Make Wealth Blog

Achieving a healthy lifestyle is the goal nowadays and nearly everyone offers advice on what constitutes one. Nutritionists stress eating correctly from the food pyramids and taking supplement while trainers preach exercise. Certainly both elements need to be incorporated into our daily lives but there is more to achieving a healthy lifestyle.

It really is an individual thing that encompasses many universal things like diet, exercise, spirituality and interpersonal relationships. Creating a healthy lifestyle is incumbent upon each of us knowing ourselves well enough to know what elements are enriching and integrating the different elements into a life plan. When a cohesive plan is developed that is satisfying, the individual elements become less important.

For example, The Swiss have a diet that is high in dairy foods and saturated fat but they do not demonstrate the high levels of heart disease, and obesity that are associated with a high fat diet. This may be because of the high degree of exercise and fitness that is valued in the culture and to strong interpersonal relationships. One diet that continues to confound nutritionists is the French diet. This is a diet high in meat, cheese and dairy products. However, it is a diet that is also based on two fundamentals, freshness and moderation. The French culture also emphasizes strong personal bonds. Therefore, it seems that making and keeping strong interpersonal bonds is a major factor in a healthy lifestyle. It may be more efficient to eat lunch at own desk that to seek out a friend at noontime, but which will be the choice that will enrich us in the long run?

One cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle is diet. Food is a fundamental part of our traditional and social celebrations, and our current culture is riddled with debates over “diets”. Almost universally acclaimed to be the healthiest diet, the Mediterranean diet is comprised of fresh fruits, and vegetables, fish, less meat, cheese, and olive oil used not for frying but for dressing foods. These principles can be incorporated into one’s lifestyle without rigorous counting of points, calories or grams of saturated fats. Proper diet is not about watching each food molecule; it is about learning what the correct food choices are and making them more often than making poor choices.

Another fundamental of a healthy lifestyle is exercise, especially involving the large motor groups surrounding the trunk and lower body. Moving these muscle groups raises metabolic levels and burns calories. It also releases chemicals that promote well being and good sleep, not to mention appetite. Basically, when keeping your caloric intake at the same level, exercise will burn calories, increase metabolism, replace fat cells with muscle and promote well being. It is advisable to spend a portion of your leisure time getting a workout that will keep you fit. It is also appealing to spend leisure time in a sedentary way, watching TY or listening to music. These activities are to be enjoyed equally with exercise, just not chosen in preference to activity.

We all want to enjoy our lives to the fullest, but in these times of having it all, many people have crammed so much activity into their lives that there is little room for enjoyment left. The process of having it all has eliminated the end product.

Enjoying life takes time to appreciate the Natural and cultural richness around us. In leisure hours, instead of planning several activities, try to just plan one and enjoy it. Take a walk with friends in the park and slow down enough to absorb the surroundings. Really pay attention to the conversation. In short, be in the present, not planning your next move. Medical research is providing the disturbing data that the lack of interpersonal contact in modern life, especially in the United States, is creating a culture of loneliness and is becoming a risk factor in diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, depression and Alzheimer’s disease progression. Save the time you spend with your friends and family.

Another alarming statistic of modern US life is that families seldom take the time to enjoy a meal together. Re institute this practice in your family. Find one day a week at least when the members come together to talk and share their experiences. Plan a meal that everyone likes, but if there is no time to cook, get take out and focus on building and maintaining the family bonds.

Free time used to mean catching up on R an R, or rest and relaxation. Rest is as important to health as any other component, maybe more. People can and do live without food for weeks at a time, but after 4 days of sleep deprivation the individual has lost substantial ability to think clearly and even move correctly. It is estimated that a person deprived of even one night of sleep, poses the same threat behind the wheel of an automobile as someone who has ingested a fifth of liquor. This is one of the dangers behind insomnia, which wears away a person’s mental ability and physical coordination.

Rest is important for mental clarity but also for maintaining out bodies. Sleep is the time when damage done to the body, such as overused muscles, is repaired. Insomniacs often take longer to heal after major surgery than their counterparts who got seven to nine hours of sleep regularly. Nappers often have better memories and remain more alert than people in their age group who eschew naps. Statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin and Franklin D. Roosevelt advocated napping. Don’t think of napping as downtime. Not only can it restore alertness, it is often the case that, when the mind and body are at rest the mind continues to process information. Individuals have reported that going to sleep with a specific issue on their mind can be beneficial in problem solving. Sometimes the solution has become apparent upon awakening.

Relaxation, not just sleep, is a rejuvenating process. Taking the time to read a book, listen to music or just pet the dog, will often clear the mind and restore clear thinking. The basics of enjoying life are activity, relaxation and companionship in equal amounts. Don’t be concerned that while you are lounging in a hammock on a sunny day, your competitors are surpassing you. Remember Hemingway’s adage, “Living well is the best revenge”.

Stella lives in a penthouse, drives a Mercedes Benz and dresses in designer attires. Polly lives in an ordinary house in a remote area, drives a ’96 Honda Accord and dresses in clothes from Walmart. Now, you may be led to think that Stella is richer than Polly. That’s not the case. Stella is actually in deep debt while Polly has a lot of hard cash in her bank. If you know some rich people, you will probably find them to be a frugal lot. The media likes to portray the successful as glamorous people but in real life, it’s probably the opposite.

Stella purchased her Mercedes Benz on a loan from her bank. She has to make monthly installments to keep her car. While Stella is the legal owner of the car, effectively, the Mercedes Benz is not fully hers until the full sum of the loan is paid off with interest. If Stella fails to make a car payment, the bank has the right to take possession of her car. A part of Stella’s income goes to the bank. This is unnecessary. Polly paid for her Honda in full. She’s the rightful owner of her car. She understands a simple truth. The function of a car is to get from point A to point B.

As with the case of the car, Stella also bought her penthouse in the city on loan. Once again, she has to make monthly payments for her house. If she defaults, the bank confiscates her penthouse and she may well end up a bankrupt. Polly bought her property for the cheap in a new residential area and paid for it in full. She does not have to worry about monthly payments and save a lot on interest paid to the bank if she bought it on credit. Now, the property has appreciated in value so she has made a wise investment.

Stella is a picture of glamour. Her wardrobe consists of Pradas, Armanis, Versaces and the works. She is a prime example of the media’s portrayal of the rich and wealthy. She spends a big chunk of her income to maintain this high style existence. However, she’s almost always in debt. Polly buys clothes from Walmart at a fraction of what Stella pays for her designer wear. To Polly, clothes are basic necessities. If somebody tells her to spend $1000 on a gown, she will think the person is crazy. She is rich and cares not about what others think of her dressing.

Studying Stella and Polly, you see two very different individuals living very different lifestyles. Stella lives in a pseudo world of style and glamour. The cost of maintaining her high livelihood gives her a lot of stress. Polly is a down to earth old school hard fisted woman who knows the importance of frugality. She is not glamorous but she’s happier because her life is relatively less stressful. Who do you want to be?