A healthy life in the 21st Century has gotten more complex. We know more now than we ever have about having a healthy home and a healthy life, and have more options for converting that knowledge into concrete do’s and don’ts for a healthy life. These are just a handful of great tips for making your life healthier and longer – there are many options to improve your health and well-being that you might not even think are related to health! Your home is a huge part of your health and the way you engage with your life.

In each topic, we will present an overview of the subject and add several “do’s and don’ts for healthy life.” These are some of our favorite ideas for how to bring more health and wellness into your everyday life and help your home be better equipped to set you up to succeed.

Try Physical Therapy

 

Often we assume that physical therapy is just for people who are injured or returning from injury. But physical therapy has other aspects as well. The do’s and don’ts for a healthy life include taking advantage of local physical therapy not just for an injury but to address longstanding, non-injury mobility issues and long-healed injuries to keep yourself limber and head off new injuries. Spots of pain, like a sore shoulder, can turn into injuries like a separated or ruptured shoulder capsule over time, so heading them off with physical therapy can keep your body healthy much longer.

 

Do’s and Don’ts for Healthy Life: Do bring your full concerns to your physical therapist. Discuss issues not directly injury-related like diet concerns, eating patterns, and work lifestyle (are you active or sedentary at work? How can this be addressed by changing the activity patterns of your work day? How can you make your working lifestyle incorporate more motion regularly?). To address chronic issues like irritable bowel syndrome and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder that can cause your health to be less than it could be by interfering with nutrition or with life-maintenance activities. Don’t cover up potential health issues because you feel ashamed of them. Don’t let a small injury become a large injury because you don’t think it’s hampering enough to be worth discussing.

 

Install New Siding

Considering a new siding installation for your house is a great way to cut down on your heating and cooling bills. Modern siding is better-insulated and more heat-resistant than ever before, reducing the amount of heating your house undergoes in the sun and retaining heat better during the night. Turning off the air entirely might not be easy – or possible – but you can reduce your use of air conditioning by smart choices of insulated, heat-resistant siding for your next home renovation project and make sure that your siding is installed by a contractor to avoid gapping or other mistakes that could compromise the project.

 

Do’s and Don’ts for Healthy Life: Make sure that your new siding is made of an environmentally friendly material. Plastic and vinyl siding can shed microplastic beads into an environment that you’re not even aware of. Do not attempt to self-install siding. Siding is an interlocking system of panels that requires close coverage without gaps to succeed at protecting your house from the elements – even a small gap is going to allow weather damage to your house from heat, cold, water, wind, and even fire.

 

Buy New Workout Clothes

 

If you are still wearing the same workout clothing that you were wearing in 2013, first, congratulations! One of the hardest things to do in fitness is maintain for a decade. But second, it’s time to refresh. Consider that a fresh workout outfit will improve your motivation to go to your next spin class, tai chi lesson, or roller derby practice with a new look and a new attitude. Your new workout clothes should fit the body you have – not the body you’re striving to have – and fit you in whichever way you feel is the most flattering. If you are very conscious about your legs, tight-fitting leggings might not be the most beneficial option for you to try – but if you like your legs and want to let them show out, go for it!

 

Do’s and don’ts for healthy life: Do choose colors and cuts that flatter you. You will look and feel better in clothes that accentuate your best attributes, no matter what they are. If you’re a woman, do choose a sports bra that fits your chest NOW. You can always buy different workout clothes as your body changes. Still, clothes that are uncomfortable or fit poorly now will disincentivize you from working out, especially if they’re too tight and constrict you. Freedom of movement is the most important attribute of new workout clothing.

 

Take Dance Classes

Dance is scientifically proven to be a huge mood-lifter! Science shows that movement improves your dopamine levels which is one of the brain chemicals that impacts happiness and focus. Movement improves dopamine levels, and so does music, and dance combines them. Local dancing studios offer lessons from beginner to competition, bringing students amazing ways to move and express their bodies regularly. The small-group environment also helps people who have a hard time sticking with “face in the crowd” or widely distributed forms of fitness training, and a specific goal, learning a dance or a style of dance, engages people with goal-oriented motivational styles.

 

Do’s and don’ts for healthy life: Do take the style of dance class that appeals most strongly to you. if you enjoy rock music, you will likely feel unengaged and frustrated by classical-inflected ballet classes.

 

Make Sure the Air in Your Home is Clean

 

Decades ago, many people believed that the best way to make their home climate-controlled and give themselves a pristine indoor environment was to keep the outside out. Houses were sealed tightly, almost like a spaceship, and indoor air spaces had air circulation by fans and careful balancing. We now know that this is not a great idea. Sealed-up indoor areas cause respiratory issues and breed illness, and adding a wind vented roof to your home can improve circulation by allowing air to come in and go out relatively freely while maintaining an overall comfortable and controlled environment. Venting lets in the fresh air and pushes out stale, polluted indoor air to be recycled through the atmosphere.

 

Try Horse Back Riding

Horseback riding is a great way to handle your stress and move your body in a low-impact way because the horse is doing much of the work while you ride. Your body will feel the workout, but your knees and ankles won’t. This is especially important for aging or weak knees and ankles.

Do’s and don’ts for healthy life: If you decide to take on the expense and responsibilities of a horse, remember that you will need to invest in that horse’s health and well-being because a horse is an animal, not a vehicle. Horse pellet bedding is not incredibly expensive, but extremely necessary for the horse’s well-being.

 

Schedule a Dentist Appointment

 

When’s the last time you got your teeth cleaned? If the answer is “more than six months ago,” or “I don’t know,” be sure and take the time for a tooth cleaning service. Dental work is like any other form of physical maintenance work in that the more time you allow damage to build up, the longer it will take for a doctor to get that damage under control and bring your body back from the point that it was at.

 

Do’s and don’ts for healthy life: The more that plaque builds up on teeth, the more effort it’s going to take the dentist to get it under control – so try to make sure that you’re seeing the dentist every few months – usually 4 or 6. If you are a person who has a hard time undertaking tasks that go without immediate gratification, keep this in mind: Seconds a day flossing means saving hours in the dentist’s chair.

 

Keep Your House and Car Clean

These can be hard tips to put into practice because many cleaning practices, while not difficult, are slightly boring and frustrating to undertake repeatedly. But cleaning your house and your car will help your state of mind and help make you feel your best. No one feels good getting into a car strewn with garbage and stray hairs, especially when that garbage is the result of your friend’s sloppy car maintenance lifestyle.

 

Cleaning your home and organizing it in a way that works well for you is a great way to boost your executive function – the part of your brain that turns your intention to do things into getting those things done. It’s much easier to want to cook meals when you know you have the things in your pantry that help you get from ingredients to food – and easier to know that if you can just look behind the cupboard door and see what’s there. Plus, friends like eating food that came out of a clean kitchen way more than food that came out of a dirty kitchen.

 

Do’s and don’ts for healthy life: Clean out your trash every time you fill your gas tank and you will feel the pride of a clean car every time you give your friends a lift. A hand car wash is a great way to control the task of cleaning your car since you can select your suds and rinse, and take the car wash’s powerful vacuum to clean out the dirt and debris of a long winter. Give yourself a spritz of lemon-scented car deodorizer, too: the smell of lemongrass and herb can go a long way to lifting your and your passengers’ moods.

 

Don’t overdo it – a little deodorizer helps but a lot can fill your vehicle with sickly sweet aromas that put you off and put off everybody around you as well. Don’t let dishes or trash pile up – make sure and take your garbage out daily and wash dishes after every meal. Don’t fill your dishwasher without rinsing debris off plates, as the food debris, especially solid food debris, will bounce around the dishwasher and dirty everything in it.

 

Research Healthy Eating Tips

 

Culinary learning centers can help you find out new ways to incorporate the best in new ingredients and eating habits into your daily routine. If you’re interested in finding new dishes made with heart-healthy ingredients and increasing the number of veggies you have in your diet, learning centers are a great place to start doing it, as their focused approach to nutrition and health in a tasty, expeditious way will help you learn how to make dishes that are as healthy for your budget as they are for your palate.

 

Do’s and don’ts for a healthy life: Don’t change all at once. Your body and brain will rebel against the idea of changing your lifestyle all in one go. Do incorporate changes as they make sense for your life. Make sure that you know what you’re doing and how to improve your diet a little at a time. Do make sure you’re reading recipes carefully. Many people have sabotaged their attempts to eat healthy by skipping seasoning ingredients and revolting at the “bland diet food” that they prepared.

 

Try Swimming Classes

 

The latest trend in swimming is container pools. These pools built out of one or more steel shipping containers, lined with tile, concrete, or fiberglass, are an intriguing pseudo-industrial touch for your home that can be a unique design element. Their steel sides can even allow viewing panes, for a touch unique among swimming pools. Swim lessons engage participants of all ages in a lifetime sport!

 

Do’s and don’ts for healthy life: Do make sure that a container pool fits with the overall design of your home. A rustic-style home is not the best match for a corrugated industrial container. Don’t let kids swim without a supervising adult.