Everyone wants to live a long and happy life, but not everyone is successful in this pursuit. In case you have been wondering what you have to do in order to be both healthy and happy, I would like to share with you some tips for living a long, healthy and meaningful life.

1. Dont eat unless you are hungry

If you eat when you are not hungry you risk getting constipation and indigestion. Fermented and undigested food poisons the blood, weakening the organs and makes you susceptible to any of thousands of various acute and chronic diseases. To properly eliminate wastes, your digestive system should be rested by sufficient gaps between meals.

Try to find your natural rhythm and listen to what your body tells you. Overeating is also the cause of many illnesses. The yogis advise you to think of your stomach as having four parts, of which one part is still empty when you finish eating.

2. Sleep when you are tired

This means that you should go to bed when your body tells you, and not continue to lie around after you’ve woken up. As far as possible, conform to your natural rhythms. Sleeping during the day and staying awake at night when you are tired is said to be one of the causes of cancer.

3. Get out of bed before sunrise

Each day has a rhythm like a wave. If you get up too late, you miss the wave and spend the rest of the day struggling to keep up. If you get up early, the wave is behind you, and carries you through the day. Some hours of sleep before midnight are said to be twice as valuable as sleep after midnight. Once you are habituated, the dawn hours are the best for meditation and personal development.

Walking is the most popular form of exercise. It does not require special equipment nor require that you spend money. It is effective, especially when you want long term weight loss. Many people start their exercise programs with walking. Old and young alike can start walking off excess weight anytime. You can easily take up walking and earn its benefits without too much effort. Walking can be enjoyable, especially when you have a walking buddy. Having someone to converse with makes a 30 minute walk feel like 10 minutes. Walking is effective but walking with bad form and bad habits will create problems you’d rather live without. Here are some things to remember when choosing to walk for weight loss.

Start gradually. Doing some gentle stretches at the start of your exercise will loosen up tight limbs. Gentle stretches will warm up the muscles and prepare it better for the exercise. Initially, start with a 30 minute walk. You would not want to tire yourself too much you won’t be able to stand up the following day. When walking, always take the weather into consideration. Dress warmly during the winter months. You have to be comfortably warm so dress in layers along with a hat and mittens. In summer, wear clothes that do not trap body heat. Choose clothes made of breathable fabrics like cotton. Wear sunglasses and a hat. Whatever the weather, always protect your skin from the sun. Choose your shoes carefully. Make sure that it doesn’t make you skid and slide.

When walking, maintain good posture. Contract your abdominals and lean forward slightly from your ankles. Keep elbows flexed at ninety degrees and relax your arms. Swing your arms in time with your strides. Walking for maximum fat burning requires more effort. Your fat burning zone is at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate and you have to keep it up for 45 minutes. In this zone, the calories you burn from fat is 85% of your total calorie expenditure. Before starting this program, make sure that you have the go ahead from your doctor. Always bring a bottle of water with you. Water replenishes fluids lost through sweating. This is essential to prevent dehydration.

Everyone wants to be healthier and if you are open to changing some of your habits you can absolutely do that. You need to understand, even as you are reading through the healthier living tips that we will be talking about in this article that you can’t do everything at the same time. What you should aim for is developing healthier habits, and this is something you can begin today but can continue with for the rest of your life.

Lots of people have bad habits that keep them from being healthy. It isn’t exactly breaking news that your health is hurt by smoking but a crazy number of people still do it. Evidence has proven that quitting smoking, no matter when you do it, is good for your health but it is never too late to make this particular change. Other terrible habits include drinking and drugs but the good news is that help in quitting them is easy to find. Even if you do not suffer from an addiction, you might be in the habit of spending too much of your spare time sitting on the couch instead of exercising that could be keeping you from achieving the level of health you would like to see. The old advice given by the health experts was to consume less fat, however these days the more sophisticated advice is to simply stay away from bad fats and only eat good fats. The kind of fat you find in fast foods, deep fried foods and junk food is mostly unhealthy fat, as you might expect. Healthy fats are in things like coconut oils, fish oils and olive oils, as well as flaxseed oils. You can either eat these with your food, or take them as supplements. Other sources of healthy fats include many kinds of nuts, pumpkin seeds and avocados. Excessive consumption of the fats found in animal products, like dairy and organic meats isn’t good, but in moderation it’s okay. Trans fats, such as hydrogenated oils, should be avoided as much as possible.