

How to lead a healthy lifestyle

-Get active each day. Regular physical activity is important for the healthy growth, development and well-being of children and young people. ...

-Choose water as a drink. ...

-Eat more fruit and vegetables. ...

-Switch off the screen and get active. ...

-Eat fewer snacks and select healthier alternatives.

Promoting Healthy Lifestyle

Promoting healthy lifestyles is a challenge for many primary care practices.

Although most patients understand the importance of physical activity and healthy eating, many seem unable to change their unhealthy behaviors to reduce weight and improve chronic conditions. 

Medications often take a predominant role in the treatment of these patients, even though medications alone are rarely completely effective for chronic conditions, and lifestyle changes have been shown to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality rates for most chronic diseases.

In addition, patients can feel embarrassed and ashamed of their situations, and physicians can feel pressed for time, causing them to avoid the very dialogue they need to embrace in order to facilitate a breakthrough in improved health...

What Is Healthy Lifestyle?

Exercise Regularly - Eat Healthy - Reduce Stress - Drink Plenty of Water

A healthy lifestyle is one which helps to keep and improve your health and well-being. There are many different things that you can do to live a healthy lifestyle, such as eating healthy, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weigh, and managing your stress. However, a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about healthy eating and exercise, it also about taking care of the “whole you” – your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. And, that means taking care of you from the inside out.
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Exercise regularly
Reduce stress
Eat healthy
Drink plenty of water

How to Live A Healthy Lifestyle?

Even though there are many common ways to live a healthy lifestyle, actually doing it looks different for everyone, and means something different from one person to the next. Regardless of what you choose to do, living a healthy lifestyle is a key component to disease prevention, wellness, and longevity.

Being mindful of your diet, physical activity and stress levels allows you to effectively balance all aspects of your life and the “whole you”. Below are 10 important things you can do to live a healthy lifestyle:

Healthy Lifestyle Tips

Drink more water.

Get enough sleep.

Meditate often.

Exercise regularly.

Eat more fruits and vegetables.

Cut down on processed food.

Breathe deeply on purpose. 

 Go for brown carbs vs. white carbs. 

Cut down on oily and sugary food, soda and caffeine.

Detail explanations...

Drink more water - Most of us don’t drink enough water every day. Water is essential for our body to function. Did you know that over 60% of our body is made up of water? Water is needed to carry out body functions, remove waste, and carry nutrients and oxygen around our body. Since we lose water every day through urine, bowel movements, perspiration and breathing, we need to replenish our water intake. Since food intake contributes about 20% of our fluid intake, that means we need to drink about 8-10 glasses a day to stay hydrated.

One way to tell if you’re hydrated — your urine should be colorless or slightly yellow. If it’s not, you’re not getting enough water! Other signs include: Dry lips, dry mouth, and little urination.

Get enough sleep - Lack of sleep may lead to a host of health problems including obesity, diabetes, and even heart disease. Continued lack of sleep can affect your immune system and make you less able to fend off colds and the flu. So, it’s important go get a good night’s sleep.

You can do things to help you sleep better at night. You can avoid stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine close to bedtime. Also, while alcohol is well-known to help you fall asleep faster, too much close to bedtime can disrupt sleep in the second half of the night as the body begins to process the alcohol.

Exercise can also help you sleep better at night. As little as 10 minutes of aerobic exercise, such as walking or cycling, can drastically improve nighttime sleep quality but please avoid strenuous workouts close to bedtime.

Meditate often - Meditation quietens your mind and calms your soul. It can also help you deal with and manage the stress in your life. If you don’t know how to meditate, you can learn how to meditate in 5 simple steps.

Exercise regularly - If you can exercise don’t just a few times a week, but every day. Movement is key to a healthy life. Exercising daily can improve your health in many ways. It can help increase your life span, lower your risk of diseases, help you develop higher bone density, and lose weight.

One simple thing you can do is, especially for close distances, choose walking over riding, driving or taking transportation. You can climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator. You can pick exercises that are easy to do at home or outside that you enjoy. When you enjoy the physically activities you choose for yourself, most likely you’ll enjoy them and naturally want to do them. Exercise is about being healthy and having fun at the same time. Also, mixing up your exercises will keep them interesting.

Eat more fruits and vegetables - Fruits contain lots of vitamins and minerals. As much as possible, you should consume your vitamins and minerals via your daily diet. Satisfy your palate with these nutritious fruits: Watermelon, Apricots, Avocado (yes, avocado is technically a fruit!), Apple, Cantaloupe, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Guava, Papaya, Strawberries.

Like fruits, vegetables are important for good health. Experts suggest 5-9 servings of fruits/vegetables a day, but unfortunately it may be difficult at times. However, when you can, include foods like kidney beans, black beans, asparagus, long beans, green beans, and carrots. Think about your favorite vegetables and how you can include more of them in your diet every day, and pick bright-colored foods. Fruits and vegetables with bright colors are good for health because they remove the things in our body that damage our cells. So, get your fill of fruits/vegetables of different colors: White (Bananas, Mushroom), Yellow (Pineapples, Mango), Orange (Orange, Papaya), Red (Apple, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Watermelon), Green (Guava, Avocados, Cucumber, Lettuce, Celery), Purple/Blue (Blackberries, Eggplant, Prunes).

Cut down on processed food - Processed foods are not good because (1) most nutritional value is lost in the making of these foods and (2) the added preservatives are bad for our health. Many processed foods contain a high amount of salt content, which leads to higher blood pressure and heart disease. Processed foods are anything that is not in its raw form. In general, most food in supermarkets are processed — the more ingredients it has on the label (especially the ones ending with ‘ite’ or ‘ate’), the more processed they are. Watch out for those with salt/sugar in the first 5 ingredients and go for unprocessed food as much as possible.
Breathe deeply on purpose - Oxygen is a vital source of life. You may know how to breathe, but are you breathing properly? Most of us don’t breathe properly — we take only shallow breaths and breathe to 1/3 of our lung capacity. A full breath is one where your lungs are completely filled, your abdomen expands, and there’s minimum movement in your shoulders. There are many benefits of deep breathingwhich include a reduction in stress and blood pressure, strengthening of abdominal and intestinal muscles and relief of general body aches and pains. Deep breathing also helps with better blood flow, releasing toxins from the body, and aids in getting a better night’s sleep.

Exercise Regularly
In fact, exercise can help your body at a healthy weight. 
Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases.
Exercising regularly decreases a person's risk of developing certain disease, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.
Exercise can help a person age well. 

Generally, regular exercise can help you:

Burn calories

Lower your blood pressure

Reduce LDL "bad" cholesterol

Boost your HDL "good" cholesterol

Types of Exercise

Your exercise plan should include:

Aerobic exercise ("cardio"): Running, jogging, and biking are some examples. You're moving fast enough to raise your heart rate and breathe harder, but you should still be able to talk to someone while you're doing it. Otherwise, you are pushing too hard. If you have joint problems, choose a low-impact activity, like swimming or walking.

Stretching: You'll become more flexible if you do this a couple of times a week. Stretch after you've warmed up or finished exercising. Stretch gently -- it shouldn't hurt.

Strength training: You can use weights, resistance bands, or your own body weight(yoga, for instance) for this. Do it 2-3 times a week. Let your muscles recover for a day between sessions.

Rewards and Benefits

Experts recommend that teens get 60 minutes or more moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.

Here are some of the reasons:

(1) Exercise benefits every part of the body, including the mind. 

(2) Exercise can help you look better. 

(3) Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases. 

(4) Exercise can help a person age well. 

Heart Detail:

Heart Detail: The heart is composed of specialized cardiac muscle, and it is four-chambered, with a right atrium and ventricle, and an anatomically separate left atrium and ventricle. The blood flows from the systemic veins into the right atrium, thence to the right ventricle, from which it is pumped to the lungs, then returned into the left atrium, thence to the left ventricle, from which it is driven into the systemic arteries.

The heart is thus functionally composed of two hearts: the right heart and the left heart. The right heart consists of the right atrium, which receives deoxygenated blood from the body, and the right ventricle which pumps it to the lungs under low pressure; and the left heart, consisting of the left atrium, which receives oxygenated blood from the lung, and the left ventricle, which pumps it out to the body under high pressure...

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What is Heart Disease?

Exercise to keep your heart healthy
(1) Aerobic exercise ("cardio"): Running, jogging, and biking are some examples. ...

(2) Stretching: You'll become more flexible if you do this a couple of times a week. ...

(3) Strength training.

Read more...
Heart Health
Great Heart-friendly Exercise

Secrets To A Happy Retirement

A COMFORTABLE RETIREMENT

(Financial Security, Good Health And A happy And Meaningful Life)
Images of A Happy And Comfortable Retirement

Secrets To A Happy Retirement

Be Prepared and Plan Ahead

Do what you love to do (hobbies, interests)

Exercise and eat healthy

Spend time with loved ones and great friends

Do something that challenges you each day

Travel and experience new culture

Try something new every day (food, sport, technology)
Keep life exciting

It is inevitable that we have to retire someday and the first picture that comes to mind is comfortable retirement – a life of peace and relaxation without the need to work anymore.

An Employee Provident Fund’s (EPF) report states that FINANCIAL SECURITY, GOOD HEALTH AND A HAPPY AND MEANINGFUL LIFE are the three main components of comfortable retirement.
Financial Security
Financial security refers to the peace of mind you feel when you aren't worried about your income being enough to cover your expenses. It also means that you have enough money saved to cover emergencies and your future financial goals.

Being FINANCIAL SECURE means you don’t have to worry about not having enough money to cover your current and future expenses.

It’s also about having a constant income to cover any emergencies and future financial goals through-out your lifetime.

As we reach our 40s, FINANCIAL SECURITY becomes crucial because apart from juggling multiple financial commitments – from paying housing and car loans to saving up for children’s education, we are also nearing retirement and need to plan for our nest egg.

Time and money is of essence when we hit our 40s.

Establishing a FINANCIAL PLAN as early as possible can ensure that your retirement lives up to your expectations and enable you to maintain your lifestyle post-retirement.
For this purpose, we need an ideal investment-linked plan that provides the best of both worlds by allowing you to enjoy the benefits of long-term investments and plan ahead for your retirement fund while protecting you for life.

STAYING STRONG AND HEALTHY AS YOU AGE

Tocovid Vitality is a complete nutritional daily drink which helps to energise the body.  It is uniquely formulated to offer you complete nutrition.

StarSpecial, Sunday 26 May 2019 

ONE of the ways to lead a fulfilling life after 50 is to enjoy your remaining years with an active brain and energised body.

You would have realised that you do not feel the same once you reach your 50s.

You may face two main challenges particu­larly a decline in cognitive (brain) function and energy level as compared to your young­er days.

This is because as one age, the brain cells will age as well, which affects the analytical thinking skills, multi-tasking skills and decline in memories.

Besides, the lack of physical activity and a decline in metabolic rate may cause you to gain weight easily while losing even just a kilogram becomes an uphill task.

Eventually, cutting down your food intake becomes the norm.

However, this change often results in insufficient nutrients intake to maintain a healthy body and brain functions.

Do you know people with sedentary lifestyles tend to consume too many calories, while those with active lifestyles often fall short of eating the recommended amount?

After you hit your 50s, your body does not need as many calories as compared to when you were in your 20s.

This means you have less room for unhealthy choices. Hence, making better diet choices will help to fight off diseases, increase body resistance, strengthen muscles and improve one’s quality of life.

You may have restricted food intake and choices as you aged.

With food alone, you may not be able to attain complete and balanced nutrition to maintain an active brain and body strength.

Therefore, taking complete nutrition that helps to boost one’s energy and cater to one’s brain cells’ needs is a recommended option to enable one to maintain an active life.

Tocovid Vitality is a complete nutritional daily drink which helps to energise the body. It also contains a unique ingredient, palm tocotrienols - a natural extract from red palm oil which has proven benefits for brain cells protection and clinically proven to slow down the progression of the ageing brain and reduces the risk of stroke and dementia.

Tocovid Vitality formulation is uniquely formulated to offer you complete nutrition.

-It comes with 28 vitamins and minerals - to ensure maximum health

-High in calcium - to strengthen bones

-High in protein - build muscle and strength

-Soluble and insoluble fibres - aid bowel movement

-Low sugar and low-fat healthy drink

Just two glasses of Tocovid Vitality a day will provide you with quick and sustainable energy to keep you active and going through­out your day.

You can also add in a scoop of your favourite coffee or Milo drink, to add more flavour into the drink.

For more enquiries about Tocovid Vitality, can 03-7831 2738 or WhatsApp to 012-528 3088 (weekdays from 9am-4pm) or log on to www.hovid.com.

Walking Exercise 

Get Active and Start Walking to Better Health and Wellness

StarSpecial, Sunday 26 May 2019  

Walking, Power walking and Scrambling

GETTING out and about is excellent for your overall health as it gets your body moving, helping boost proper digestion and encouraging proper breathing.

However, there are different kinds of walking, so if you’re looking for something different, check out these ideas.

Mall walking

An average stroll is a light exercise but when you are living in an area without pavements or good surfaces, it’s very hard to actually relax and enjoy yourself.

Shopping malls are ideal because they offer beautiful surfaces and there’s plenty to look at too.

For the best experience, go early and go to a quiet floor.

Power walking

Power walking is a fast walk that isn’t quite a jog.

It’s good exercise but you must wear good shoes to protect your feet and knees from impact.

In the Olympics, road races comprise 20 and 50 kilometres tracks so practise this where you can find a good path, such as a forest walk.

Also, consider that marathon clubs often allow power walkers too.

Scrambling

Scrambling is where you take your walk up hills and mountains.

It can be a simple stroll where you have to circumvent some rough spots in the path here and there all the way up to a form of rock climbing where you use ropes and need special boots.

In Malaysia, there are plenty of opportunities for scrambling.

The most important thing is to stay safe and healthy, so join a group to learn the ropes.

If you live near a tourist attraction, such as a cave or mountain, phone them up and ask about leisure activities.

If you aren’t sure, contact organisations like the Malaysia Nature Society and see what they have to offer.

In all kinds of activity, remember this: If you are starting a new regime, be safe and talk to your family doctor first.

A little prevention is worth a tonne of cure.

Happy walking!