Quality of life: 6 keys to maintaining a balance in your lifestyle

Table of Contents

1. Eat a balanced and nutritionally adequate diet 2. Incorporate adequate amounts of fats in your daily diet The Role of fats in your diet 3. Get regular physical activity 4. Maintain good sleep hygiene 5. Learning to manage stress and anxiety will help improve your quality of life 6. Enjoy your free time and build positive relationships to improve your quality of life

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (2018), many of the things you do affect your health and well-being, now and in the future. However, adopting healthy habits can help you feel better and live longer. These help reduce the risk of health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and obesity.

Because to feel better, you must make important changes in your daily routines. These are six keys that will help you adopt good habits to maintain a balanced lifestyle.

1. Eat a balanced and nutritionally adequate diet

An adequate lifestyle contributes to improving your well-being and this requires making the right decisions. One of them is the choice of a balanced diet that provides you with essential nutrients (macronutrients and micronutrients) to cover your daily caloric needs (CDC, 2019).

The important thing is that the diet is based on balance. Our diet requires amounts of calories, fats, carbohydrates, and sugars and the key is to eat them in a balanced way with the most nutritious foods (CDC, 2019).

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (2021), a balanced diet includes a variety of foods from each group. This helps you get the nutrients at every stage of life.

This academy recommends starting with small changes in your eating routine and balancing half your plate with fruits and vegetables, a quarter of protein, and a quarter of grains. In addition to including fats in adequate amounts and drinking enough water.

In this way, you can incorporate fats from foods of animal origin such as meat, fish, and dairy products into your diet (Safont, 2018). And fats from foods of plant origin such as nuts, avocado, and vegetable oils.

2. Incorporate adequate amounts of fats in your daily diet

Fats are as important in the daily diet as they are necessary for your body. These provide a high energy content: 9 kilocalories of energy for each gram. In addition, they are a source of essential fatty acids that your body cannot produce on its own (NHS, 2020).

There are many myths surrounding its consumption, so it is important to be well-informed about the role of fat in your diet. One of them is that within the trend of eating well, fats are sometimes completely eliminated from the table. This is an error since they are essential for various vital functions (Ser Saludables Magazine, 2019).

These macronutrients provide benefits for your health and can improve your quality of life since they help reduce the development of chronic diseases. They contain antioxidant properties and help your body absorb and transport fat-soluble vitamins A, E, D, and K. They are also an important part of the construction of nervous tissue and contribute to the synthesis of hormones (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2020).

Another myth claims that eating fat makes you fat, which is absolutely false. Adequate consumption of fat helps speed up metabolism and burn extra calories from your body. When you eat a lot of fat, it is stored in fat cells as a reserve and helps maintain energy balance. This allows your body weight to be maintained. Even under a controlled process, it can help you lose weight (Fung, 2018).

The Role of fats in your diet

The fats your body gets from food provide essential nutrients, so you don't need to completely eliminate them from your diet. In fact, as part of a balanced diet, some fats can help promote good health and improve your life. With its consumption, your body acquires different types of lipids to function normally (Mayo Clinic, 2019).

3. Get regular physical activity

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2020) refers to physical activity as any bodily movement produced by muscles. Even during leisure time, to move from one place to another, or as part of work. This, both moderate and intense, improve your health.

Staying active is one of the best ways to take care of your body, contributing to your well-being. And it is that physical activity can help you to be healthy, to have a better physical appearance, and to feel better about yourself. For that, it is necessary that exercise is part of your usual routine. Some changes that you can implement are (Medline Plus, 2021):

Make your daily activities more active. For illustration, take the stairs rather than the elevator or demesne further down from your destination.

Organize workouts with friends and family. You can plan social activities that involve exercise or join a dance club or group sport.

Make a more fun exercise routine. Listening to music or watching a movie while you exercise can keep you motivated.

Find physical activities that you can do even in bad weather. For example, walking in a shopping center or exercising in a gym.

4. Maintain good sleep hygiene

Sleep is important for overall health. It's a biological process that helps you process new information, stay healthy, and feel rested and energized the next day. And although you are unconscious, the functions of your brain and body are still active (Medline Plus, 2020).

Because sleeping well favors many vital processes in your body. Mainly, it helps release growth hormone, sex hormones and strengthens the immune system. Also, it contributes to the ability to reflect and form memories (Medline Plus, 2020).

The habits that you should have are (Mayo Clinic, 2018):

Set a sleep schedule. Try to sleep at least seven hours each night to have enough energy to face your daily activities.

Eat healthier and lighter meals at night. This will help you fall asleep and prevent your body and mind from being fatigued.

Seek to relax before bed. Relaxation activities can help with the transition to sleep

5. Learning to manage stress and anxiety will help improve your quality of life

Stress and anxiety are common guests for utmost people. The key is to learn to manage it and carry out activities that help you reduce negative sensations. Among them, is regular exercise. This, in addition to favoring your physical condition, helps release endorphins that improve your mood and help reduce stress and anxiety (Jennings, 2018).

There are ways to manage stress. These are measures you can control to reduce the risk of negative effects. The first thing is to identify the signals on which you respond to stress to obtain the medical attention of a professional. In addition, exercising, relaxing activities, avoiding work overload, and managing your emotions with emotional intelligence are key to your well-being and quality of life (NIMH, s.f.).

6. Enjoy your free time and build positive relationships to improve your quality of life

Enjoying free time should not be a luxury. On the contrary, it is normal and absolutely necessary in life. It is very important to enjoy periods of rest and relaxation, as these have an impact on your well-being. The idea is to use free time to rest, do relaxation and recreation activities, and release stress (Papa, 2020).

In addition, you can take advantage of free time to participate in activities that include social contact and build positive social relationships. They will help you have a better attitude toward life and feel very good about yourself (NIH, 2017).

With these six keys, you can maintain a balance that will help your physical and mental health. The idea is to incorporate healthy habits into your way of living and take advantage of every moment to take care of your body, be happy, and share time with your loved ones.