Healthy Lifestyle and Preventable Diseases

Our Lifestyle has a major impact on our overall health. This is common sense, everyone knows this, yet as a society we are plagued by lifestyle induced disease; and it’s getting worse.

How can we take a step towards a healthy lifestyle?

– Lifestyle changes are hard because most people start with drastic changes and have a hard time sustaining these new parameters they create; leading them to fall right back into their old habits. Changes need to start small and continue to progress. There are no short-cuts or fad diets that work, you must be willing to slowly adapt changes into your lifestyle that are practical to YOU.

Take this into consideration:

“The Car” Analogy (short version)
– You just turned 16 years old and you get a brand new car. This car will be your only car you ever have. Knowing this, you would take the necessary measures to keep this car running and looking great. If any part broke, you would have to go to a mechanic, and they would replace the part, but it would never work the same as the factory part. Think how meticulous you would be at preserving this car, knowing that if it stopped running, you couldn’t get another one.

How does this carry over to our bodies?

– We only get one; we must keep our bodies in the best shape possible, or suffer the consequence of breaking down. We might not feel the consequences immediately, but over time our body will be directly impacted in some aspect. Preserve your body and keep it running, once something breaks down, your body will continue to function, but not on the same level.

Our Lifestyle has a HUGE impact on our health:

Two large studies from Northwestern Medicine confirm a healthy lifestyle has the biggest impact on cardiovascular health. One study shows the majority of people who adopted healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adulthood maintained a low cardiovascular risk profile in middle age. The other study shows cardiovascular health is due primarily to lifestyle factors and healthy behavior, not heredity.

The five most important healthy behaviors:

1. Not smoking

2. Low or no alcohol intake

3. Weight control

4. Physical activity

5. Healthy diet

Ask yourself the question:

What changes do I need to make to live a healthy
lifestyle that works for me?

To your health,

Michael Donoghue, CSCS