Prioritizing your health and taking care of your body brings huge benefits with it. There are five habits that everyone will benefit from:
- Making sure the majority of your diet is filled with fresh and nutrient-dense foods.
- Staying active.
- Keeping a healthy BMI.
- Don’t smoke.
- Moderate (or limit) your alcohol intake.
As it turns out these habits will make a big difference. Research suggests that people who met all five health habits criteria enjoyed impressively longer lives than those who had none, in general 12-15 years longer. For the vast majority of us there is room for improvement in one or more of the above habits. Studies also suggest that improving just one of these habits can increase your life expectancy by 2 years. But how do you know where you stand and what to improve exactly?
Due to modern technology it is a lot easier to paint a picture of our current health and the future problems we might face by our lifestyle choices or genes. Wearables have been mainstreamed for the past few years and the demand is growing for people to have easy access to their health data. We can check our heart rate, see how we slept and how we’ve moved throughout the day and the analytics show how to improve our daily habits.
By planning an annual health check, you can take the advantages of modern technology a step further. By checking your blood, your organs and potentially even your genes you can even get a clearer picture of the state of your body and what it needs. It can prevent any ‘red flags’ to rise and educate you on what happens in your body. It could be the wake-up call you might need, the insights to adjust and tweak your (future) choices or the confirmation that you’re making the right choices.
We would love to hear your lessons! Send us a DM on Instagram @peoplesplacegym.
A PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE... THE KEY TO LIVING LONGER?
Turns out that having a purpose-driven life doesn’t just help your emotional wellbeing, it may actually keep you healthier for longer. According to Harvard Health, a number of studies are suggesting that a higher sense of purpose in life reduces the chance of early death and lowers the risk of certain diseases.
Life purpose is defined in many ways by different people but they all have in common that you need an aim in life and goals to reach it. These will help you engage in behaviors that will help you succeed in your goals and, most of the time, promote healthier behavior.
The combined studies suggest that having a purpose helps you in three different ways:
1. PROTECTS It suggests that you’re more likely to protect your health. Having a purpose and trying to reach your goals will require your energy and time. Because of this it is likely that you will try to eat healthier, sleep more and stay fit.
2. REDUCES STRESS Studies suggest that people with a higher sense of purpose are less affected by stressors and also recover more quickly when they do experience stress.
3. REDUCES INFLAMMATION Inflammation in the body has been linked to cardiovascular disease and other health conditions. Stress can be a source of inflammation for your body, so by reducing the effect of stress the chances of inflammation lower as well.
Feeling like you’re lacking purpose at the moment? Our advice is to start small and to seek out new opportunities that appeal to you! Learning a new sport, subscribing to an online cooking course or joining a volunteering program could be a small step to release a sense of purpose and create short-term goals that hopefully inspire long-term vision.
We would love to hear your lessons! Send us a DM on Instagram @peoplesplacegym.
