Importance of healthy habits in your diet and lifestyle

Your weight is up and with life’s stresses, you now have a few lifestyle diseases. You don't remember when you last had sound sleep or got up early to enjoy the sunrise. In addition, you are drained, bored, and feel lethargic and obsessed with comfort foods such as chips, pizza, cola, and chocolates. You carry office stress to home and bring your domestic troubles to office. You fear losing your job because of your health complications and this insecurity gnaws at your subconscious mind. You are on constant medication.

If this sounds familiar, it is time to get to the root of the problem and begin living your life, not like a robot, but with full awareness.

Begin with approaching your body and mind as one. Go in for holistic healing and don't just treat yourself for the physical symptoms of a disease. There are many specialists who target different areas, but body and mind work together and not independently. In nature, everything is in harmony— as is your existence in terms of body and mind.

Doctors now label many illnesses as 'Psychosomatic' , where mental issues impact your physical body.For example, you can have stomach disorders when you have stress. The opposite also is true. Many times, you have an illness of the physical body that could impact you psychologically. No matter what your illness, remember that it originated from both mind and body and impacts both equally. Do not focus only on the physical manifestation of your problem but take care of the root cause in the mind, as well.

Now that we know that both mind and body are interrelated, let's focus on the subtleties. When we focus on the body, it is not only just physical activities we must monitor but also keep a check on our diet. Your body is the immediate consequence of what you eat. You might be eating, but at the wrong time. This could cause digestion problems. Food and lifestyle are also interrelated.

During sleep time, your body repairs cells to heal faster. Ghrelin is the hormone that tells your body when to eat and the Leptin hormone tells your body when to stop eating. But when you have sleep deprivation, you generate more ghrelin and less leptin and you begin putting on weight more easily. Sleep deprivation or change in your sleeping time also impacts the stress hormone, Cortisol. The right levels of cortisol regulates the working of the adrenal gland that controls our reproductive systems. Elevated cortisol levels also affect the suppression of estrogen and androgen causing bone-related issues and reduce calcium levels. That means, it is not only vitamin-D but many other hidden factors that are responsible for bone health. Bone health has a direct link with back pain and knee pain. If you are in a stressful environment, you are more likely to produce elevated levels of stress hormones and eventually end up with type-2 diabetes.

The next time you think about good health, don't think only in terms of hitting your dream weight or fitting into your favourite jeans. It isn't a question of beating your sedentary lifestyle, either. And neither should you think that you are superhuman enough to handle office stress or shape up with just a few minor changes to your gym or yoga routine. Being unhealthy is not just about lack of physical activity, but also about your lifestyle.

Understand that for any health initiative you undertake, you will have to make changes and corrections in all areas such as diet, lifestyle, sleeping, and exercise patterns. Besides this, you need consistency in practice, dedication, and faith in what you are doing.

Your physical presence resembles a place of playing a game of cards. Every card, whether it is the card of the 'mind', 'body' or 'diet' —all are equally important. To make this house stable, you need to be 'aware' of the health of every single card. Ignoring even just one card in the lot can have a domino effect that will only grow bigger with time — eventually, it can lead to the collapse of the entire house.

N.B. : Vital informations of this article shared by a Yoga Expert. I am thankful to him for showing his kindness to us.