In this week's video we're going to be looking at how to live a more healthy lifestyle and be more
healthy this is going to be a two-part series this is episode one we're going to be first looking at
dietary advice and why a healthy balanced diet is so important we're going to be looking at exercise
how often you should be doing it and why it's so important and we're gonna be looking at sleep
hygiene and most importantly sleep quality and why this is all so important to maintain that healthy
lifestyle now please do make sure that you keep an eye out for part two of how to be more healthy and
live a more healthy lifestyle in part two we're going to be looking at how to maintain your mental
health your well-being we're going to be looking at alcohol intake and how to reduce it because
too much of it can have a negative effect on your health and also we're going to look like smoking
and loads more so keep an eye out for it and i will leave a link for up here and in the
description below when it's available now even though i've split this video into two episodes
i know it's gonna be a long video it's gonna be jam-packed full of information so if at any point
you want to find a specific piece of information i am going to timestamp it i am going to chapter
it all in the description below so feel free to click it and click on whichever section you want
to know about but i would highly recommend you watch the entire video and learn everything that
we go through now let's begin so let's begin with a healthy diet and why is it so important look i
know for a fact when i say the word diet a lot of people think of these novelty celebrity fad
diets that are available and yes they help some people lose weight but please remember this look
if you reduce your calorie intake no matter what the diet is you will lose weight this is a fact
that's the basics of a diet okay you reduce your calorie intake you're going to lose weight but
please do remember a lot of these novelty fad diets are very very restrictive and if you're
restricting your body from those nutrients and minerals and those essentials that your body needs
it's going to be unhealthy for you another problem is that these restrictive diets are
also very hard to follow so yeah you might lose some weight but then eventually you're going
to go back to your old ways and you'll put that weight back on so in this video we're not going
to be talking about these fad diets okay we're going to be talking about a healthy balanced diet
and going through exactly what that is so let's go back to the basics when we talk about a healthy
diet look the total amount of food that each person should eat varies from person to person and
this depends on loads of things like your age your lifestyle your health conditions loads and loads
of different things however the recommended amount of each food group that each person should have
is generally the same in the population now before we go into any more detail about the healthy diet
i just quickly want to say this is all general information that applies to the general population
of adults who are healthy and fit however this information is not for children as their dietary
needs and requirements are different also if you're an adult and you have any food intolerances
or if you have any medical conditions that require a strict diet please speak to your health care
professional first and get their advice okay so let's carry on so when i say a healthy diet
we're actually looking at a healthy balanced diet with the correct proportions of each food group
so there's five food groups that we're talking about there's fruits and veg starchy foods dairy
proteins and fats so let's begin with fruits and vegetables you want to try and eat at least
five portions of fruit and veg each day for this to be about a third of what your meals
consist of one portion can be in the form of 80 grams of fresh canned or frozen fruit and veg or
30 grams of dried fruit and you want to try and have a wide variety remember fruit and
vegetables are packed full of nutrients vitamins and antioxidants and getting in as many different
types as possible allows you to maximize the different benefits that each one contains
now moving forward the next main food group we've got are those starchy foods you want this to be a
third of what your meals consist of foods in this group include things like bread like rice like
pasta and potatoes and these are great sources of energy for our bodies try to choose whole grain
options whenever you can as these contain more fiber and help keep our gut healthy and moving
so if you think about it so far imagine we have a plate a third of it are those starchy foods
that we just spoke about the other third there's fruit and vegetables that we just spoke about
and now we need a bit of protein our body needs protein to grow and repair itself okay and there's
loads of great sources of protein out there such as meat such as chicken such as fish such
as beans such as pulses there's loads of them and i will leave more information about all of these
in the description below please do remember though try to avoid eating too much red meat and also
try to avoid eating too much processed meats especially things like bacon and sausages
studies have shown that there is a possible link between these and bowel cancer and do try to
choose lean cuts of meats where you can and try to aim for two portions of oily fish such as salmon
or mackerel a week oily fish are a great source of vitamin d which we need to keep our bones healthy
they also contain omega-3 which is thought to help prevent heart disease now if you want more
information on vitamin d and how to get more vitamin d from your diet i do have a video on
that topic which i will leave a link at the top and in the description below now moving on to the
next food group which is needed for that healthy balanced diet and that's dairy dairy can be found
in milk in cheese and yogurts and we need dairy for that protein we need it for the calcium and
we need it for the vitamins now if you do follow a vegan diet there are alternatives available such
as soya almond and rice milk products and when choosing dairy products try to look for low fat
and low sugar options whenever you can and moving on to the last food group for a healthy balanced
diet fats yes we do need fats we need fats to help us absorb those fat soluble vitamins but we don't
need loads we only need a bit and we need those healthy fats we don't want too much saturated fat
we don't want too much those bad fats are going to give us the bad cholesterol and increase our
risk of heart disease and cardiovascular disease and increase our risk of strokes and loads more
other things so avoid eating too much of things like butter like ghee like palm oil
hard cheese pastries and chocolate these are just a few examples so i'll leave a longer list in
the description below and if you do want more information on how to reduce your cholesterol
levels i do have a video on that as well which i'll leave a link at the top of the video
and in the description below now the next thing that i want to talk to you about in
terms of living a healthy lifestyle is salt and sugar intake look if you're having too much salt
it's going to increase our blood pressure slowly which is going to put more strain on your heart
it's going to increase your risk of heart attacks it's going to increase your risk of strokes
and also it's going to put lots of pressure on your kidneys too and eating too much sugar can
also lead to weight gain tooth decay and increased risk of type 2 diabetes now i do understand and
i am a realist that we do need salt and sugar in our foods to make them more tasty however we need
to do it in moderation that's the key word so our maximum amount of salt that we should eat per day
is six grams and the maximum of sugar you should eat per day is 30 grams
and the best way to stay on top of this is one cooking more home-cooked foods and two when you
are buying food products from the supermarket have a read of the nutritional labels see how much salt
is in there see how much sugar is in there and work out whether you're going above the maximum
recommended amount now in order to have a healthy diet we also need to stay hydrated this is also a
really important point because water is essential for helping maintain our body helping us flush out
waste stuff helping our cells be regulated helping produce hormones helping produce saliva and loads
loads more so it's recommended to try and aim for six to eight glasses of fluid a day which
can be a mix of water low-fat milk sugar-free drinks and please remember teas and coffees
these also count to your daily water intake now i know what you're probably thinking you're probably
thinking to yourself wow that healthy diet stuff is actually quite complicated and it can be quite
overwhelming doing it all properly so the best advice i can give you for that is do it one step
at a time you don't need to change everything all at once you now know the basics and you can
work on it i will also leave more information about all of these in the description below
however if you are interested as well in losing weight or anything like that i do have a few
videos on this topic too on healthy ways to lose weight looking at a study done in oxford which
has got some really really good stats behind it so if you are interested i will leave links to
it up here and in the description below too so now that we've discussed the healthy balanced
diet and we're a bit of a pro at it now the next thing that i want to talk to you about is exercise
and exercise goes hand in hand with the healthy balance diet look studies have shown that if you
exercise regularly it can reduce your chances of getting major illnesses such as type 2 diabetes
such as heart attacks such as having strokes such as getting even cancer by up to 50 percent
has also been shown to reduce your cholesterol your blood pressure your blood sugars it's also
been linked potentially to reducing your risk of alzheimer's or dementia
another thing that exercise does is it releases those endorphins those feel good hormones
and it's been linked to improving your mood reducing your chance of depression
increasing your self-esteem so it also helps with that mental well-being as well and if all that's
not good enough studies have also shown that exercise reduces your chance of early death by 30
so what are you waiting for let's talk about exercise so when it comes to exercise i always
find there's a lot of different information out there for how much this exercises do how much of
that exercise to do so i'm going to make it very simple for you it's recommended that adults aged
19 to 64 should aim to be active every single day with muscle strengthening activities on at
least two days a week and at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activities or 75 minutes
of vigorous activity once a week you can also do several short sessions throughout a week
to reach your target instead of it all being in one block so it's easier for you now please do
remember that these are rough guidelines and the amount of exercise activity that you actually do
can be dependent on your physical health your age if you're pregnant your fitness level so
all of these can be factors that you have to take into consideration you may also choose to do more
moderate intensity activity throughout the week or you may choose to do more vigorous activity one
day a week as a big block whatever fits you really so as i mentioned it really depends what suits you
and if you've got any medical conditions that might prevent you from doing certain activities
or you're a bit worried about it then definitely speak to your healthcare professional about it and
get their advice on it before commencing all this physical activity moving on to the next topic i
know we all live busy lives these days and sleep unfortunately is massively overlooked the quality
of sleep that we get how much of it that we get what we're doing before we go to sleep all of this
comes into one word which we call sleep hygiene a good quality sleep allows your body to recover
energy boost your immune system and repair itself by making new tissue it also gives your brain a
break allowing it to recover and process the events of the day store memories and de-stress
in fact sleep is so important for a healthy lifestyle that not getting enough of it can be
really negative for your health so not getting enough sleep regularly can actually increase
your risk of diabetes obesity heart disease it can also increase your risk of depression and anxiety
and not getting enough sleep considerably for a long time has also been linked to increasing
your risk of certain cancers so how much sleep do we actually need well the average adult requires
eight to nine hours of sleep per night i want you to remember this number this is the number that
everyone should be aiming for so get into the habit get into a cycle so your internal body
clock can adjust to it and you're gonna get used to sleeping at certain time and waking up at a
certain time and getting that essential sleep now the problem is when poor sleep has become
your routine your internal body clock adjusts to that now there are ways that you can reverse this
and change it and i'm going to go through this now i also do have a video on sleep hygiene and
how to get better quality sleep a full video on this topic so if you do want more information on
this because i'm briefly going to go through this please feel free to click on that video up here or
in the description below so step number one what are the best things that you can do before going
to bed is going for a hot bath or a nice hot shower to help relax those muscles and get you
ready for sleep this is one of the top things that you can do just to help you fall asleep if you're
gonna struggle because you're not used to that routine tip number two in the evening time before
you're about to go to bed you need to start doing relaxing activities you don't want to be doing
a massive gym workout or going for a massive run in the evening before you're going to go
to bed this is gonna make it very difficult for you to fall asleep so for example try listening
to calming music or reading a book this can help distract your mind from any anxieties that may be
otherwise keeping you up and help to put you in a more tranquil mode light exercises such
as yoga such as stretches can also help with the tension and getting attention out of your muscles
just make sure like i said that this is gentle as strenuous activity can make it worse and more
difficult for you to fall asleep moving on to tip number three it's those pesky electronics and tvs
and all that sort of stuff you need to keep away from them studies have shown that if you're on
these in the evening or prior to going to sleep it increases the latency of your falling asleep
so it's going to take longer if you fall asleep and you're going to have poor quality sleep as
a result of it it's thought that the blue lights emitted by these devices may suppress our body's
ability to produce melatonin now melatonin is a hormone produced by our brain in response to
darkness that helps promote our body prepare for sleep so try and avoid these an hour or so before
bed for better sleep now as i mentioned these are just a few quick tips that you can do i've got
loads more information on a previous video that i've done on how to fall asleep let's say it's had
millions of views and it's helped millions of people around the world so if you do want more
information on that again feel free to click on that link up here or in the description below
so that's part one of how to live a healthy lifestyle and be generally more healthy
please do stay tuned for part two where we talk about different aspects such as mental health your
well-being alcohol intake smoking and loads more please do remember however if you're constantly
feeling tired or if things aren't feeling normal if you feel like you need any support or help
please do speak to your healthcare professional don't let don't waste time don't leave it for
later talk to your healthcare professional they might be able to examine you they might be doing
some blood tests they need to speak to you and see what is going on that is the most important thing
please do not leave anything you know your body better than anyone else so if you notice anything
different if you notice any changes just speak to a healthcare professional so that's the end
of part one please stay tuned for part two i will leave a link to it in the description below when
it's out if you've got any of your own tips please do leave a comment below as well i'd love to read
it i'm sure people watching this video love to read it and as i always say always remember you're
awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
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