February is not only the month of love, it is also Healthy Lifestyles Awareness Month, and the Department of Health is calling on South Africans to embrace the five elements of a healthy lifestyle, which are:

  • Good nutrition
  • Regular physical activity
  • Sufficient sleep
  • Reduce Stress
  • Maintain a Healthy Weight

Being healthy is not just about eating salads every now and again or hitting the gym once a month, it’s about following a healthy lifestyle that embraces the five elements above.

Here are a few steps you can do today:

  1. Drink more water: drink 6-8 glasses of clean, safe water every day. Try to avoid sugary drinks or flavoured waters which can lead to an energy overload and or weight gain.
  2. Develop a regular sleep pattern: good quality sleep can help improve stress levels. Going to bed at the same time most nights helps.
  3. Get moving: physical inactivity is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension. Take the stairs instead of using a lift, don’t park close to the shop door – every step counts!
  4. Eat more fruits and vegetables: these are rich sources of vitamins and minerals as well as dietary fibre.
  5. Avoid bad habits: Find healthy ways to reduce tension, rather than smoking, turning to drugs, or excessive drinking which actually increases stress.

The key to a healthy lifestyle does not always have to involve immediate major lifestyle changes but often can start with taking small steps that are doable. Making small changes to your diet and lifestyle often makes it easier for you to maintain them in the long run.

Make the changes fun by challenging your colleagues to a competition of who can clock up the most steps in a day. Dance in the kitchen or while hanging the washing, add herbs instead of salt to your food, choose fruit/raw carrots instead of sweets for a pick-me-up, embrace meatless Mondays, step outside and count the clouds, get up from your desk and talk to humans instead of texting, take your dog for a jog, and if you don’t have one, offer to take someone else’s.

If you are finding it difficult to change bad habits or need support for a healthy lifestyle, please contact LifeAssist for confidential support