How To Live A Healthy Lifestyle

Are you ready to start living a healthy lifestyle and completely change your life? Healthy living starts with healthy habits! Keep reading to learn how to live a healthy lifestyle and develop healthy habits.

woman living a healthy lifestyle by making a smoothie

How To Live A Healthy Lifestyle

Many people want to live a healthier life but are unsure where to start or how to begin. Transitioning to a healthy lifestyle can definitely be overwhelming.

But it can also be completely life changing!

I used to be sick, tired, and run down. For over 10 years I suffered from fatigue, insomnia, depression, joint pain, anxiety, and headaches.

After being misdiagnosed with depression by countless doctors I was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in 2018. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease affecting the thyroid.

You can learn more about it here.

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After receiving the diagnosis I knew I had to make some major changes in my life.

Up to that point I had treated my body pretty bad. Good sleep and healthy eating were at the bottom of my priority list.

I was completely ignorant in regards to how food affected the body. I knew nothing about environmental toxins and their effect on the endocrine system.

My doctor recommended medication but I didn’t want to just mask my symptoms I wanted to heal my body.

So I spoke to different doctors, read books, and researched all about Hashimoto’s and began my healing journey shortly after my initial diagnosis.

Here I am almost 3 years later feeling better than I ever thought was possible.

And it’s all thanks to breaking bad habits, creating new healthy habits, and living a healthy lifestyle.

In some ways, a healthy lifestyle can look different for different people. But I think for most people who want to begin a healthy lifestyle it starts with addressing these 5 areas of your life – diet, sleep, fitness, stress, and environmental toxins.

When just one of these areas of your life is suffering it can throw your whole life out of balance.

For example, bad sleep can raise cortisol which can lead to poor diet and weight gain. Not to mention fatigue and brain fog which is going to hinder your ability to make good health choices throughout your day.

Excessive stress can also raise cortisol which once again can lead to poor diet choices and weight gain. Excessive stress can also cause insomnia.

A poor diet can cause fatigue, brain fog, headaches, anxiety, and all kinds of other issues.

Environmental toxins can wreak havoc on your endocrine system which can cause issues like allergies, anxiety, depression, fatigue, headaches, and more.

Lack of exercise can obviously cause weight gain but that’s not the reason exercise is so important. The reason exercise is so important is because it can help all four areas I just mentioned. Which I’ll discuss more below.

So if you’re ready to start living a healthy lifestyle you need to address these 5 areas of your life and figure out how you can improve them.

How To Create a Healthy Lifestyle

Diet

If you’re wanting to live a healthy life then you have to start with food. What you put into your body matters.

The quality of our food supply has diminished greatly.

From pesticides to synthetic fertilizer to GMO’s – food just isn’t what it used to be. I believe that is one of the reasons more people are suffering from chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases, and cancer than ever before.

Our bodies are not designed to process synthetic material and genetically modified foods.

So one of the first changes you should make when striving to live a healthy lifestyle is your diet.

I don’t believe there is a one size fits all diet. I believe everyone’s body is different and reacts differently to different foods.

I personally thrive on a paleo diet but I know people who are vegan and vegetarian and are also thriving.

You have to figure out what type of foods your body operates best on. This might involve a lot of trial and error.

I can’t tell you what diet will work best for you but I will share a few tips that will be beneficial regardless of what diet you choose.

1 | Eat vegetables with every meal.

2 | Read ingredient labels and avoid foods with dyes and preservatives.

3 | Eat organic whenever possible.

A food diary is a great tool to use when you are trying to figure out what foods are best for your body.

I also highly recommend the Whole30. The Whole30 is a clean eating diet plan that is designed to help you break bad eating habits and figure out which foods you should permanently eliminate from your diet.

There are quite a few books on Amazon related to the Whole 30. If you’re unfamiliar with it, I recommend you get the Whole30 30 day guide. It’s perfect for beginners.

I also highly recommend the book It Starts With Food, which is written by the creators of the Whole30. It literally changed my life!

Aside from the Whole30, I also recommend a Thrive Market membership if you’re really serious about living a healthy lifestyle.

Thrive Market is an online grocery store that sells natural and organic foods. I love Thrive Market because they have so many more healthy options than my local grocery store.

Click here for 25% off your first order and a free 30-day trial membership!

You can read my full Thrive Market review here and learn all about them.

I find it so much easier to stick to healthy eating when I have more options to choose from.

Sleep

Good sleep is absolutely crucial to your overall well being.

Consistent good sleep can boost your mood, improve your focus, help you lose weight, and it can also help prevent heart disease and stroke.

And if you are struggling with a chronic illness or an autoimmune disease, good sleep is even more important.

Sleep helps the body to conserve energy and can also strengthen the immune system.

Unhealthy sleep habits can cause a cycle of unhealthy living. Like I mentioned before, lack of sleep can raise cortisol which can lead to bad diet choices and weight gain.

And the brain fog and inability to focus caused by lack of sleep can hinder your ability to make good health choices throughout the rest of your day.

You should try to get between 7 and 8 hours of sleep every night. If you struggle to get the sleep you need I have lots of resources for you. I encourage you to read the posts below.

Once again healthy sleep habits are essential if you want to live a healthy lifestyle. Good sleep goes hand in hand with healthy eating and working out. So do whatever you can to make it happen!

Fitness

I realize you are probably aware of the fact that working out is good for your body. But you may not be aware of how working out can completely change your life!

The benefits of a consistent workout routine reaches far beyond just getting in shape.

Working out on a consistent basis can help you sleep better, improve your mood, increase your energy, reduce anxiety, help you sweat out toxins, and so much more!!!

To be honest, I hate working out. I absolutely hate it! But I cannot deny the fact that every area of my life improves when I workout consistently.

You can read all about the mind-blowing benefits of regular exercise here.

And the best part is you don’t need to have a radical, extreme fitness routine to experience the positive benefits of working out.

In my experience 30 minutes a day / 5 days a week can change your life.

And you don’t need a gym membership either.

I work out from home and I love it. I use My Fitness Plan by Jillian Michaels. It’s an at home work program.

With your membership, you’ll get access to an infinite variety of fully interactive, customized daily workouts, or you can choose from one of Jillian’s specifically tailored programs. And they have custom meal plans as well!!!

You can stream the workouts on your phone, iPad, or tv. They have a ton of workouts and programs to choose from. I’m not a huge fan of the gym so this is perfect for me and if you purchase the annual membership it costs a little over $7 a month. Which is cheaper than a gym membership.

You can click here for a free 7 day trial.

Stress Management

Many people underestimate the negative impact stress has on their overall health and wellbeing.

Not only can stress cause high blood pressure, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and heart disease but it can also weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to illness and disease.

If you want to live a healthy lifestyle it is absolutely vital that you reduce the stress in your life and learn to manage stress in healthy ways.

If something in your life is causing excessive stress do whatever you can to eliminate that thing from your life.

If that isn’t possible then you need to work on ways to reduce your stress reaction and learn to deal with stress in a healthy manner.

Breathing exercises, stress-relieving essential oils, herbal teas, talking to friends, and taking walks are all great ways to naturally reduce stress.

Environmental Toxins

We are being bombarded with toxic chemicals every single day! From our food to our water to our cleaning products to our beauty products – they’re everywhere.

And many people walk around clueless to the harm these toxic chemicals are causing. So many people have chronic health issues or ailments that are being triggered by the things they are deliberately putting on or in their bodies.

There have actually been many studies confirming the connection between toxic chemicals and autoimmune diseases. I’ve listed a few below if you would like to check them out.

Toxic chemicals in your home can disrupt your endocrine system which can lead to issues like anxiety, depression, insomnia, and more.

I know this information can be extremely overwhelming but remember knowledge is power. Now that you have the information it is up to you to make the change.

Use the EWG website to check the safeness of the products you use most. Throw out harmful products and replace them with non-toxic alternatives.

You don’t have to do this all in one day. But week by week, month by month slowly eliminate the harmful products in your home one by one.

In my experience, essential oils are essential to living a toxin-free life. They make it so easy to create your own homemade toxin-free products.

I highly recommend Simply Earth essential oils. They have a monthly essential oil recipe box that you can subscribe to. The monthly recipe box only costs $39.99 and contains 4 full-size, 100% pure essential oils, essential oil recipe cards, and extra items needed to make several essential oil DIY’s.

Thanks to their super awesome monthly recipe box I’ve been able to build quite the essential oil collection as well as create so many toxin-free DIY’s which have helped me eliminate so many toxic products from my home.

You can click here to read my full Simply Earth essential oils review.

And I’ve also done many Simply Earth recipe box reviews which you can check out below.

First-time customers can use the code HAPPYHEARTFREE to receive a big bonus box plus a $40 Simply Earth gift card with the purchase of their first recipe box, all for only $39.99!

If you’re wanting to dive deeper into the world of essential oils and natural living I recommend reading the posts below and checking out my many different essential oil recipes.

There is no magic pill or healthy living secret that’s going to change your life and make all your health problems disappear.

Healthy living starts with these five areas. Of course, there are other things you can do to improve your health like drink more water and take vitamins but if one of the five areas above is suffering those types of changes won’t make much difference.

So if you’re ready to begin living a healthy lifestyle start eating healthy, sleeping more, stressing less, moving your body, and eliminating the toxic chemicals in your environment.

Sources:

Why lack of sleep is bad for your health – https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/why-lack-of-sleep-is-bad-for-your-health/

Is too little sleep a cause of weight gain? – https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/expert-answers/sleep-and-weight-gain/faq-20058198

Stress symptoms: Effects on your body and behavior – https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress-symptoms/art-20050987

New data on harmful effects of trans-fatty acids –https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27215959/

These 5 Foods and Substances Can Cause Anxiety and Insomnia – https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/diagnosis-diet/201607/these-5-foods-and-substances-can-cause-anxiety-and-insomnia

Physical activity and feelings of energy and fatigue: epidemiological evidence – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16937952/

Effects of exercise and physical activity on anxiety – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23630504/

Endocrine disruptors and your health – https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/endocrine_disruptors_508.pdf