The Strongest Shield

A healthy lifestyle seems rather daunting to achieve, we assume it requires a severe routine consisting of heavily monitored diets and arduous exercise.

However, we don’t truly need such severe measures for a basic healthy lifestyle, as all we need is proper rest, a balanced diet, and daily exercise. 

The Department of Health (D.O.H) promotes simple daily habits that can be easily  done each day. Like exercising daily, annual check-ups, meditating, and many more. Most of these habits are quick and easy which is why the DOH encourages it, in the hope that it will encourage Filipinos to take better care of their health. 

Besides, being healthy has a lot of benefits, with the main one being that you feel great, both physically and mentally. Another benefit is the lessened risk for some diseases such as heart problems, type 2 diabetes and various types of cancers, along with helping achieve and maintain a healthy weight. It also significantly lengthens our lifespan, adding up to 14 years if we avoid smoking.

Also, it improves our metabolism, by facilitating better digestion, allowing us more efficient use of the energy that we get from food. This increases our stamina and prevents fatigue. 

Additionally, it also improves our mental health. Because when we exercise our body releases endorphins, a natural hormone which relieves pain, reduces stress and boosts our mood, triggering the release of dopamine which creates a happy and pleasurable feeling. 

Lastly, it improves our sleep quality, which is essential for our body to rest and repair itself from our daily activities. It allows the body to focus on regulating hormones, consolidate memories, which turn short term memories into long term ones, and help strengthen our immune system, lowering the chance of us getting sick. 

A  healthy diet requires adequacy, balance, moderation and diversity within the constituent foods, with whole unprocessed food such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains such as brown rice, wheat and oats, healthy protein like lean meat, beans, lentils and chickpeas. 

However we also need to limit the amount of chips, fatty meat, sodas and fast food that you consume. 

Practicing a healthy diet is vital, as it ensures that we receive proper nutrition guarding us all against the dangers of malnutrition.

In totality, the strongest protection we can give ourselves is to take care of our health, simply by eating a balanced diet, properly resting and exercising for at least a few minutes each day.