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Building a healthy lifestyle is a cornerstone to living a full life. The quality of your body and health permeates each and every aspect of your life. In this article, I outline the keys to developing a healthy lifestyle, transitioning into it and making sure you are not a victim of common pitfalls.

First, it is important to establish that what I will be discussing here is not a diet. Diets tend to have a very short term focus based on achieving an attractive appearance. In practice, many diets are in fact unhealthy. Instead, I will focus on living a healthy life. This is a proactive approach based on creating lifestyle habits that naturally improve your health. Of course, your appearance will improve as a by-product, however, that is a secondary concern.

Understand that when it comes to your health, there are no quick fixes or magic pills. Rather, an intelligent, long-term approach must be used to build permanent habits that automatically create a healthy life.

As with anything related to your health, check with your doctor before implementing any of the suggestions here.

Breathing

Breathing is something we all take for granted and allow to happen automatically without any conscious effort. Oxygen is the most vital substance to our body, far outweighing the need for food and water. However, most people today do not breathe properly. They take very shallow breaths into their chest which leads to under-oxygenation.

It is supremely important that you learn to breathe deeply from your belly. This ensures that you are receiving enough air and using your lungs to their capacity. It is very simple to do and, on its own, can often be enough to provide relief if you are having a headache. It can also have the effect of relaxing your body which relieves stress and tension.

To breathe deeply, imagine you are filling a balloon located below your belly button. Your stomach should move outwards are you inhale and inwards as you exhale.

In order to make deep breathing a permanent pattern, you will have to modify it consciously for a while. Check in on your breathing regularly throughout the day to make sure you are taking deep breaths. In addition, aerobic exercise and yoga will both force you to breathe deeply. You can also do meditations that focus your attention on your breath.

Diet and Nutrition

To establish your diet for your healthy lifestyle, you must decide what works for you personally through experimentation. Today, there is far too much conflicting information regarding what foods you should and shouldn't eat to rely solely on external sources: you have the food pyramid, Atkins diet, Palaeolithic diet, the Zone, raw food diet blah blah blah. Ultimately, you are going to have to decide what words for you.

That being said, I'll give you some of the guidelines that have shown good results for me. Try them out for yourself, experiment and decide for yourself.

• Drink plenty of water - There is no specific amount I recommend as it will depend on your weight and activity level. Chances are, however, that if you are like most people, you need to be drinking for more water. If you feel thirsty at any point during the day, you are already dehydrated.
• Eliminate processed foods - As a general rule, if it comes in a box, don't eat it. These foods are loaded with chemical and preservatives that you don't want in your body.
• Eat more fruits and vegetables - These are the best foods for you and almost none of us eat enough. Eat vegetables with every meal and eat fruit as your snacks
• Eat organic when possible - If you've never been a fan of fruits and vegetables because of the taste, try organic. Most produce today is dead and devoid of both flavour and nutrients. Plus you get to avoid consuming all those nasty chemicals.
• Substances to avoid - Caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol, refined sugar and white flour. Though all of these are commonly consumed, they do not help your health.

Again, with all diet plans, it's important to know yourself. For example, I like meals that are simple to prepare and don't take much time. I value speed over taste and variety. You, on the other hand, may highly value taste and variety. In that case, it is important that you get recipes for foods that are both healthy and tasty.

Exercise

Your body was meant to move. Up until about the last century, most people spent their days doing manual labour. Today, most people live a sedentary lifestyle and, as a result, their health is suffering.

My recommendation would be get an absolute minimum of 5 hours of exercise a week. Any less than that and your body is likely not getting enough physical activity for optimal health. Personally, I like to exercise for 60-90 minutes a day, 6 days a week with the seventh day being optional if I feel I need some time off.

In your exercise program, you should be sure to include some aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise has the benefit of burning fat while strengthening your heart and lungs. You also get the added benefit of a metabolism boost for a few hours following the workout. It also forces you to breathe deeply, making sure that your body is well oxygenated. My preference for aerobic exercise is running but there are low impact alternative available if that is of concern to you.

You should also include some form of resistance training in your exercise program. Lifting weights keeps you strong, tones your body and adds lean mass. It also makes your look better no matter if you are male or female. Often, people who only do aerobic exercise end up looking like skeletons due to their lack of muscle tone. Resistance training will ensure that you keep your muscle mass if you are losing weight.

When lifting weights, your form and technique is of the utmost importance. The quality of the movement determines the quality of the exercise. Also, improper form can lead to injury. If you are just starting out, get someone experienced like a personal trainer to show you good form.

You must also be sure to include a flexibility component to your exercise routine. This is a part I see neglected by a lot of people. Stretching should be a part of each of your workouts at the beginning and end (remember: never stretch a cold muscle. Warm up first). I also like to do yoga to aid my flexibility.

When you are just beginning to exercise, you are going to make sure that you stay motivated and committed. Once you make it into a habit, it is easy to maintain.

One suggestion I have is to incorporate some variety into your workouts. Try several different doutines and workouts. See what you like and what you don't like. Continue doing whatever it is that makes you look forward to exercising. Additionally, I would suggest that you get a workout partner. This forces you to show up for every workout because you don't want to let your partner down. This also has the added benefit of enabling the two of you to push each other during the workout. The words of your partner will often help you crank out another rep when you are lifting weights or speed up when you are running.

Making the Transition to a Healthy Lifestyle

Gradual Changes

If you have never focused intensely on your health before, making the switch to a healthy lifestyle can prove to be challenging. Some can do it quickly, adopting everything at once but most will find that too overwhelming. Rather, a more intelligent approach for them would be to make the transition gradually. Since this is about creating a healthy lifestyle which a long-term goal, there is no need to try to do too much too fast.

The best way to make the transition is to start with one area. For example, you may want to focus just on breathing deeply for a month. After the habit of deep breathing has been internalized, you could start exercising aerobically. Once that becomes a regular routine, begin to lift weights. Then, you can start focusing on your diet.

Or you may want to begin by focusing on your diet. First, you may want to stop drinking coffee and eliminate the caffeine addiction. Following this, you may deliberately start eating more fruits and vegetables and buying organic. Continue along these lines until you have implemented all the changes.

You should start by doing what works for you. If you would never go to a gym because that style of physical activity does not appeal to you at this time, find out what works for you. Sign up to learn a sport or a martial art instead. Initially, I started training in mixed martial arts and soon thereafter, developed an interest in going to the gym - something I had no interest in doing before.

Get Leverage

To make the transition easier on you, you must have sufficient emotional leverage on yourself. You must find enough reasons to generate a burning desire so that you are absolutely compelled to follow through, take action and make the changes. Without enough desire, it will difficult to make the change, especially if you've been sedentary and eating the average diet for your whole life. Find your reasons, whatever they might be. It could be improving your appearance, having more energy, living longer or being able to excel at sports. Find the reasons that motivate you.

Willpower

Note that while willpower is an important part of making the transition, willpower is limited. It is useful in short bursts of action but burns out quickly. It is not sustainable over the long term.

Use your willpower to set up your environment to support your new choices. While the motivation is high, get all of the junk food out of your house, sign up for gym membership and hire a personal trainer or get a workout to commit to a certain exercise schedule.

Tracking Progress

When you are experimenting with a new diet or exercise program, in order to know whether something is working or not, you need to have metrics that you employ to determine whether a choice is improving your level of health. These will allow you determine whether you are moving in the right direction or the wrong direction in relation to your goals. Measurements provide you with more awareness and greater awareness allows you to make more intelligent decisions.

Some indicators you can use to measure progress in your health are:

• Weight
• Body fat percentage
• Photos in a swimsuit
• Circumference measurements of body parts
• Blood sugar
• Blood pressure
• pH

You don't need to use all the indictors but it would be a good idea to use a couple consistently. Start with a baseline measurement to determine your starting reference point. From there, repeat the measurements at regular intervals as often as daily to as infrequently as biweekly. My preference is to perform weekly measurements. Also, ensure that you are performing under the same conditions each time (same time of day, same scale etc.).

In addition to tracking your health results themselves, it is also important to keep track of your exercise. It allows you to see how your fitness your progressing while providing encouragement due to the progress. Exercise measurements also allow you to figure out if you've hit a plateau or are overtraining. For weight lifting, write down the weight and the number of reps for each set for each exercise in a workout journal/chart/notebook. For aerobic exercise, write down the time, distance and/or speed as appropriate.

Avoid the Pitfalls

People tend to make a lot of excuses when it comes to getting their health in order. I know I used to make a lot of them. Here are a list of common problems people deal with when trying to adopt a healthy lifestyle:

1. I need food to make me feel good (i.e. comfort eating) - Replace the habit with a more constructive alternative. Use activities such as reading, meditation or going for a walk when you need to de-stress.
2. I'm not progressing quickly enough. I want to give up - Take a look at your health measurements that you have been taking, you might be improving in areas other than your weight. Learn to be patient because changes will not happen overnight - they will take some time. If you are clearly not making any progress, it's time for you to try something new instead of just giving up. Perhaps you should seek the advice of an expert such as nutritionist or personal trainer.
3. Others are being discouraging of my new healthy lifestyle - Perhaps you have had failed attempts to improve your health and they just don't want you to be disappointed. Maybe their health is poor and you make them feel insecure. In any case, ask them to be supportive or keep their mouths shut. Spend more time with people who support your progress and growth.
4. Comparing your results to others and feeling discouraged - This is not a smart thing to do in any part of your life. The results of others have no bearing on you. Maybe they have better genetics or they've worked it longer than you. In either case, let go of the comparison and focus on doing your best.
5. The changes are overwhelming - Avoid doing too much too soon. Make the transition slowly by integrating one part completely and then moving on to the next part. Remember, this is a marathon not a sprint.
6. I want tastier food. I feel deprived - Make sure that you do your homework. There are healthy meals that taste good. Find recipes you like and make them your staples.
7. I don`t have the time to eat healthy. I only eat microwavable meals - Prepare your meals for the week on the weekend. You can do it in a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon. Heat them up when you need to eat.
8. I can`t eat healthy when I eat out with friends - One cheat meal a week won't kill but just make sure that you don't overdo it. A 90% healthy diet is better than a completely crappy diet. Also, most restaurants offer choices that are somewhat healthy.
9. I don`t have enough time or I`m too tired after work to exercise - I actually used to have the problem of not wanting to exercise after coming home from work. So, I decided to wake up early and start exercising before work. As a bonus, exercise reduced my need to sleep. I used to be tired after 9 or more hours and still wake up groggy. Now, I sleep 5-7 hours and wake up feeling great. So by exercising, I actually gained time each and every day.

Make the Commitment

Living a healthy lifestyle is not easy. If it were, everyone would be fit and healthy. It is going to be difficult and challenging. There will be times where you feel frustrated. There will be sacrifices that you will have to make. In order for you to be healthy and successful in the long run, you have to make a firm, unbreakable decision to get this part of your life handled. What you will find is that improving your health will give you the confidence to set other goals and the energy to take action towards them. All that is needed from you is an unwavering commitment and the willingness to take action. Make the commitment now.