To stay safe and healthy is our communal goal and we look forward to it more in the pandemic era. Now a days, when new variants of the pandemic are spreading like wildfire and the mortality rate is dwindling with each variant, more responsibility comes on your shoulders to take stringent measures to keep ourselves safe and sound and healthy at the same time.
Here are a few tips that can help you in staying safe and healthy:
1- Wear your mask
Non-medical masks are still compulsory at all places, and they should be worn when you are not eating or interacting with other people.
Wearing your mask not only protects you, but it helps you protect those around you from the spread of viruses. So do your part so we can all keep each other safe and healthy!
2- Set up a healthy work space
Doesn’t matter where you are working, be it your office space, your kitchen table, your floor or your ironing board, you must keep your place clean and clear.
Make sure that you do dusting of all your space daily, wash it every other day with a good cleaner and you are good to work.
3- Drink lots of water
Drinking lots of water can actually help you in so many ways to stay healthy. In fact, water should be the first thing that you consume first in the morning. There are multiplex of benefits of drinking enough water. A few are as follows as mentioned by the Harvard Medical School:
- carrying nutrients and oxygen to your cells
- flushing bacteria from your bladder
- aiding digestion
- preventing constipation
- normalizing blood pressure
- stabilizing the heartbeat
- cushioning joints
- protecting organs and tissues
- regulating body temperature
- maintaining electrolyte (sodium) balance.
If you don’t drink enough water each day, you risk becoming dehydrated. Warning signs of dehydration include weakness, low blood pressure, dizziness, confusion, or urine that’s dark in color.
So how much water should you drink? Most people need about four to six cups of water each day.
4- Eat a balanced diet
A balanced diet is the most important part of staying healthy. If you are not taking a balanced diet then most probably your body is lacking vitamins and minerals, or you have a vulnerable immune system which means that your body don’t have enough strength to fight against diseases.
Many common diseases around the world including scurvy, kwashiorkor, rickets, heart diseases, pcos, just to name a few are caused due to poor diet.
A balanced diet is one which contains the right amount of carbohydrates, fats, dairy fruits and all food groups.
A few tips to begin your healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet are as follows:
- Variety of foods should be used in the menu. No single food has all the nutrients.
- To improve the cereal and pulse protein quality, a minimum ratio of cereal protein to pulse protein should be 4:1. In terms of the grains, it will be eight parts of cereals and one part of pulses.
- Eat five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.
- Keep a supply of healthy snacks to hand. This will stop you from eating an unhealthy snack when hungry.
- Remove all visible fat from food before you cook it – take the skin off chicken and trim the white fat off any meat.
- Limit stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol and refined sugar.
- Limit the number of times you eat out to once a week. Take your own packed lunch to work.
- Only eat things you like the taste of – find what works for you and don’t force yourself to eat things just because they’re good for you.
5- Opt for healthy cooking methods
Know that there are many things which are healthy and beneficial for us but our cooking methods damages the healthy nutrients in them in such a way that they do to us more harm than good. For instance, potato is a nutritious vegetable and a satisfying carbohydrate which can easily be included in our diet to meet our carbohydrate requirements but our poor cooking methods and lack of knowledge have only done the opposite.
Here are a few cooking tips that you can follow to adopt a healthy life style:
- Decrease the meat and add more vegetables to your dishes.
- Use whole wheat flour instead of refined flour when you bake.
- Blot your fried foods to take off the extra oil.
- Use low-fat yogurt instead of mayonnaise
- Add cut fruits to your curd, rather than having flavored yogurt
- Try to skim milk instead of a normal one.
- Use non-stick cookware to reduce the need for oil to cook.
- Microwave or steam your vegetables rather than boiling to avoid loss of nutrients.
- Fats in your foods should be maintained a minimum.
- Choose lean meats and skim dairy products. Fats are good in the form of nuts, seeds, fish, olives when they are accompanied by other nutrients. Some amount of fats while cooking is good as to help the body to absorb fat-soluble vitamins.
- If you wish to use oil, try cooking sprays or apply oil with a pastry brush. Cook in liquids (such as vegetable stock, lemon juice, fruit juice, vinegar or water) instead of oil. Use low-fat yogurt, low-fat soymilk evaporated skim milk or cornstarch as a thickener instead of cream.
6- Get enough sleep
Know that getting enough sleep is the most important part of staying healthy. Sleep is the time when your body relax, rests and rebuild the parts that were damaged. If you are not getting enough sleep, you might feel tired and fatigued all the time. Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety.
The way you feel while you’re awake depends in part on what happens while you’re sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and maintain your physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development.
The damage from sleep deficiency can occur in an instant (such as a car crash), or it can harm you over time. For example, ongoing sleep deficiency can raise your risk for some chronic health problems. It also can affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others.
A healthy brain activity and emotional well-being is also largely dependent on getting enough sleep.
However, as excess of everything is bad same is the case with sleep, you must not oversleep but yes you must get the right amount of sleep.
These were a few tips which I hope will help you in adapting a better and healthier life style. You will feel a greater strength in your body if you will follow these tips.
Keep shining!
