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HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH?

Here are the lifestyle factors that you could follow in order to decrease the risks of having such health issues.

  • Be more physically active. (Minimise sedentary activities)
  • Have healthy nutrition and balanced eating habits.
  • Manage your stress
  • Cut down vices such as smoking, and drinking alcohol

WHAT TO DO TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH?

There are six common lifestyle factors that contribute to heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

• Inadequate physical activity
• Not eating enough fruit and vegetables
• Unhealthy body shape (waist circumference)
• Too much stress
• Too much alcohol
• Smoking

The six main lifestyle factors you could work on to decrease your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes are:

• Being more physically active
• Having healthy nutrition and eating habits
• Reducing your waist circumference
• Managing your stress
• Managing your alcohol intake
• Cutting down or quitting smoking

 

QUICK TIPS TO A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE:

GOAL SETTING – You are most likely to be successful if you do it one step at a time. Think of an overall goal and create smaller achievable steps to work on. Creating deadlines will also help your accountability. Creating “Micro Goals” based on your MAIN GOAL is effective. It will enable you to manage the things around you. Every Micro Goal you accomplish gets you a step towards a bigger picture.

STAYING MOTIVATED – In order to keep on track to your goals, you aim to find what motivates you. A good approach is using a tracking system to write down what you are working on, seeing your goals in action and what you have accomplished. In that way, you can appreciate your wins more and adjust when necessary.

TAKING ACTION – It is important to understand your progress; it will to move you forward. You may not be perfect each time and that’s not a bad thing as long as you learn from it and move forward. Flexibility can also be considered when things don’t go perfectly to plan. You are in control of your actions, you can learn to adjust to different scenarios and improve your goal success.

KEEPING FOCUSED – There are some barriers that might affect your progress in achieving the goal. It is importat to identify this early on and provide solutions for those. Using a journal is an effective strategy to help maintain focus if you get distracted. In addition, keeping a record of the things you’ve achieved is very useful to visualise how far you’ve come and make improvements when needed.

FACTS:

  • Three in 5 adults (61%) are either overweight or obese
  • 1 in 6 aged 14 years and over smoke daily
  • Approximately 50% of those aged 25 years and over have blood cholesterol levels
  • above the recommended 5.5 mmol/L placing them at risk for associated diseases
  • Less than half (41%) of Australians aged 15–74 years have adequate levels
  • of health literacy (the knowledge and skills needed to understand and use
  • information relating to health)
  • 91% of the population do not consume the recommended daily intake of fruit
  • and vegetables
  • Around 1 in 10 Australians report high to very high levels of psychological distress

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010. Australia’s health 2010. Australia’s health
series no. 12. Cat. no. AUS 122. Canberra: AIHW