So you want to live a long healthy life and make your life fruitful?

To do this, you first need to get the basics down so that you have a solid foundation on which to build your life.

The lowest layer of that foundation and the one which is most important is your health, both physical and mental. The title to this post is in Latin and it was written by a Roman poet by the name of Juvenal a long time ago. Does this fact make this piece of wisdom irrelevant today? On the contrary, it goes to show how wise the Roman civilization was.

So let’s get started. What do you need to do to have a healthy mind in a healthy body?

In this post I will tackle the healthy body part first. I will write about the healthy mind part in my next blog post.

To have a healthy body you must follow these points:

Eat a healthy, moderate, balanced diet daily.

By eating a healthy (in short no fast foods, junk foods, pre-cooked foods, preserved foods), moderate, balanced diet your body will get the fuel it needs to function properly. You will feel more energetic, alert, positive, and life will look brighter. A healthy diet will also help you avoid sickness, and lengthen your life.

Get 8 hours of sleep daily.

Getting 8 hours of sleep daily is essential for your body to regenerate itself and get you back to speed after a fruitful day, ready to live yet another wonderful day. Waking up after sleeping 8 uninterrupted hours, you will feel fresh, alert and full of energy, ready for another day.

Take a shower daily, preferably in the morning.

Take a shower daily to keep yourself clean. Apart from the refreshing and calming effect a shower gives you, it also helps you avoid sickness by washing away viruses, bacteria, and other undesirables. Having a shower and keeping yourself clean helps you in your social life as well, especially with the opposite sex
Have breakfast.

Have a breakfast. I know, I know. I already mentioned food and eating a healthy diet, but this is such an important point that it deserved its own entry. Make sure to eat a healthy breakfast every single day. Ideally, you wake up after 8 hours of sleep, have a shower, and then have breakfast.

Exercise moderately at least 5 times a week.

How could I talk about managing a healthy body without mentioning physical exercise? The point here is not what to do, but the fact that you keep yourself physically active at least 5 times per week. For starters, you should aim for 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise, such as brisk walking, jogging, tennis, swimming etc., 5 times per week. For those who love physical activity, you could also introduce strength training 3 times per week on alternating days. That’s all for now on this topic, more in future posts.

Manage stress in your life. Keep calm.

Managing stress in your life is of utmost importance. Why? Because stress is a major contributor to heart problems, depression, and many more ailments which ruin our lives. Avoiding stress completely is impossible since stress is sometimes created by external factors beyond our control. So to tackle stress you must fight it in two different ways. Learning proper time management skills and other core skills (such as discipline, and being more efficient and effective) will help you minimize stress that is under your control. Learn stress management techniques to know how to handle stress caused by external factors beyond your control.

Avoid vices, such as drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling.

And finally, you should avoid vices, such as drugs, excessive alcohol, cigarettes, and gambling. Apart from the fact that some of the vices are illegal and you could end up in deep trouble with the authorities, vices cause harm to you physically and mentally. Vices, without exception cost lots of money; money which you could spend in more fruitful endeavours.

So, that is all for now. I will go into more detail on some of the points discussed above in future posts. My next post will be on how to maintain a healthy mind.