A healthier life begins at your local pharmacy

Healthy living’ means maintaining a healthy lifestyle and introducing habits that improve your health. An important first step is identifying less healthy habits and learning new, positive ones to replace them, such as: eating healthy foods and balanced meals. sleeping well and managing stress. Its also important for regular checks.

Here are 10 ways to stay healthy! These are simple daily habits that will lead to better health. These are things we should each be doing every single day to ensure we’re staying healthy.

1. Wash your hands

Growing up your mom always tells you to wash your hands. And it’s super important! You should be washing your hands every time you come inside. Whether that’s using soap and hot water (the best) or hand sanitizer, keep those hands clean. And when you’re out and about, avoid touching your face. We touch a million different surfaces a day and those germs and bacteria get onto our hands and ultimately into our system. So try to fight it off by keeping your hands as clean as possible.

2. Avoid people who are sick

This is another no brainer, but try and avoid people who are sick. If you see someone coughing or sneezing, move away from them. Cover your mouth and nose. If people in your office are sick, try to meet virtually. If there’s something going around the school, potentially think about keeping your children at home. Just do your best to avoid others who are sick.

3. Eat whole foods

Diet has a huge part to play in our health, we all know that. And this is something we should be doing all the time. Eat whole foods. Fill your diet with fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Skip the processed food. One of the absolute best ways to stay healthy is to ensure you’re flooding your body with nutritious food. Whole foods are packed with immune-supporting, cancer-fighting, gut-loving vitamins and minerals that will do wonders for your health.

4. Cut back on sugar & alcohol

Number four on our list of ways to stay healthy isn’t something you necessarily have to do all the time, but you should definitely do when you’re feeling sick/fighting something off. Sugar and alcohol both have a negative impact on our gut as well as our immune system. They can also affect our sleep which has a direct impact on our health as well. I’d say just try to limit your intake and cut back when you can!

5. Exercise regularly

Moving your body daily not only helps you sweat out toxins, but it can also potentially help flush out bacteria from your lungs and keep your lungs healthy. Exercise also helps your circulatory system and promotes good circulation which allows your cells and immune system substances to flow properly through your system so they can do their jobs more effectively. What’s great about exercise is it can really be anything – yoga, pilates, power walking, running, weight lifting, spinning, etc. There is no end to possibilities. It’s important to get your blood pumping and your blood circulating every single day.

6. Stay hydrated

Drinking enough water and staying hydrated is again one of the best ways to stay healthy. It’s key in flushing out toxins and waste materials from the body so that your immune system is more effectively able to fight infections. When your system is clogged up with toxins, your immune system can’t do its job. Water also carries oxygen into our cells which allows our entire body to function properly. Without adequate hydration, we risk a host of issues. I recommend that you aim to drink at least half of your body weight (lbs) in ouches of water per day. So if you weighed 150lbs, you’d be drinking 75 ounces of water minimum.

7. Take vitamin C

Vitamin C has been shown thousands of times to support your immune system and overall health. When you’re feeling compromised I would suggest taking a vitamin C supplement, but if you’re just living your everyday life, I think getting vitamin C from whole foods is perfect. Things like oranges, grapefruits, lemon, and even pineapple are packed with vitamin C.

8. Take care of your gut

Our gut contains about 70% of our immune system. So when our gut isn’t happy, our immune system is compromised. It’s important that we support our gut by eating foods that nourish it. Add probiotic-rich foods into your meals like kimchi, sauerkraut, and yogurt. You could consider taking a probiotic as well. Cutting back on sugar and alcohol is another way that we can support our gut health. Those two feed bacteria and can potentially cause too much of the bad bacteria to thrive.

9. Get enough sleep

Sleep helps with stress management, but it also helps us stay motivated to move, gives us more energy, helps our metabolism stay regulated and ultimately can also help with weight loss. On the immune system side, studies have shown that people who don’t get adequate sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to an illness. That’s because when we are sleeping, our immune system is releasing proteins that help fight infection and inflammation. Plus, when you’re sleep-deprived, the cells and antibodies in your body that fight infections are lowered. On average you should aim to get 7 – 8 hours of sleep per night as an adult, more for teenagers and children.

10. Manage your stress

You might have heard before that stress is the silent killer. And what people mean by that is that stress has a profound negative impact on our health and well being. But at a high level, in order to stay healthy, we need to manage our stress. We need to use stress-relieving tactics like meditation, saunas, reading, cooking, dancing, laughing, playing, exercising. We need to try our best to manage stress so that it doesn’t take over our lives and cause huge ramifications for our health.

A healthy lifestyle is important for everyone. When we look after our physical health, we feel better too – fitter, more relaxed and better able to cope with things. This is especially important when you have a mental illness.

There are lots of ways of being healthy, that feel good as well as doing you good.

Benefits of healthy living

What you gain by living more healthily includes:

• Feeling better mentally – regular exercise can lift your mood and help you feel better
• Saving money – eating junk food, smoking, and drinking sugary drinks or alcohol are all expensive habits
• Fewer health problems – living a healthier lifestyle means a lower risk of developing many illnesses
• Taking control of your life – getting healthy helps you feel in control of your life.

Getting healthy

Healthy living’ means maintaining a healthy lifestyle and introducing habits that improve your health. It can be difficult to change old habits, but there are steps you can take to become healthier. An important first step is identifying less healthy habits and learning new, positive ones to replace them, such as:

• Eating healthy foods and balanced meals
• Sleeping well and managing stress
• Practicing safe sex, drinking alcohol responsibly and not abusing drugs
• Being physically active
• Staying connected with others
• Being aware of any health risks related to your illness and its treatment, and working with your doctor to monitor these and then take action
• Taking responsibility for your overall health including having regular check-ups for your eyes and teeth.

How to develop positive health habits

The key to developing positive habits that you are more likely to keep is to:

Start slowly

• Change just one thing at a time - see the benefits that can come from eating more balanced meals or, exercising more or quitting smoking
• Make small changes – an achievable change is more likely to become a habit you keep.
• Go slowly – making a change gradually can be easier than all at once.
• Build on what you already do – for example, if you enjoy walking, try extending your usual route by a manageable amount.

Remember, increasing or adding even one new health behaviour can make a big difference to your health.

Work around challenges

There are things you can do to manage any extra challenges related to your illness and it's treatment – such as drowsiness, sugar cravings or lack of motivation. Steps you can take include:

• Organise daily activities around side-effects of medication, for example, if you are drowsy in the morning, organise exercise for the afternoon.
• Discuss things with your doctor – there may be another medication you can try, or ask for referral to a specialist such as a dietitian or psychologist for expert advice.

Staying healthy

Being healthy is about more than getting fit and feeling better, it’s about staying that way too. Tips to help you stay motivated include:

• Schedule regular check ups with your doctor to monitor your progress and for that extra push you may need to keep going.
• Reward yourself – feel good about developing healthier habits by rewarding yourself with a little treat.
• Overcome slip-ups – if you slip-up, be realistic and start again.

Finding Support

There are lots of ways to get the support you need to help stay healthy. Speaking to your local GP or your local Health Plus pharmacist will guide you through the journey. Also having someone else as a ‘support person’ can make all the difference in keeping up healthy habits. Talk with your friends, family, mental health program or case worker. Don’t forget other services in your area that you can draw on too.