Now, it can be really confusing when it comes to healthy habits because often, even qualified experts seem to hold opposing opinions sometimes. Yet, despite all the disagreements that exist among the medical community, a number of health tips are backed up by research.

For instance, to determine which healthy habits contribute to a longer and healthier life, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analysed data from nearly 73,000 women and more than 38,000 men. All the respondents who were part of the study have been enrolled in previous studies, so, data for women was followed for 34 years, and the men were followed for 28 years. The results of the study concluded that the more of these five healthy habits the respondents had, the longer they lived. Plus, the study suggests that even if they had only one of these habits, the participants lived two years longer compared to those that had none. And, if by the age of 50, the participants practised all of the five habits regularly, women lived an extra 14 years, and men lived an extra 12 years.

Here are five healthy habits based on good science that will help you live a longer, happier and healthier life.

5 healthy habits for a longer, healthier, happier life

1. Eat mostly plants

You’ve definitely heard it before, but that’s because it’s true: you are what you eat! Proper nutrition is the top wellness habit that contributes to a healthy and longer life. Now, good nutrition is often misunderstood by many people who think that following a fad diet is the key to maintaining good health. Yet, adequate nutrition actually means choosing only diverse nutrient-dense foods regularly.

Eating mostly plant-based foods such as freshly cooked vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains has been found to be the best diet for longevity.

Nutrition specialists recommend a healthy diet to contain the following: a full plate should be two-thirds low-glycemic vegetables, and maybe a small amount of starchy vegetables such as potatoes, corn, peas, etc., and one-third protein. On the flip note, you should avoid processed junk food at all costs. These foods are low in fiber, protein, and micronutrients and usually contain high levels of unhealthy ingredients such as added sugar and refined grains. Moreover, these foods are projected to trigger our pleasure centers, which tricks our brains into overeating. That is why we often see food addiction in people who eat junk food consistently.

2. Exercise regularly

Exercising is another key habit of maintaining a healthy life. It can help you avoid numerous health conditions, and it is essential for maintaining bone and muscle health. Now, you don’t have to be a fitness junkie or a superstar athlete to have a healthy physical activity level. In fact, the study from Harvard mentioned above, suggests that at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity every day can have a significant impact on keeping you healthy longer.

However, specialists recommend focusing on variety and diversity when exercising. To be more precise, when working out, you shouldn’t focus entirely on a type of movement or a muscle group. Experts believe that since the body doesn’t work in isolation, and every bone, muscle, and body part has its contribution to movement, the more varied the types of movement and stimuli in your body, the deeper the fitness will be.

So, when exercising, include all types of movements in your workout, including pushing, pulling, walking, and twisting.

3. Maintain the ideal body weight

Weight management is a wellness habit that is strongly backed up by basic science. Another study from Harvard suggests that maintaining a healthy weight is essential for lowering the risk of several health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even the risk of different types of cancer. Now, weight management is obviously connected with regular exercising and healthy nutrition, especially since weight gain is caused not just by how much you eat but what you eat too. Yet, some people are also genetically predisposed to gain weight more easily than others. So, while being physically active and eating healthy foods remains important , they could try intermittent fasting as a way to lose weight.

4. Manage stress

Dealing with stress is inevitable. We all have stressful deadlines at work or personal problems that affect our mental health quality. Chronic stress can really take a toll on your health from affecting your sleep quality to affecting your immune system, physical health, and, obviously, mental and emotional wellbeing. Now, although it is impossible to live a completely stress-free life, there are a few strategies that can help you manage it. Unfortunately, even with a healthy diet and a habit of exercising regularly, you just can’t avoid stress. Yet, proper nutrition and being physically active can help you manage stress more efficiently.

Moreover, you can also learn to manage stress with mindfulness meditation. It is believed that meditation has plenty of benefits on the human body, from reducing blood pressure and heart rate to reduced brain activity, all thanks to the body’s response to relaxation. You don’t have to be a spiritual guru to manage stress through meditation. All you have to do is find a quiet space, close your eyes to disconnect from what surrounds you, and do some breathing exercises while gently focusing your attention on anything other than what caused you to feel stressed. You can think of a beautiful place where you feel safe, focus on your belly’s movements as you breathe, or even notice the sounds or smells in your environment without passing judgment. With time and practice, it will become a lot easier to manage stressful thoughts and get clarity. [Read How to ease into a daily routine of meditation]

5. Quit smoking now

Smoking is one of the worst habits. Every cigarette reduces your lifespan by 11 minutes. Studies have estimated that smokers die ten years sooner than non-smokers. The chance that someone will live to be 80 is only about 35% for smokers as compared to about 70% for nonsmokers. In other words, a smoker loses about 11 to 12 years of life compared to nonsmokers. Heavy smokers cut their lifespan by 13 years on average. On the other hand, those who kick the habit before age 40 reduce the excess risk of death associated with continued smoking by about 90%, according to the study in New England Journal of Medicine.

In conclusion

Our lifespan is strongly linked to our lifestyle and habits. You may live 100 years, but if you don’t enjoy good health, you are very unlikely to enjoy all this extra time. Indeed, you might actually spend your last decade or so suffering from one or more illnesses. Practising these five habits will not only help you live longer but also minimise the risks of disease as you grow older.

The post 5 healthy habits for a longer, healthier, happier life appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

But there was a time not so long ago when life looked very different for me. I loved playing poker and the only time that people in Mumbai like to play that game is ‘late-night-through-the-morning’. As a result, I would have dinner at midnight, go to sleep at 6am, wake up at 1pm, have breakfast at 2pm, lunch at 5pm and basically lived a life as decadent as one can imagine. Then I was diagnosed with arthritis, followed by high cholesterol. The doctor who saw my reports said that with the level of cholesterol that I had, I should have been dead. That was my wake up call. I decided to make some changes in my life.

I had to start by giving up smoking. Even if you eat healthy, sleep on time, exercise and do all the other good things for your health, as soon as you light a cigarette, you deflate your motivation to do all those things and soon you go back to the debauchery. There is an inherent mismatch in detoxifying your body and smoking. It did not make any sense to me. So I decided to kick the butt. It was precisely then that the phrase “Easier said than done” took on a whole new meaning for me.

‘Valid’ reasons to smoke

I realised soon enough that quitting smoking was one of the most difficult things to do. I also read somewhere that it is easier to give up cocaine than to give up smoking. It is just so hard to not ‘light up’. When you’re trying to give up, the kind of excuses your mind makes up for smoking that cigarette are sometimes hilarious and at other times downright pathetic. I’ve listed a few that my fellow smokers will identify with. [I smoked so much and for so long that I still consider myself a member of the smokers club!]

Stressful situations

Any kind of stress is a reason to light up immediately. Stress at home [especially if you’re married], stress at work, stress at the poker table, not to forget the massive stress while you’re on the pot early in the morning and can’t do the job. Happy situations: Exhilaration, great news, reasons to celebrate, winning the lottery… Must smoke, and NOW!

Beautiful locations

How can you be in the countryside, admiring a gorgeous sunset and not have a smoke in your hand? How can you even think of walking along Darling Harbour, breathing in the fresh, clean air of Sydney without a cigarette to relish the moment?

After sex

To prolong the pleasure.

With friends

That’s how you celebrate with your friends, by being one of them. When they all light up, you light up.

Without friends

When you’re lonely, who do you have with you, except your loneliness and your Marlboro Man?

When you’re drinking

How do you enjoy a nice chai or a cappuccino without lighting up? And when you’re having alcohol you need an ashtray, right? Anyone who smokes creates these mountains of blockages. These are like chains that tie us to the habit. Am I about to give you a formula that will break these shackles away and make you give up smoking?

You bet I am.

Don’t be fooled, go for the real thing

With all of the different methods that I have tried in my life I finally found a foolproof one that works like magic. Before I tell you the magic formula, I have to first tell you the other so called magic formulas that did not work.

• Nicotine patches
• Electronic cigarettes
• Hypnosis
• Self-help books
• Psychological consultations
• Punching myself in the stomach and making myself believe that the cigarette that I was about to have was worse than 30 of those punches. [Some clown suggested this and like a desperate monkey I followed even this idea!]

As you’ve probably guessed by now, none of them worked. So this here is the foolproof guide to giving up smoking, coming from someone who used to smoke up to three packs a day.

Rule #1

Bring yourself mentally up to the point where you really want to quit smoking

If you try to give up smoking at a time when you relish each drag you take and every circle you blow out resembles a beautiful painting by Rothko to you, it ain’t gonna happen. I would try to give up smoking, fail and then try again and fail again. What worked for me finally is when I brought myself to a state of mind when I knew that I simply had to quit. I began to hate cigarettes and what they were doing to my body. You need to psyche yourself into hating smoking more than you really do; when you are disgusted by it, that’s when you can undertake the exercise to give it up.

Rule #2

Cold turkey is the only way

There’s so much out there on how to give up smoking. There are programmes that suggest you to reduce your intake, write down your progress and reward yourself for your achievement one day at a time. I tried it and it didn’t work. Not the first time. Not the tenth.

The only style of quitting that works effectively is ‘cold turkey’. Just throw away the pack and the lighter and say “I QUIT”. You may need to buy a fresh pack and a new lighter after an hour, but that’s okay. Out of the 15 times that you say, “I Quit”, only one needs to work out for you. That’s it.

Rule #3

Train your mind to love yourself and accept your body as a temple

This fundamental truth not only forms the backbone of your attempt to give up smoking but is also the basic tenet of all spiritual teachings: ‘Love thyself’. This is the root or the Mool Mantra of the theory of happiness itself. How can you do anything nice for your body if you don’t love yourself? Why would you sacrifice junk food or drinking yourself to liver failure unless you first see God living in your own soul?

This is not only the first step towards giving up smoking but also the first step towards living a life of bliss and joy.

Rule #4

Rectify your lifestyle

Don’t even bother to read ahead if you think that you cannot adhere to this one. You’d be wasting your time.

To start with, you must follow a disciplined lifestyle and timetable. This one is absolutely non-negotiable. You must wake up early and by early I mean latest is 6.30am. Maintain a fixed time for your breakfast and lunch as per your convenience but follow the timing for your dinner and sleep time as per my suggestion. Your dinner must be before 7pm and you must go to bed before 10.30pm. The domino effect of bad habits and bad health emanates from not following this rule completely.

When you sleep late, you wake up late. Your body automatically craves junk food. When you eat junk food, you poison yourself with bad food and drink, and you begin to love the additional toxicity that the nicotine in a cigarette provides.

But the opposite is also true. Good habits and a detox regimen also has a domino effect on you. When you are on a detox, you automatically start to develop a natural dislike for junk food. There came a time in my life that from being a hard core non-vegetarian [wherein I could and did eat anything that once ‘lived’], I went on to becoming a pure vegetarian. My body and soul both rejected any form of meat. By rectifying your lifestyle, you pave the way for a positive mindset that is weary of toxins and craves for a positive outlook towards life.

Rule #5

Flush, flush, flush

The nicotine that is currently in your body must go. It needs to be flushed out. If not, it will keep giving you withdrawal systems.

Drink plain warm water, ginger water, juices, green teas, lemonades with a pinch of organic turmeric added to it. Consume anything else that is organic and healthy and does not come out of a box or a packaged bottle. The other way of flushing toxins is eating loads of fresh organic fruits and steamed vegetables. The more you eat these, the more nicotine you will be able to flush out. The last—my favourite one—is pure ghee, preferably homemade; include it in your diet. What I advise is to have two teaspoons on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. To all those who led you to believe that ghee is fattening and adds to your cholesterol, please tell them [nicely] to shut up.

Rule #6

Mentally prepare yourself to put on some weight

When you give up smoking, you start to actually taste food. You start relishing it. Nicotine can cut down your hunger, so giving it up can increase your appetite. You will start eating more than you used to. Just let it happen. Remember that it is more important to give up smoking at this stage than to look sexy and slim [if you are that].

Rule #7

When you go off it, STAY off it

This is where most smokers goof up. After successfully pushing through the initial 25 days or so, we actually believe we are in total control and allow ourselves a drag or two thinking that we have given up and it cannot lure us back. I once gave up smoking for an entire year before I stumbled upon a night of raucous frenzy. In a state of mindlessness, I ‘allowed’ myself a puff [or maybe it was two]. The next morning I was smoking a pack a day and graduated to my two packs a few days after.

After all the effort that you make to giving up this habit, it is absolutely imperative that you do not give in to a weak moment and fight it like you have fought for nothing else in you entire life.

And now for the good news

When you succeed in giving up smoking, the first thing that you gain is your confidence and your self-respect. You know that you have conquered one of the most ruthless chemicals known to man. You know that you’ve quit an addiction that would have killed you like it has killed millions before. There’s more:

• You will be able to taste those sumptuous meals you eat—priceless!
• Your sex-life improves dramatically. I’d imagine this to be one of the most compelling reasons for a lot of men to give up.
• You glow. The detoxification process clears your skin of toxins and infuses fresh oxygen into your cells, healing them, rejuvenating them and making your skin radiate and shine.
• You get your life back.

Give it up and experience how it feels to live a complete, healthy and a joyous life full of love, positivity and fulfillment.

The post 7 rules that helped me successfully quit smoking appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Learn more about how our habits are developed and discover a simple but effective tactic that will help you overcome your urge to smoke, snack or text while driving.

The post Break your bad habits with this simple trick appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.