It is often in their later years that people become extremely health-conscious. Those who gobbled down fried foods, alcohol, fizzy drinks, and other unhealthy foods and beverages suddenly start to eat a lot of salad. However, if you plan to watch what you eat and drink so as to avoid the ailments (especially lifestyle diseases) associated with aging, it is best to start while you are younger. Firstly, these are the years when it is easier to form lifelong habits, so take advantage of this by latching onto a healthy lifestyle early. Secondly, it is easier to maintain youthful good health (and a youthful appearance) then to try to get it back after having lost it through an unhealthy lifestyle.
Admittedly, this can be quite the daunting task for young people, not least because healthy eating has become a hip fad with an unfortunate elitist slant. Organic vegetables or fancy whole-grain breads are often out of the reach of young people who have not yet established themselves financially. However, affordable, healthy food may not be as difficult to find as you might think, especially if you are willing to be adventurous and try cuisines outside your own culture. Of course, another alternative is to cook the food yourself. This option is much more affordable and efficient if you are cooking for a group: try finding a handful of other like-minded people so you can pool your money, cooking utensils and skills in order to make healthy meals.
Speaking of friends and acquaintances, another potential barrier towards a healthy lifestyle, or at least healthy eating habits, is the circle you run in. Friends can have a huge influence about what we put into our bodies. This influence can sometimes be detrimental, especially since a certain amount of recklessness is expected from, or even encouraged in, the young. Heavy drinking is probably one of the most obvious types of unhealthy habit that one can pick up from friends. Others may include a yen for convenient fast food, or “instant” foods from convenience stores—both staples for many busy students and young professionals.
Of course, consuming healthy foods and beverages is not the only foundation of a healthy lifestyle. As stale as the advice might sound, it is still worth mentioning that good, nutritious food must be paired with exercise. Unfortunately, the young people of today are barraged with a plethora of pastimes and entertainments that encourage them to stay sedentary. The competitive, demanding nature of education today can also do its part towards keeping children, adolescents, and young adults sitting or lying down when their bodies could use a little movement. To a young person overwhelmed by schoolwork—or office work, as the case may be—and distracted by all sorts of flashy media, regular exercise might seem unfeasible. However, a healthy lifestyle does not necessitate that one become a hardcore athlete or gym rat: a half-hour’s worth of moderate exercise is enough, so long as one takes care to do it most days. For extremely busy people, even this might seem like a huge demand on one’s time. However, the ultimate benefits more than balance the initial inconveniences. Exercise can clear the mind and energize the body: a quick walk or run might be the perfect thing to jump-start a stalled project or help you see your plans more plainly, thus helping you get your work done more quickly.
For many of us, not least the young people who have grown up in this type of world and know no other, staying healthy can be nothing less than a battle. However, it is certainly one worth struggling for.
all good points. don’t forget that habits are started before we are old enough to really choose for ourselves, so parents have to do their part to model a healthy lifestyle if they want their children to have an easier time sticking to it as they get older.
It’s more about what you eat than how much you eat, really. But of course, you still would want to take note of the quantity to make sure that it is not hampering quality.
I go nuts with nuts and I love the fact that they have positive effects in delaying the aging process!
You were right. Some people only realize that they need to be healthy when they start to feel unhealthy. As we age, our bodily functions start to decline. Our bad habits accumulate to make us suffer from certain health conditions as a consequence. That’s the only time we also realize that we should start aworking for the good life. This is a bad thing altogether because we are not so sure that our way of repairing the damage could be enough. For all we know, it could not be and so we will continue to suffer the ugly consequences. I agree with you about starting young. Keeping ourselves healthy early so we would not have to think about tomorrow, when y\our body is no longer capable of fighting back.