25 Healthy Habits that Doctors Wish You Would Do

We might rant about our busy schedules and daily routines when it comes to taking care of ourselves, but nobody can deny the fact that a healthy body and mind is vital for us to function well. A healthy lifestyle not only helps us stay fit but also keeps us energized at the age when we start losing our stamina.

A lot of people complain that a healthy lifestyle demands more time and effort, but it is not always true. Because even if you are just adding or subtracting a few habits to your lifestyle, you can boost your health or make it worse.

Furthermore, doctors have been suggesting to reinforce the recommended lifestyle changes, and why not? Who wants to die early anyway!

25 Healthy Habits that Doctors Wish You Would Do

We care for your health. And we wish that living a healthy lifestyle becomes easy for you by suggesting a list of the healthy habits that doctors wish you would do. Other than keeping you in good health and in shape, these habits can save you from frequent visits to the doctor too.

1. Reduce your sugar intake

Are you wondering why reducing sugar intake came on top of the list when there is a gazillion of things to tell? Let me tell you why. Excess sugar is not good for your body. And once you reach your 40s, you are already prone to acquiring several health problems, including diabetes and heart diseases. Elevated blood sugar levels are usually the main culprit behind these increased risks of chronic diseases.

And, if you already have diabetes, consuming a lot of sugar-rich food can become more harmful to you, causing various life-threatening complications. That is the reason why doctors advise making changes in dietary habits because it can save you from any harsh health conditions.

2. Drink lots of water

Water is not just a simple liquid; it is pure magic! From skin problems to various health issues, an adequate amount of water intake every day can be a significant step towards healthy living. If you don’t drink water to avoid the feeling of wanting to pee frequently, the benefits of drinking water is going to make you think again about it.

Water helps to keep your skin hydrated, resulting in lesser wrinkles and young-looking skin. Other than that, drinking two to three liters of water every day will keep your body hydrated, regulate the GI tract, and prevents kidney stones.

 

If you are wondering how you can manage to remain hydrated, let me tell you an easy and convenient trick. The goal of proper water intake can be easily achieved by drinking at least six to eight glasses of water per day!

3. Take care of your stomach

It might not sound like a vital health habit to some, but ignoring your gut can sometimes cost you so much more than you can think of! The good habits of healthy people revolve around practicing ways to provide the best nutrition to all parts of your body. The gut system is responsible for around 80% of the immunity of your body. And you can accelerate the immunity by increasing the intake of prebiotics and probiotics and including asparagus and majorly, yogurt.

But if you are looking to take care of your gut totally, you should consider taking supplements such as total gut solution.

4. Eat whole fruits

While discussing sugar intake and gut health, there is no way we can ignore the importance of fruits. Several fruits contain a good amount of water and vitamins for you. Not only this but eating whole fruits lets you have the benefit of fiber too. And, a fiber-rich diet is essential for a healthy gut.

The emphasis is on eating whole fruits than drinking juice as more fiber goes in with whole fruits, and juices are supposed to have more sugar content in them. You must be wondering how juices would have more sugar content if it's of the same fruits. Science says that is because the sugar in juices gets readily absorbed as compared to whole fruits. Even diabetic patients are advised to take whole fruits instead of fruit juices.

5. Include appropriate amounts of nuts in your diet

A wholesome mug of good coffee and an almond cake are a mouthwatering evening snack on a chilly evening. But these delicious nuts are great for your health too. We may not think about it a lot, but dry fruits must be an essential part of your diet. When aging, it is necessary to have a good habits list, which must include taking a sufficient amount of dry fruits daily. Almonds have Vitamin B & E whereas different nuts like Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Cashewnuts are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. Also, walnuts aid in decreasing the chances of cardiac diseases and enhance memory.

6. Try to eat in portions

Eating in the right quantity is as important as having the right quality of food. Doctors advise you to fill half of your plates with vegetables, either raw, boiled, or tossed in minimum oil. The portion of carbs should only be as much as you can utilize. You can also take fats and dairy in an adequate portion, but eating more proteins and vegetables is considered to be one of the very beneficial habits of healthy people.

7. Make sure to eat breakfast always

All of us have been hearing this since a young age from family as well as doctors. Due to busy lives or late awakening habits, we often tend to miss breakfast, which is a very wrong practice. In your age after 40s particularly, you should avoid missing breakfast at any cost.

Breakfast is supposed to be the best meal of the day, which can have comparatively more amount of fats and carbs. This is because breakfast is the first meal of the day, and it will help you survive a major part of the day till lunch. When you take a filling breakfast, you do not overeat lunch, which is a bad habit in itself. Subsequently, the dinner should be the lightest meal if you take dinner late at night.

8. Meditate and relax

When we talk about a healthy body, a healthy mind is all that it needs. Meditation does to the brain what water does to the body-refreshes it! You might not want to change your PJs and go to the yoga class every morning, but you can bring yoga to your home! Ten minutes of proper, focused meditation can be great for the whole of your day. Not only it opens up your mind, but it also relaxes your body. If you are not familiar with meditation and facing trouble with it you can get professional help online as well as offline.

9. Wake up early

Waking up early morning is the foremost step of meditation and a healthy lifestyle because early morning time is the best for meditation. Doctors always recommend to wake up early in the morning and take a walk or meditate in the sun for some time to benefit from the morning sunshine. Though it is a sporadic practice now, yet keeping it on the list of good habits will surely show you the benefits of a healthy lifestyle quite early.

10. Get a proper night’s sleep

Why do we emphasize proper night sleep and not proper sleep simply? As young people, many times, we spend our days late out, and the sleeping times shifts to a later part of the night. There is no way this is a good habit for teenagers or young people, but it is very harmful to those who are gradually moving towards a later part of their age. While hitting your 40s, doctors advise many extra health measures, including proper sleep at night. Seven to Nine hours of sleep at night are necessary if you are an adult, whether the office going or stay at home. The sleep-deprived brain does not work as excellent as a well slept one.

11. Exercise

Is there anyone who does not want some extra benefit from life? I guess no one. So what if I tell you that a few minutes of exercise can be the cherry on the dessert. If you are not a meditation person, it's okay unless you stretch and flex your muscles for a few minutes in the day. And it is seven better if you get yourself a gym membership and exercise to increase your stamina. Having gym mates would motivate you to exercise every day for a healthy body and mind.

12. Quit smoking!

Yes, you read that right! Quit smoking as soon as possible. It drains you from the inside without letting you even have a hint of it. Smoking does not only affect your lungs in the worst way but has adverse effects on your brain too. Quitting is not very easy, but it is not difficult either when you are once determined about it. You can get nicotine patches and consult your physician to find the best way to leave this bad habit for a better life.

13. Stay motivated

Staying motivated is highly essential when you opt for a better life in your aging years. It might take you some time to get used to the new routine, but it is worth every effort in the long run. Keeping yourself motivated can be a great help to keep yourself going, no matter how much your brain tricks you into falling back into your old lifestyle.

14. Meet the meat

You might not be a great fan of red meat, but it is an essential part of your food groups. You should eat functional proteins in an adequate portion. If you don't like red meat, you can eat chicken- though it's not a substitute for meat. But if you are not accustomed well to eating meat at all, the addition of seafood like shrimps and fishes can also elevate your healthy food game immediately as they are enriched with good fatty acids like omega 3.

15. Add red to life

There are so many red foods around us that we ignore the benefits of. Red meat, red beans, and beetroot can be an ideal addition to your food chart. These foods have plenty of benefits, including the fact that they help you maintain your hemoglobin if you are deficient. Goat liver and kidney is a great source too.

16. No screens two hours before sleeping

There can be no "too much stressing" over the fact that the screen time throughout the day has a significant effect on your health. Health specialists advise you to limit your screen time as soon as you realize how important you are!

Although doctors ask to reduce the screen time as much as possible, yet one thing undoubtedly essential is to keep your phones away at night. By night I do not only mean after sleeping but at least 2 hours before sleeping over. Yes, it is inevitable not to look at the phone repeatedly throughout the day, but you can make this a part of your night routine if you try. This rule applies to everyone, whether a 4-year-old infant or a 40-year-old adult.

17. Stop ‘crash dieting’

Dieting is a perfect attribute of your lifestyle if it means taking proper food portions, but if this dieting consists of "crash" as a prefix, then it's trouble! Keeping a healthy diet is a part of the habits of healthy people, but minimizing your food intake to lesser than your daily calorie intake can cause health problems. Taking at least 2000 to 3000 calories a day is recommended. So, you'd want to stop these crazy crash diets in your 40s and start a good eating lifestyle that covers all food groups and provides you enough calories for the day!

18. Focus on oral hygiene

Doctors have been preaching the "Brush your teeth twice a day" slogan for decades now. And you must know what importance it holds in health. A number of germs make their home in our teeth resulting in cavities that do not look pleasing at all and cause tooth decay. There is an effortless way to stop your teeth from decaying, particularly at an age when you are most susceptible to dental problems because of the age factor too.

Brush your teeth twice daily with a toothpaste according to your dental needs like an anti-sensitivity or an anti-cavity one. Also, if you make gargling and flossing a part of your routine, it will level up or oral hygiene routine.

19. Take care of your ears

Taking care of your ears is immensely important to keep them in good form for the longest time possible. There can be many reasons that damage your eardrums like listening to music on high volumes, including the use of hands-free for a more extended time. Moreover, the use of cotton swabs for cleaning the ears is extremely harmful. Does it sound surprising to you? It is a widespread yet wrong practice. If not done in the right way, this can cause severe damage, even resulting in hearing loss. However, this does not mean living with excessive ear wax all your life. You can get the ear wax removed from your doctor or use an ear wax removal aid.

20. Take your supplements

It has been an old school thing that people did not appreciate the use of supplements, but they are a blessing. Admittedly, natural foods help you keep healthy, but it takes a lot of time to replenish your body minerals and vitamins by diet only. In your aging years, you must take extra care of yourself. Multivitamins must be an essential part of your day without any excuse to avoid a lack of any vitamins. Additionally, the use of calcium supplements at the right time is also necessary to keep your bones in good form in old age.

These supplements help you take better care of yourself, but some supplements can help you with your health conditions like digestive supplements and hormone supplements. Digestive supplements contain fibers, too, that helps to regulate the movement of your GI tract resulting in better GI health.

Most women hit menopause by the age of 45, which results in some physiological and emotional changes. Estrogen replacement therapy or estrogen supplements can help you overcome the symptoms of menopause if taken regularly. There are various hormonal solutions that can help you restore your normal hormonal levels.

21. Wear sunscreen

Usually, we assume that wearing sunscreen only at times of high sun ray intensity, but it is not right. Doctors recommend applying sunscreen anytime you are exposing yourself to heat. Yes, it also includes standing in front of the stove at home for a higher period.

It is essential to save yourself from the harmful rays of the sun by applying a proper sunscreen for your skin. They are available in different strengths like SPF 15, 30, 50, 90, and more with options for almost all skin types. You can find the sunscreen spray or cream that goes best with your skin and use it anytime to step out of the house or have a prolonged exposure near the stove. This helps to keep your skin looking fresh and also helps to avoid its contact with an excess of sunrays. But you must be wondering that we previously discussed that sun rays are useful as they aid in vitamin D for your body. The doctors advise that the best time of the day for a sunbath is dawn breaking time. The afternoon sun has more harm than the benefit. So, apply sunscreen whenever you go out!

22. Walk more

It is a ubiquitous thing people know that walking is hugely beneficial for healthy living as it keeps your joints moving and keeps you active. Rather than taking a commute to work, it is better to walk your way. Taking a stroll to work also lets you appreciate the little things in life that you see on your way and interact with the people you meet.

A morning walk is beneficial both physically and socially. And what if I tell you it has a fantastic benefit on your cardiac health too? Forty-five minutes of daily walk improves your cardiac activity. So, promise yourself today to add at least 45 minutes of a walk for yourself every day!

23. Manage your anger

If somebody would ask for primary advice in their early 40s, leaving smoking and anger management issues in their 30s can be the best advice ever! Anger leads to stress, which does not only affect you emotionally but physically also. Haven't heard of it before? Anger management issues can, indeed, lead to severe health conditions like cardiac problems.

24. Keep positive company

Having friends is not confined to later years of your life only but all your life. Though, the importance of a few matters is realized with time because they become necessary. Having a positive company around you is one of them. We might have a lot of friends, but it is good to consider having people around you who emit positive vibes. Doctors also give the opinion that mental health has a significant effect on physical health, so having positive vibes around you is a good source of feeling joyful. And, a happy individual is a healthy individual.

25. Find some time for yourself

In all phases of life, we have chores and jobs that keep us busy, and sometimes we forget to take out time for ourselves. Taking out time for yourself does not mean having food or taking a shower, it should be other than the routine chores. The me-time might include revisiting an old hobby you don't find time for or reading a book, or maybe going to the park to interact with people, or to see the ducks. A couple of minutes of "me time" can help you get rid of all the tiredness of the day, keeping you relaxed and ready for another busy day. This practice might seem a small thing to you right now, but once you start practicing, it will become a significant part of your day.

All these healthy habits can be a game-changer if you take out time and start implementing these in your daily life. Some of these might not seem very important to you, but gradually you'll begin to see the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in terms of improved physical and mental health. Add these smart doctor bits of advice in your routine to save yourself from the agony of doctor visits and enjoy a happy and healthy lifestyle!