People who are making an attempt to be healthier may ask themselves: What exactly is a healthy life style? Most individuals know the reasons why they should be healthy.

Health is the biggest key factor for self-confidence, having more energy, living a longer life, having less chance of getting sick, being less stressed, and feeling mentally and emotionally happier in general. But being healthy is a lifestyle choice and something that has to be achieved over time, not just overnight.

The first two things that come to mind when people think of healthy life style are diet and exercise. These are two of the most obvious and important factors to truly becoming healthy. For some people, having a proper diet and exercising frequently are second nature; perhaps they grew up playing sports and had very health-conscious parents.

But for most people, vigorous exercise and a dieting consist of a lot of hard work. Even for people who are accustomed to it, they must be conscious of what theyre eating almost all the time to maintain a healthy life style! So, dont feel discouraged if it doesnt seem to come naturally to you. Youre not alone.

If you have just made the decision to change your life into healthy life style, start off slowly and gradually. A common mistake most people make is that they try to go too extreme with their diet and exercise too much, too fast and too soon. Even pro-athletes take years of training to get their bodies to look that way.

However, that doesnt mean you wont see some results relatively quickly. Youll probably notice that youll have more energy and feel better within the first day.

When starting an exercise plan, one of the simplest and most effective things you can do is walking. Its easy and you dont need an expensive gym membership or equipment to do it. Its recommended that you exercise between a half-hour to an hour four to six days a week. If you cant do that much yet, dont worry. Even ten or fifteen minutes of walking are better than none at all.

Diet is the same. Starting a new diet can be daunting. The most important thing to remember when starting a healthy life style diet is to eat things with plenty of vitamins, nutrients, and healthy fats to keep you full and satisfied, such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, lean chicken and fish.

Youll find that all of these factors snowball into each other to create an overall healthy life style. For example, getting more exercise usually helps people sleep better, and sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Also, smoking makes it harder to breathe if youre exercising regularly, so that gives you added incentive to quit if youre trying, which you should be.

The same goes for alcohol. If you drink to excess, youll be much more fatigued in your daily life, especially while exercising, so perhaps it will inspire you to cut back. Being healthy takes baby steps, so start small and build yourself up from there.