Introduction
A lifestyle can be described as the regular activities that people engage in everyday that can be used to describe their routine. It comprises the major activities that dominate a typical day of an individual. The activities have a certain consistency that can be attributed to the given person. Lifestyles can be categorised into two: healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. Healthy lifestyles are the occupations that enhance the wellbeing of an individual by keeping the individual’s body in the right condition.
On the other hand, unhealthy lifestyles are those that expose the body of an individual to some forms of degeneration in that the body is exposed to conditions that are not good for its wellbeing. Therefore, individuals are usually advised to maintain a healthy lifestyle for the sake of keeping their bodies in the right condition. The paper presents a detailed discussion of why people prefer healthy lifestyle to the unhealthy occupation.
It is good for Health
A healthy lifestyle as the word itself describes is good for people’s health because it enables them to keep their bodies in good health. Good health simply means living without diseases and other complications that usually arise due to bad health. The human body is made in such a way that it must be kept in a certain position that would ensure that all the body organs are functioning without strain. The body has different organs that perform certain activities in the body to about some balance. According to Mei (2011), a human body is made to consume some elements for its growth. At the same time, it is supposed to expel some elements to maintaining so that it is not poisoned (p. 259).
Therefore, a healthy lifestyle will ensure that the body elements are balanced in a way that will not strain the body organs. A healthy lifestyle will ensure that only the required elements get into the body in the right amount for it to use them optimally. This checking will enable the body to remain disease-free and in the right mode. Unhealthy lifestyles expose the body to conditions that will inhibit it and its organs from executing their duties in the right way thus leading to complications that come about from unwanted elements being in the body (Mei 2011, p. 259).
It is Economical
A healthy lifestyle is economical to maintain. When a body is in good health, no one would need to spend money on issues such as medication or on visits to a physician. Whenever people feel unwell, there is a need to go and see a doctor who is supposed to diagnose them and find out what is ailing their bodies to them give them a prescription that they can use to contain the situation. Every visit to a doctor costs money. The more frequent the visits, the more the money that someone will end up paying (Cheah 2012, p. 144). Medication also costs money. The frequent the prescriptions, the more money it will cost.
Therefore, it will be prudent to keep the body healthy as a way of avoiding getting into medical costs. Although the body will always ail at one point or the other, the distance between such occurrences should be kept big so that it is not frequent. This outcome can only be possible when one keeps a healthy lifestyle. Other than medication, unhealthy lifestyles lead to other costs for items that individuals might need for their living to be comfortable enough (Lind 2012, p. 167). Unhealthy lifestyles lead to adjustments in life that cost so much money. This issue too affects the economy of someone’s living. Therefore, it is prudent for one to keep a healthy lifestyle for the sake of cutting the costs of living.
Leads to Positive thinking
There exists a link between the choice of lifestyle that one makes and his or her thinking quality. Virtually all people who live unhealthy lifestyles are negative thinkers. Idleness is a significant contributor of negative thinking and hence part of unhealthy lifestyle. Does it then mean that healthy people and hence positive thinkers do not think negatively? The answer is no. A positive thinker acknowledges the negative side of life. However, based on his or her knowledge of the role of leaving healthy, he or she does not dwell on the negative side of thinking. As the saying goes, ‘a strong body leads to a vigorous mind.’
Healthy lifestyle enables one to think positively about life by appreciating every bit that it has to offer. A healthy lifestyle enables individuals to think of how to better their lifestyle as compared to unhealthy lifestyles, which only drive them towards destruction not only of their bodies but also of their minds. According to LePage, Garcia, and Elizabeth (2012), the use of prohibited drugs and narcotics leads one to stop thinking in the normal way (p.394).
Most of the things that individuals in drug abuse get into are always bad for their bodies because, while in pursuit of pleasure for their bodies, they tend to punish their bodies by infusing elements that will alter the way the body system works. In this case, abuse of drugs affects the brain of an individual hence influencing the way he or she makes decisions and or the way he or she reacts to issues (Ochieng, 2013, p. 8).
On the other hand, positive lifestyles or healthy lifestyles enable persons to think constructively thus making them important to society. Unhealthy lifestyles affect individuals thinking by making them not dwell on the negatives of life and the challenges that might hinder them in the process of making any positive move. It sometimes makes individuals develop attributes that would make them look at themselves negatively when they compare to others who are living healthy lifestyles. This perception will make them hate themselves as well as their colleagues in the process of envying them on the grounds of their healthy living habits.
Sports as a Way of Keeping Healthy
Sporting activities can be used as one way of keeping the body healthy in the end. According to Alter (2012), sporting activities engage the body muscles and bones into activities that make them strong and healthy (p. 238). The human body is made up of cells that need to be activated through games. The human body also suffers from wear and tear. Therefore, when the body cells become old, they die. They need to be expelled from the body.
Dead cells need to be replaced. As such, one way of making the cells active for replacing dead cells is by doing exercises. Exercise makes the joints of an individual flexible enough. It also increases their reflex action by making it fast enough. A body that is not exercised enough tends to become unhealthy. It can be compared to a machine that becomes rusty for not being run for a long time. Sporting activities trigger the body by burning excess fats that might accumulate and cause overweight. Exercises also burn calories that might be turned in to fats thus making the body operate in an efficient manner.
Akiko (2009) finds that exercises increase the metabolic rate in the body because they create a demand for certain useful elements such as oxygen while at the same time hastening the expulsion of unwanted elements such as carbon dioxide and urea from the body (p. 487). Exercises expel elements like salt and other chemicals from the body through sweating and other excretion methods. Therefore, it is important to engage in sporting activities as a way of keeping the body healthy (Louisa, Jones & Okely, 2009, p. 538).
Lack of exercises can make some body parts go limb because they are not engaged frequently especially for kids who need much exercise to keep in line with their rapidly developing body organs. Disengaged bodies are prone to accidents whenever such persons find themselves in a situation that requires some quick reaction. Most elderly persons who engage in exercises and other sporting activities tend to live longer relative to those who are not active.
Enhances Social Life
Healthy lifestyles enhance the social wellbeing of people by enabling them make new friends through sharing of a common purpose. Whenever individuals have a common purpose, they approach it as a team. In so doing, they tend to become friends even beyond the activity. One of such places where an individual can socialise and make friends is in gyms and health clubs. Most of the activities that happen in gyms are usually approached in groups. Individuals help each other whenever there is any need (King 2012, p. 75). Many people also get attracted to gyms and health clubs as a way of sharing new ideas while at the same time learning from each other.
Therefore, they develop a liking for each other thus enhancing their social status, which is part of health. The pursuit of a good healthy lifestyle forces people to go out of their way to get information from other as well as engage in activities that need two or more people to accomplish. This need therefore forces them into a social relationship that has simply been brought about by the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. People with the same features or liking will also get together due to the common purpose that exists between them.
Enhances Personal Looks
Many individuals are conscious of the way they look. In most cases, a balanced lean body can pass for a good-looking figure. A body full of fat and one that looks like is overflowing does not qualify in the criteria of good looks because a fatty body that is chubby in nature tends to look cumbersome and out of shape. One way of gaining lean looks is through keeping a healthy lifestyle that involves exercising the body. A fat body is usually full of excess fats, which in essence, are not required by the body. Excess fats makes one’s body heavy in that their movement becomes laboured as they need to carry the weight as they move around.
On the other hand, good personal looks through a lean body can be enhanced by keeping a good lifestyle, which involves the choice of food that one eats as well as other indulgences such as drinking. The food one eats determines if the person will accumulate too much weight easily or not. This case goes with the amount of calories the food contains as a determinant of healthy foods (Yu, Kusum & Druv 2013, p. 105).
A healthy lifestyle therefore ensures that a person’s body is in the right shape that gives someone desirable looks. From a psychological view, Garry (2012) states that the way an individual appears in the eyes of people around him or her matters since it will either build his or her self-esteem or break it this translating to the fact that good looks can only be obtained through living healthy lifestyles (p. 248). Many people who are conscious of their appearance and who know they are reputable, would work hard to ensure that they maintain their reputation. They will therefore target to learn how to live healthy lifestyles to achieve the goal.
It Enhances a Long Life
Healthy lifestyles are one of the ways that a person can be guaranteed long life. As usual, the nature of living is that there is a need for self-preservation. That hunger to live longer drives people to find out the best ways that can elongate their lives (Raat 2011, p. 730). They opt for healthy lifestyles. Many people fear dying. When they understand that something might lead to the shortening of their life, they tend to avoid it as much as possible.
Most unhealthy lifestyles tend to shorten people’s lives in that they die at a much younger age than when they would die living a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, as Julie (2012) finds, people have turned to healthy lifestyles as a way of living longer. Unhealthy lifestyles simply strain body organs in such a way that they will tend to fail to work properly thus exposing the victim to risks that might lead to death (Julie 2012, p.19). It is an achievement in life to live longer. Most people desire to live longer as a way of personal satisfaction to have achieved such a feat. Therefore, the ability of a person to maintain a body in such a way that it will continue functioning for a long time can be derived through good lifestyles that keep the body in a proper shape.
Conclusion
A healthy lifestyle can be achieved by individuals if they have the discipline to do so. Many unhealthy lifestyles are usually the most exciting in life and to the body. However, they are the worst enemies for the body. Unhealthy lifestyles usually come with pleasurable things, which the body desires so much. To keep a healthy body, one needs to maintain a certain regime of either food or exercises that will ensure the body is in the right shape. The need to keep a good lifestyle has been founded on the demand to look good and to live longer. All perfect bodies that people seem to flaunt about are based on the need to live longer. The belief driving them is that such a body is functioning optimally and hence the best body to keep.
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