The Ins And Outs Of A 'Well-Thy Lifestyle

In the times we live in, 'lifestyle' has come to include a broad spectrum of tangible and intangible things, which can be narrowed down to two of the most important ones: health and wealth.

- Sujatha Rao

Let's zoom in on one important input and one important output for each of these two aspects for keeping it simple, though there are many more components, both in terms of input and output, that contribute to a balanced lifestyle.

I. Health

These days 'lifestyle diseases' is a term we encounter frequently. It includes a list of diseases that one falls prey to, thanks to the lifestyle one maintains. Sadly, this list includes serious diseases such as heart ailments, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, TB, and a variety of cancers.

A large number of these diseases progress very slowly and steadily. So, most of them do not spring onto us all of a sudden. The good news is that quite a few of them are preventable, with the power to do so lying within our control.

One of the primary inputs for maintaining good health is what we eat, and the output is what we burn, both measured in terms of calories. Keeping these two somewhat in balance may help us keep the bulk of lifestyle diseases at bay.

Input

• Watch the calories: Nowadays, the packaged foodstuff we buy, mandatorily mentions the calorific values. So let's use this information to buy ourselves some healthy calories.

• Eat for the heart: What we eat and how much we eat is at the heart (literally) of a healthy lifestyle. So let's go easy on our hearts by eating healthy.

• Have fun cooking: With so many YouTube recipe videos at our fingertips, cooking can turn out to be a team activity and a family pastime. This way, we know what's cooking in terms of calorific values too. While we are at it, let's also get back to our granny's recipes that are low on oil and high on fibre, with a good dose of probiotics thrown in for that healthy gut.