In general, we can all stand to lead healthier lives. Unless you’re a highly paid actor who needs to lead the healthiest life humanely possible to be prepared for your next movie, there’s always something about your lifestyle, diet, or mental health you could stand to better augment, alter, or otherwise arrange better in order to improve our overall health. However, you may not live near a gym, or not have enough regular income to afford fruit on a regular basis while still being able to pay rent. Any number of real life issues can get in the way of being healthy, including just not knowing what you can do. If you’re a man over 25, you’re likely struggling to stay healthy, and would like any tip or trick available to help you figure out how you can stay healthy. If this describes you, the following is exactly what you’ve been looking for. These are the best tips and tricks for staying healthy in the modern world.

Eating and general diet

Eating is one of the most important activities our body can partake in, as it is vital for growth and maintenance of the human body. However, at different stages of our lives, our eating requirements change drastically, including how often we need to eat and what the best diet is for us at that stage. For instance, when we’re infants, we require feeding every four hours until we are able to digest solid foods. After this comes the usual pattern of three square meals a day as children. However, you probably love to snack between meals, whether because the breakfast/lunch/dinner you had wasn’t filling enough, or you want to cut back on how much you have for the next meal.

Good general eating and diet tips include: Make sure to get those 3 meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When you do have those meals, keep in mind that dinner doesn’t have to be the largest meal of the three. These three meals, and any snacks in between, should mainly consist of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and sugar free products. Avoid fat-free products, as fat has very little effect on your weight, and since taking out the fat removes a lot of flavor, there’s almost always extra sugar to compensate, making the food even less healthy. Finally, make sure that your portion sizes remain squarely at what you need to relieve hunger, no more, no less.

Exercise

A cornerstone of the healthy lifestyle is proper exercise. Your body is designed specifically to be used, and not using it causes it to fall into disarray because your body moving around is the equivalent of a machine having its gears greased. And it isn’t just your body that needs training, as your mind will quickly become sluggish if left unattended for too long. So if you would rather avoid all that, there are some good tips for you to follow.

First off, even if you don’t live within convenient distance of a gym, you should always make sure to exercise at least twice a day, morning and afternoon/night. Whether you’re lifting weights or going jogging, any act of physical fitness is better than nothing. This is especially true of those suffering from chronic arthritis, as regular exercise can help you with even basic tasks that arthritis makes harder, like opening doors or climbing stairs. Finally, remember to start slowly so as to not wear yourself out, gradually building up your stamina so you can do more later.

Mental and emotional health

Living healthy means more than just exercising your body, you must also keep your mind healthy and sharp. This also includes your emotions, which can cause some serious, long lasting harm to you if you don’t properly handle them. If you feel like you can definitely improve in this department, you’ve come to the right section of this article.

There are plenty of tips that fit into this area. While this is not an extensive list, it does cover the most important things that you should absolutely do for your mental and emotional health. The first thing you need to do is get enough sleep, that’s 8 hours, every night. This is imperative to your alertness and mental health daily. Try to get out of your comfort zone as often as you can by visiting or trying new things. Find a hobby, or some other activity that you enjoy doing on a regular basis, and then do it as often as you can. Finally, you need to let yourself be impressed with yourself every now and again, not necessarily arrogant, but allowing yourself to be impressed by an accomplishment will help drive you to accomplish more in the future. All these factors are paramount to the mental and emotional development of the human psyche. They may seem minor, but they’re some of the healthiest things you can do for yourself.

Alcohol and tobacco

Alcohol should only ever be consumed in healthy doses, every now and then, whereas it’s best for your body if you avoid any tobacco intake if at all possible. In the U.S. alone, tobacco was behind the deaths of 443,000 people in 2010.

The best tip for quitting tobacco and alcoholism, since avoiding the addiction is as simple as having an iron enough will to say no, is to keep trying. Start as soon as you decide you want to get off the substances, and work at it. Remember it’s going to take a long time, 15 years for tobacco specifically, before your heart returns to a default state of heart attack risk. Rely on friends and loved ones, who will be willing to intervene if need be. Finally, find some good alternatives to the substances, in the case of chewing tobacco, try gum.

Staying healthy is a much more daunting task than the life coaches make it out to be. It consists of constant work, shifting almost your entire lifestyle with the aim of improving your physical and mental health. You just need to keep your eyes on the goal, and use that drive to compel you to make the aforementioned tips and tricks your new daily routine. It will be hard, for some it will be harder than others, but it is doable.