Welcome to episode two of how to be more healthy and how to live a more healthy lifestyle in
episode one we were looking at dietary advice we're looking at sleep hygiene and sleep quality
and we're looking at exercise in episode two today we're going to be looking at how to look after
your mental health and your well-being as well as looking at alcohol intake and how too much alcohol
can have a negative effect on your health and how to reduce your alcohol intake and as well as
smoking and lots more now even though i've split this video into two parts it is going to be quite
a long video and i understand that so if you want any specific information at any point in the video
feel free to click on that description below i've chaptered it i've indexed it so you can find the
specific information you want click on it and watch it however i would always recommend that you
watch the entire video let's begin now something that can be massively overlooked when we're
talking about living a healthy lifestyle and being more healthy is our mental health and well-being
sometimes we can have a significant life event which can lead to poor mental health our poor mood
reducing our mood and sometimes stresses and anxiety of our day-to-day activities can drop our
mood can make us feel more anxious and reduce our overall mental health and well-being now everyone
is different and there's a variety of different factors that can affect our mental health however
the most important thing that you need to remember is we need to look after our mental health and
well-being just like we look after ourselves by doing physical activity we need to look our mental
health as well so the next question is well what can we do to look after our mental health well i'm
going to tell you the first thing that we need to do is acknowledge our mental health and understand
when it's starting to drop understand when our mood is starting to go lower a good thing to do
is to think to yourself what are the causes what's causing your mood to drop a bit and knowing when
it's dropping past that threshold and also knowing when to speak to someone about your mental health
not letting it get too low and dip too low and thinking that you can't get any help so always
keeping an active monitoring status if you want to call it that of your mental health and well-being
and if you notice the deterioration to get help now creating a mood diary can be a really good way
to do this and there's lots of apps available or you can use a good old-fashioned pen and paper or
even a notes on your phone to do the job moving on to tip number two we need to connect with people
look as human beings we need social interaction this is massively important whether it's by a
text whether it's by a telephone or even better face to face going out for a meal going out for a
coffee going out for a walk going out for a little hike together all these things can really help our
mental health they can help keep our mood stable you can talk to people that you trust your friends
your family whoever it is someone that you're very close to and they know you well as well they can
also be very helpful for that for noticing when your mood is dropping and telling you when to get
help so all of this comes in together moving on to tip number three it's all about keeping your mind
active with hobbies with sports whatever you do you need to keep yourself active to help keep your
confidence up and to keep your self-esteem which is overall going to help our mental health and
well-being now there's many ways to do this and it can be as simple as watching an online tutorial
reading a recipe book or gardening starting a diy project or enrolling on a college course find
something that suits you that you're interested in and schedule it and do something that makes you
happy i'm moving on to tip number four i've kept this one last and last one is living a healthy
lifestyle and i know this video is all about that but living a healthy lifestyle can massively
affect our mental health our mental well-being and those sort of things that we're doing already
that we've discussed in this video having a healthy diet exercising regularly having a good
sleep schedule sleep hygiene that we spoke about earlier and the stuff that we're going to talk
about in this video as well alcohol intake smoking and many other things as well now sometimes
hearing all of this can be quite overwhelming but please remember you don't have to do it all
at once you can do it slowly you can do it to what suits you but the most important thing is
please do seek help from a healthcare professional if you do feel like your mood is low if you feel
like you're struggling speak to someone get some help i will leave loads more information about
this as well in the description below loads more articles and there's also quite a few charities
as well mental health charities which i'll leave links to as well which can be very very helpful
now when it comes to living a healthy life and being more healthy smoking is one of the worst
things that we can do for our lifestyle for our health now if you do smoke please continue
watching this bit if you don't smoke feel free to fast forward to the next chapter now smoking harms
nearly every organ in the body and is the leading cause of premature death in the uk it increases
the risk of cancer increases your risk of heart and lung disease infertility diabetes dementia
and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and people who do quit smoking find that they can
breathe easier they're more energetic their skin looks better they look younger they can taste food
better their nails are better everything starts to improve and if you do quit smoking it not
only allows you to have a healthy life but others around you as well because they won't be getting
that secondhand smoke that we all know about now i'm not going to go into too much detail about how
to quit smoking and all of the other benefits that are associated with quitting smoking i
do have a video all about this topic it's quite a long video we go through the different techniques
to quit smoking who to get support from who to get help from and how to do it properly
if you are interested if you want to make this change if you're ready to make this change
and you do smoke please feel free to watch that video i will leave a link to it up here and in the
description below now moving on to the next step of living a more healthy lifestyle and that is
reducing your alcohol intake look the effects of alcohol can be quite immediate on the body it can
increase your heart rate it can cause dehydration and if you have too much of it too quickly in a
short period it can actually be poisonous and as well as the short-term effects regularly drinking
too much alcohol can have long-term effects too such as increasing the risk of high blood pressure
liver disease pancreatitis strokes dementia infertility and seven different types of cancer so
to reduce these risks it's recommended that you do not drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week
and ideally spread it over at least three days and in addition to that have at least a few
days of alcohol-free days per week this is really important the alcohol-free days and spreading your
outcome consumption as well and reducing your alcohol intake can lead to better sleep better
mood weight loss reduced heartburn and indigestion and loads more benefits and i know for some people
alcohol intake has become a routine for them in the evenings on the weekends but making
little changes slowly can also have benefits and i'm going to discuss this with you next so tip
number one is all about knowing your limits like i mentioned earlier it's recommended that both men
and women drink no more than 14 units regularly a week so this is equivalent to six pints of
beer or six medium glasses of wine now different drinks have different alcohol contents which can
vary from brand to brand so a really useful way to keep track of what you're drinking is to use
an app or a unit calculator there's quite a few different examples which i will leave links to
in the description below moving on to tip number two it's all about planning ahead
let's say for example certain day of the week on a wednesday you have a really stressful day you
know that your wednesdays your stressful days and when you come back from home you'd like to
have some alcohol you like to have a beer a few cans of beer whatever you may have so plan ahead
think to yourself okay this week this wednesday because i know i'm gonna have a stressful day
i'm gonna try something different to relieve my stress i'm not gonna drink instead i'm gonna go
for a run maybe i'm gonna do some yoga i'm gonna do some stretches i'm gonna go for a little hike
all of these things can be as effective if not more effective for stress relief than drinking
the alcohol and this small little change is going to be the stepping stone that you require moving
on to tip number three another option which you may find useful is swapping to non-alcoholic beers
or beverages that you like they usually have less calories and they don't have the high amounts of
alcohol which can be dangerous for you this is another option to consider and lastly tip number
four please do remember if you are struggling with your alcohol intake if you're very stressed
if you're struggling to stop and it's affecting your relationship it's affecting your friendships
please do seek help nobody will judge you healthcare professionals are there
to help so please seek help speak to your healthcare professional speak to your local
organizations which i will leave links to in the description below for more help and information
so that's the end of part two on how to live a healthy lifestyle how to be more healthy
i really hope you found this information helpful please do remember however if you're struggling
with anything whether it's your mental health whether it's smoking whether it's alcohol intake
speak to someone don't leave it till it's too late speak to your healthcare professional
and get some advice and help i really do hope this information helps you
if you have any of your own tips please do leave some comments below because i'd love to read it
i'm sure everyone else would love to read it too another thing i want to mention is if you notice
anything that's different about your body or how you feel again speak to a healthcare professional
you know yourself better than everyone else if you notice anything that's unusual just speak
to a healthcare professional that is the most important thing always remember you're awesome
and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure to
click that like follow or subscribe button now to stay up to date with new weekly videos you