Exercising regularly is very important to one’s personal health. It is a major commitment to follow through on exercising every day, but with perseverance, it can begin to feel perfectly natural. Exercise is important to our weight management, our bone and joint strength, our flexibility, our muscle mass, our bodily systems and functions, and generally speaking, our longevity. Yet so many choose to forego this basic life necessity, either because they do not have a taste for it or because they feel too busy for it. It is critical to every person’s health that they make some time for exercise, if not daily, then as often as possible.

The number one complaint about exercise is how difficult it is to keep with it day after day. Life happens, and all of our plans need to be adjusted. However, this is not a good enough reason for giving up on exercise. Those who are successful with maintaining a workout routine typically do it at the same time every day. It is highly recommended that you exercise when you first wake up, the reason being that your day has not started yet, so your plans to exercise should not be derailed by other life obligations. It is also advisable to work out with a friend, if it is an option. Being accountable to another person has a natural way of making us follow through with our commitments. And lastly, in order to stick with an exercise plan, it is good to develop a routine that does not push you beyond your means. If your exercise routine leaves you gasping for breath and feeling like you are going to vomit, you need to rethink it. You have all the time in the world to gradually work up to a challenging level exercise, but start where you are comfortable.

In order to develop a successful exercise plan, you need to have a basic knowledge of what kind of exercise the human body requires. The two primary types of exercise are cardio and toning. Cardio is exercise that is focused on strengthening the heart, lungs and circulation. This is also the type of exercise that burns calories and fat molecules. Examples of cardio are jogging, hiking, biking, jump-roping or doing aerobics. Toning has to do with training the muscles. Examples include weight lifting or doing a repetitive exercise that targets a specific body part. Toning is good for strength building and sculpting the body’s appearance. Many people also enjoy doing flexibility exercise such as yoga in order to keep the body limber.

A diet can be a trying thing to manage, particularly in an era of fast food, junk food and superstores. Everyday we are confronted with the choice to eat healthy or to eat unhealthy, and willpower can feel very thin at times. Eating healthy is a matter of personal psychology as much as it is following a calorie counting system. If we think of food like an escape, an indulgence, an addiction or a security blanket, chances are we will not be able to stick to a set nutrition plan. But if we think of food as a lifestyle choice, medicine, nourishment and detoxification, we can successfully manage a diet.

There are right and wrong ways to manage a diet. Lacking an education about what foods are healthy can destroy a diet, because you will not achieve your health goals. Similarly, if you do not grow to understand your personal relationship with particular food items, your diet may fail because you will be oblivious to your own food allergies and nutrient deficiencies and so on. If you eat spur of the moment, without any idea of what your body is genuinely craving or requiring, you will not have diet success because a proper diet requires forethought.

If you are serious about dieting, you must approach it as a lifestyle change rather than a quick fix. You need to take the time to educate yourself on nutritional eating and discover the vast range of health benefits to each type of natural food. You also need to learn what your relationship to particular foods are. For example, people with low thyroid problems are advised to eat seaweed because it is high in iodine, which the body cannot produce with low thyroid. Medical conditions often need to be discovered with the help of medical professionals, however, monitoring your own personal reactions to every variety of food is very important to your health. Make yourself a personal nutrition plan, even if it is just mental, and follow it carefully in order to balance your body’s chemistry and control the urge to binge eat.

Getting solid, regular sleep can be the difference between a happy, healthy life and a miserable, unhealthy life. Many people forego good sleep for one reason or another, but medical science warns of the dangers of this habit. The most recent studies on sleep indicate that foregoing sleep can have an Alzheimer’s-like affect on the brain. Getting any less than eight hours in a night can actually do permanent damage to the brain in the form of brain cells being killed off and being replaced by brain fog. The “eight hours of sleep” rule became a pop culture statement for a while, but with brain studies being released about how vital a long night’s sleep is, it is urgent that people start listening to medical advice and making time for proper sleep.

In order to get a full night’s sleep, there are a number of things to avoid doing. Many people think that certain alcohols or drugs make good sleep aids, but in reality, they have the opposite effect in the long run. Substance abuse creates tolerance and dependency, which drastically disrupt sleep schedules. It is strongly advised that you avoid things that make the brain alert before bed, such as working or exercising. Staring at the blue light of a screen or the bright light of bulbs and sunshine tell your brain to stay awake. Avoid eating large meals as your body’s digestion process can interfere with sleep. And lastly, do not fluctuate your sleep schedule to be at different times of the day or for different lengths as this will prevent your body and mind from falling into a sleep rhythm.

There are a number of things you should make sure to do in order to get a full night’s sleep. If your stomach feels too empty, a light, healthy snack and a natural sleep aid such as tea are the perfect bedtime snack. Sleeping in total darkness will signal brain that it is time to shut down, and will help with the length of sleep. Some people prefer to sleep with a white noise device, such as a fan. If you are restless and want to distract your mind, reading something of neutral content is useful. However, the best practice to get into is to train your brain to turn off when it is time to sleep, ending the rampant flow of thoughts. Take care to sleep at the same time every night for no less than eight hours.