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Healthy Living Tips

  1. Healthy living isn't only for losing weight!

    • The most common cause of death among Americans is heart disease, followed by cancer. Damage to your heart and circulatory system doesn't just happen when you're older, it occurs throughout your entire life course. The same is true for cancer - damage to your cells can occur at anytime and this has the potential to develop into cancer. Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle helps you reduce this damage and lower your risk for heart disease, stroke and cancer. ​

  2. Stay active. JUST DO IT!

    • We will focus a lot on tips for healthy eating on this website, but please don't forget that staying active is equally important!​​

    • Cardio (short for cardiovacular) training: Aim for 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week of moderate-to-vigorous activity (150 minutes/week). Examples include walking, running, cycling, spinning, swimming, basketball, and hiking. If that's hard for you to achieve, start by incorporating exercise 2-3 days a week or start with 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Any exercise is better than no exercise! If 150 minutes/week is easy for you, aim for 300 minutes/week for maximum cardio benefits.

    • Muscle-Strengthening Training: Aim to strengthen each major muscle group twice per week. Weight lifting is a great way to make sure you're capturing all the muscle groups. A personal trainer is a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with weight lifting. It is incredibly important to make sure your form is correct to prevent injuries. Fitness classes are also a great way to cover your muscle-strengthening exercises. Two, well-rounded fitness classes per week will likely capture all your muscle groups. Examples include body pump, yoga, pilates, barre, bootcamp, hiit, etc. There are always new fitness classes to try, and if it's well-designed, you'll likely hit all the major muscle groups. If you're new to a fitness class, ask the instructor to give you feedback on whether you're performing each exercise correctly.

    • Benefits of exercise are massive - cardiovascular disease prevention, weight maintenance, bone strengthening, improved ability to perform daily activities, less likelihood of falling, and reductions in anxiety, depression, and ADHD symptoms. JUST DO IT!

  3. Check your resources.

  4. Know your calorie intake.

    • Many weight loss apps include an estimation of your daily calorie needs to maintain your weight or lose weight (0.5 lb/wk, 1 lb/wk, etc.). Even if you aren't trying to lose weight, tracking your daily calories can be a useful exercise to understand your energy balance.​

    • Remember, maintaining your weight is much easier than losing weight. Thus, even if you're at a healthy weight now, maintaining a healthy lifestyle will keep you there and maximize the number of healthy years ahead of you.​

  5. Create your healthy food environment.​

    • What does it take for you to achieve your healthy diet goals? This is a question you can continuously ask yourself to keep you and your family on track to a healthy lifestyle. We all have different genetics and abilities to resist the temptation of delicious and unhealthy foods. It's your job to surround yourself with a positive food environment that promotes healthy eating and minimizes the temptation to make poor diet choices.

    • Example A: If there are chips in the house, Danielle will eat them all. This will make Danielle sick and the 1500+ calories will certainly bring Danielle well over her daily calorie goal. Thus, Danielle doesn't buy chips. Chips are only reserved for special occasions. Does this seem extreme? Maybe. However, without this extreme intervention, the cycle will continue and Danielle's daily calorie goal will continue to be sabotaged by her inability to resist the temptation of the chips. Some people may not have foods like this at all, but it's worth thinking about whether there are any foods/drinks that may be sabotaging your healthy lifestyle. ​

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