10 Reasons it's better to be healthy

If you want to create lasting change, you need to remind yourself why you are making healthier lifestyle choices.

When you realise the benefits of getting in shape and becoming healthy, it’s much easier to summon the willpower to say “no” to temptation and “yes” to healthier choices. 

Here are 10 ways you will benefit from a healthier lifestyle:

1. Raise your energy levels.

Carrying excess weight is a huge drain on our energy levels.

Think of how many kilograms you would like to lose. Now try picking up a dumbbell or something else that weighs that much.  Try carrying that weight around with you wherever you go and whatever you do. It’s hard to imagine picking up a 10, 25 or 50-kilogram weight and carrying it around with you all day, every day. But that’s what you’ve been doing! 

Can you imagine the extra energy you would have if you set that weight down?  You would be able to literally leap out of bed!  You could use all of that extra energy to deal with the demands on your life and your children would surely benefit as well!

2. Feel great.

 

Eating healthy food and exercising are proven to improve our mood. 

Unhealthy fats and heavy foods often leave us feeling listless and high sugar snacks can induce a “sugar crash” which causes tiredness, lethargy, and irritation.

Eating a nutritionally balanced diet that has a healthy distribution of carbs, proteins and healthy fats with a small calorie deficit provides our bodies with the ingredients for good moods. 

Exercise is also a proven mood enhancer which:

•   reduces stress and anxiety,

•   changes the levels of chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, stress hormones and endorphins(substances that can block pain and may also enhance feelings of well-being),

•   boosts concentration and alertness, and

•   can even make you more optimistic. 

3. Sleep better. 

Carrying excess weight interferes with our natural sleep and can even cause breathing disorders like sleep apnoea. Eating a diet that is nutritionally complete with a healthy balance of carbs, proteins and healthy fats provides the body with all of the ingredients needed for healthy sleep.

Exercise improves the body’s circulatory systems, promotes the production of healthy hormones and creates a healthy sense of tiredness at the end of an active day.  Getting enough exercise every day is one of the best ways to improve your sleep.

4. Boost your immune system. 

Studies show that eating a nutritionally balanced diet with enough protein helps to keep your immune system working properly. Specific micronutrients have important roles in the body’s immune response. 

We need to ensure our diet is well balanced to give our immune system all it needs to ward off illness. Exercise also bolsters your immune system. Studies indicate exercise increases the number of certain immune cells that help to bolster immune activity.

5. Reduce your risk of disease. 

It is a well-established fact that obesity increases the risk of succumbing to diseases like heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. It is also generally accepted that a healthy, balanced diet devoid of excessive carbs significantly reduces the chances of suffering many common western diseases. 

Regular and safe exercise is well documented to reduce the risk of contracting a myriad of diseases.

6. Live better for longer. 

As you lose weight, improve your diet and exercise more, you improve your immune system and reduce the risk of contracting the disease. Average life expectancy for people who hold excessive weight is proven to be lower than for those who are within the healthy weight range. 

A 2014 study by the National Institute of Health in the US indicated that the average lifespan can be shortened by as much as 14 years for those classified with extreme obesity. 

Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly have been proven to increase our chances of living longer. If you find some daily activities difficult now, imagine how difficult they will be when you are older.

Losing weight now will not only extend your life but it will also ensure more of your later years can be actively enjoyed. Eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and losing those extra kilograms will allow you to spend those later years chasing the grandkids around instead of being stuck in a home.

7. Improve your self-esteem.

Setting yourself short-term goals and achieving them improves your sense of self-worth.  Proving to ourselves that we can do the things we set out to do is a big boost to our sense of self-esteem. 

In a world where we are bombarded with images of airbrushed super-models, losing weight can only improve our self-esteem. As we reduce our waistlines, we find that we have more energy, we are able to do things we couldn’t do before and we generally feel more able to tackle the challenges life throws at us. 

All of this improves our sense of self-esteem and all can be achieved by eating healthy and exercising more.

8. Look younger and be younger.  

Losing weight generally makes people look younger whereas putting on weight generally makes people look older. This is a well-known fact and most of us have noticed this in people we know.  What is less well known is the negative effect that holding extra weight, eating sub-optimally and not exercising enough has on our biological age. 

Chronological age is the number of years, months and days since birth.  Biological age is more complicated and it refers to how old an individual seems.  Biological age is a better indicator of how much time we have left on this earth.

9. Be a better example. 

Have you ever noticed that heavy people tend to have heavy kids and slim people tend to have slim kids?  People often attribute this to genetics but studies have shown that behaviour is a far greater factor in the likelihood of kids having the same shape as their parents. 

Kids pick up the same habits and behaviours as their parents as they observe and copy what we do.  By losing weight, eating healthy and exercising regularly we can be a positive example to our children. 

When we act as a good example to our children, we greatly increase the likelihood they will live trim and healthy lives.

10. Improve your skin.

A healthy diet can promote healthy skin. There is growing research to show that the food we eat affects our complexion. Our skin needs the correct balance of nutrients to help it stay beautiful. According to Dr. Mercola: “What you eat has a lot to do with the appearance of your complexion, and a number of skin problems, such as acne, can be cleared up simply by altering your diet. As a general rule, a diet high in fresh vegetables, which are rich in bioflavonoids, and plenty of omega-3 fats will lay the necessary groundwork for a healthy, youthful complexion.”

These are the 10 gifts of health In Shape Mummy can help you claim for yourself right now.