Lifestyle Modifications You Can Make for a Healthy Lifestyle

Practicing healthy habits can lead to a wide range of benefits from reducing the risk of diseases and injuries to feeling better physically and even potentially living a longer life. There are a number of steps you can take to encourage good health, including making smart food choices, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and avoiding bad habits. Receiving preventive medical care plays an important role as well. 

At Seby Medical Center's offices in the Roseland area of Chicago and Downers Grove, Illinois, Dr. Sebastian Joseph and our top-notch staff provide cutting-edge primary care for patients of all ages including preventive medicine to head off issues before they begin.

Healthy choices

While improving your health can sound daunting, the good news is even small changes can make a difference—and once you have made progress successfully, then you can tackle more. One good strategy is to create SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goals. These can include the following:

Smarter eating

Practicing good eating habits encompasses both limiting foods that are bad for you and eating more items that have a high nutritional value. Avoid foods and drinks high in added sugars, sodium, saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol as much as possible. Consider adding to your diet vegetables and fruits in a rainbow of colors, whole grains, a variety of proteins, and low-fat or fat-free dairy products.

Regular exercise

Being physically active on a regular basis comes with many benefits, including helping to maintain a healthy weight, decreasing the risk of disease, improving your brain health, and making your bones and muscles stronger. Adults should participate in 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity and 2 days of muscle strengthening exercises each week.

Sufficient sleep

Sleep is important for our brains, our mood, and keeping health issues like heart disease, stroke, obesity, and dementia at bay. Adults should get at least seven hours or more each night.

Fewer bad habits

Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States so if you smoke, try to cut back or ideally quit. Excessive drinking should be avoided as it can cause short-term issues such as injuries, alcohol poisoning, and risky behaviors as well as long-term problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, liver disease, some cancers, and more.

Preventive care

Preventive care is an important way to catch issues early before they worsen or lead to other problems. For adults it typically includes screenings for heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancer plus immunizations as needed and advice on living a healthy lifestyle. Children's preventive care consists of annual checkups, vaccinations, and screenings for behavioral and mental health issues.

If you're seeking a healthier lifestyle, we can help make sure you're up-to-date medically and offer coaching on ways to tweak your habits for optimal results. Click online or call us at 773-785-8000 (Chicago) or 630-581-0020 (Downers Grove) today to make an appointment.