When I travel to office, I often see some people jogging in nearby recreational parks early in the morning. Once reached office, some of my colleague are eating healthy food by calculating the amount of calories for each food type they consume. And on the way going back, my friends will invite me to join them to gym for some exercises. Often we heard the phrase 'healthty lifestyle' in our daily life, but what does it really means?

1. HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Some may define healthy lifestyle by avoiding cigarettes, alcohol and more. Some practices eating only health food and exercises regularly. Wikipedia defines Healthy Lifestyles as one routine which helps to keep and improve people's health and well-being. (Wikipedia - Healthy Lifestyle, 2016). To further elaborate on this, healthy lifestyles generally aims on providing well-balanced lifestyles and the characteristics of healthy lifestyles are as per following:

1. Eat healthy food and Balanced diet

Healthy eating is not about strict dietary limitations, staying unrealistically thin, or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it's about feeling great, having more energy, improving your outlook, and stabilizing your mood. If you feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting nutrition and diet advice out there, you're not alone.

2. Regularly exercises

Exercise and physical activity are a great way to feel better, gain health benefits and have fun. As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Remember to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program, especially if you haven't exercised for a long time, have chronic health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes or arthritis, or you have any concerns.

3. Don't Smoke

If you practiced healthy lifestyle but smokes cigarettes heavily, you're welcoming dangerous entrants into your body. It is not possible to maintain a healthy lifestyle without quitting smoking. Smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness. Every year around 50,000 people in the Malaysia die from smoking, with many more living with debilitating smoking-related illnesses. Smoking increases your risk of developing more than 50 serious health conditions. Some may be fatal and others can cause irreversible long-term damage to your health.

4. Stress management

Don't forget that healthy lifestyles not only cover physical attributes, but also focusses on mental well-being of a person. Stress is one of the mental ill-ness have negative effect to our health. In looking at the causes of stress, remember that your brain comes hard-wired with an alarm system for your protection. When your brain perceives a threat, it signals your body to release a burst of hormones to fuel your capacity for a response. This has been labelled as the "fight-or-flight" response. Once the threat is gone, your body is meant to return to a normal relaxed state. Unfortunately, the nonstop stress of modern life means that your alarm system rarely shuts off. That's why stress management is so important. Stress management gives you a range of tools to reset your alarm system. Without stress management, all too often your body is always on high alert. Over time, high levels of stress lead to serious health problems.

5.Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene habits such as washing your hands and brushing and flossing your teeth will help keep bacteria, viruses, and illnesses at bay. And there are mental as well as physical benefits. Practicing good body hygiene helps you feel good about yourself, which is important for your mental health. 

Lastly, the most important aspect of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is to have a positive outlook and making sure you have fun when committing to these activities. Remember, balance is the key in pretty much everything we do in live, therefore to remember not to overdo on certain activities. Try to enjoy doing this on regular basis instead of forcing yourselves into doing this. If you are not enjoying this, you'll most probably end up with a higher stress output rather than having a good healthy lifestyle. Key item is to ensure all characteristics are well-balanced having a great physical and mental well-being. 

2. EIGHT DIMENSIONS OF COMPLETE STATE OF WELLNESS

Wellness is often hard to define because everyone's sense of wellness and quality of life is different. However, wellness should be the pursuit of continued growth and balance in the eight dimensions of wellness. Wellness is the full-integration of physical, mental and spiritual well-being. It is a complex interaction that leads to quality of life. Because mental health and physical health are linked, problems in one area can impact the other. At the same time, improving your physical health can also benefit your mental health, and vice versa. It is important to make healthy choices for both your physical and mental well-being.

Remember that wellness is not the absence of illness or stress. You can still strive for wellness even if you are experiencing these challenges in your life.

1. Physical Attributes

The physical dimension of wellness includes striving for optimal cardiovascular health, flexibility, strength and maintaining regular physical activity. Physical wellness encourages knowledge about nutrition and activities that contribute to high levels of wellness, including medical self-care and the appropriate use of the health care system.

2. Mental Attributes - Emotions

This measurement of well-being stresses the mindfulness and acknowledgment of one's sentiments. Passionate health is the manner by which well one can perceive and express feelings the extent to which one feels positive about existence and also the capacity to successfully adapt to stretch. This is one of the mental attributes.

3. Mental Attributes - Intellectual

Intellectual wellness includes having a healthy mind by fostering creativity and critical thinking as well as motivating oneself to master new skills. This is another mental attributes.

4. Mental Attributes – Social

The social dimension of wellness includes how we interact with our community and 9environment. This is our ability to create and maintain positive relationships and enjoy being with others- how we communicate our needs and feelings- having support networks, and being a contributing member of the community.

5. Spiritual and Religion

The spiritual dimension of wellness involves a person's exploration of spiritual concepts within themselves and others to discover the purpose of human existence- using personal beliefs and values to choose actions and interpret how they view the world. This often relates to one's religions and by embracing and committing to their religion's belief. For example, for Muslims people we pray five times a day as one of the spiritual fulfilment for Muslims.

6. Financial

No money, no talk. Having a steady flow of income assures a person's financial stability. A financially well person has a realistic understanding of their financial situation. This involves being able to control and maintain a balance of income and expenditures. One should make financial decisions that allow one to save, invest and plan for the future.

7. Environment

Good health by occupying pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being. Environmental wellness is about appreciating and respecting our external environment. It is important to be aware of the limits of the earth's natural resources and understand that all human activity impacts the environment.

8. Occupational and Ambitions

Occupational wellness fulfils a defined role that provides personal satisfaction and enjoyment derived from one's work. One should choose their occupation based on their beliefs, goals, lifestyle, and values.

Maintaining an optimal level of wellness is absolutely crucial to live a higher quality life. Wellness matters. Wellness matters because everything we do and every emotion we feel relates to our well-being. In turn, our well-being directly affects our actions and emotions. It's an ongoing circle. Therefore, it is important for everyone to achieve optimal wellness in order to subdue stress, reduce the risk of illness and ensure positive interactions.

3. WELL-BALANCED DIET

A balanced diet is important because your organs and tissues need proper nutrition to work effectively. Without good nutrition, your body is more prone to disease, infection, fatigue, and poor performance. Children with a poor diet run the risk of growth and developmental problems and poor academic performance. Bad eating habits can persist for the rest of their lives. A key supplement is a supplement that the body can't combine all alone or not to a satisfactory sum - and must be given by the eating diet. These supplements are essential for the body to work properly. The six essential nutrients include carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and water.

1. Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are the main energy source for the brain. Without carbohydrates, the body could not function properly. Sources include fruits, breads and grains, starchy vegetables and sugars. Make at least half of the grains you consume whole grains. Whole grains and fruit are full of fibre, which reduces the risk of coronary heart disease and helps maintain normal blood glucose levels.

2. Protein

Protein is the major structural component of cells and is responsible for the building and repair of body tissues. Protein is broken down into amino acids, which are building blocks of protein. Nine of the 20 amino acids, known as essential amino acids, must be provided in the diet as they cannot be synthesized in the body. Ten to 35 percent of your daily calories should come from lean protein sources such as low-fat meat, dairy, beans or eggs.

3. Vitamin

Vitamin is necessary for the synthesis of collagen, which provides structure to blood vessels, bone and ligaments. Rich sources include citrus fruits, strawberries and peppers. Folate, found in foods, helps to prevent birth defects. Pregnant women or women who plan to become pregnant should speak with their physician about taking a folic acid supplement, the synthetic form of folate, in addition to their diet. Vitamin also helps to maintain calcium homeostasis. It can be found in food sources or synthesized by the sun.

4. Minerals

Sodium helps to maintain fluid volume outside of the cells and helps cells to function normally. Keep intake under 2,400 milligrams per day. Potassium maintains fluid volume inside and outside of cells and prevents the excess rise of blood pressure with increased sodium intake. Rich sources include bananas, potatoes and tomatoes. Calcium helps to maintain and build strong bones and teeth. Include three servings of calcium-rich foods per day including milk, low-fat cheese and yogurt.

5. Water

Water helps to maintain homeostasis in the body and transports nutrients to cells. Water also assists in removing waste products from the body. All beverages and high-moisture foods such as soup and watermelon contain water and count towards your daily water requirement. Adults should consume 25 to 35 millilitres of fluids per kilogram body weight or 2 to 3 litres per day.

At the core of a balanced diet are foods that are low in unnecessary fats and sugars but high in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. With the help of modern days' gadgets such as mobile applications to check nutrients on each type of food consumed, online websites with studies on this, it is easy to identify the type of healthy food. 

4. Therapeutic diet

Therapeutic foods are foods designed for specific, usually nutritional, therapeutic purposes as a form of dietary supplement. The primary examples of therapeutic foods are used for emergency feeding of malnourished children or to supplement the diets of persons with special nutrition requirements, such as the elderly (Wikipedia - Therapeutic food, 2016).

A therapeutic diet is a meal plan that controls the admission of specific nourishments or nutrients. It is a piece of the treatment of a therapeutic condition and are ordinarily endorsed by a doctor and planned by a dietitian. A therapeutic diet is typically an alteration of a standard diet. It is altered or custom-made to fit the nourishment needs of a specific individual such as elderly and those suffered from diabetic illness.

1. Carbohydrates

During digestion, sugars (simple carbohydrates) and starches (complex carbohydrates) break down into blood glucose. Focus on the healthiest carbohydrates, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (beans, peas and lentils) and low-fat dairy products.

2. Fibre Based Food

Dietary fiber includes all parts of plant foods that your body can't digest or absorb. Fiber can decrease the risk of heart disease and help control blood sugar levels. Foods high in fiber include vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes (beans, peas and lentils), whole-wheat flour and wheat bran.

3. Fish 

Fish can be a good alternative to high-fat meats. For example, cod, tuna and halibut have less total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol than do meat and poultry. Fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines and bluefish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which promote heart health by lowering blood fats called triglycerides. However, avoid fried fish and fish with high levels of mercury, such as tilefish, swordfish and king mackerel.

Diabetes expands your danger of coronary illness and stroke by quickening the improvement of stopped up and solidified veins. Foods containing the following can work against your goal of a heart-healthy diet.

1. High fat dairy products

High-fat dairy products and animal proteins such as beef, hot dogs, sausage and bacon contain saturated fats. Get no more than 7 percent of your daily calories from saturated fat.

2. Titbits and Snacks

These types of fats are found in processed snacks, baked goods, shortening and stick margarines and should be avoided completely.

3. Cholesterol

Sources of cholesterol include high-fat dairy products and high-fat animal proteins, egg yolks, shellfish, liver, and other organ meats. Aim for no more than 300 milligrams of cholesterol a day.

Daily plan meal for those suffered from diabetes should be planned well. For example, they can eat pancakes, waffles, veggie pita, fruits, non-fat yogurt and must avoid "Nasi Lemak", "Roti Canai" and similar food. It is vital to avoid high fat dairy products, fattening titbits or snacks and high cholesterol food at all cost. 

5. IDEAL BODY WEIGHT

How much should one person weigh? What is the best way to determine the best and healthiest weight for a person? Some health professionals suggest that calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI) is the best way to decide whether your body weight is ideal. Others say that BMI is inaccurate as it does not account for muscle mass, and that waist-hip ratio is a better method.

It's worth remembering that one person's ideal body weight may be completely different to another's. If you compare yourself to family and friends you risk either aiming too high and if you are surrounded by obese or overweight people or too low and if everyone around you works as a fashion model, artists and others. Even comparing yourself with people outside your immediate surroundings may not work.

But first, let's talk more about the BMI. BMI is a measurement of weight in relation to height. Health authorities worldwide mostly agree that people with a BMI of less than 18.5 are underweight, a BMI of between 18.5 and 25 is ideal, BMI between 25 and 30 is classed as overweight and lastly a person with a BMI over 30 is considered obese.

Referring to table above, we can determine whether we are underweight, normal, overweight or obese. This is a universal acceptance of what is the best weight for your height and is being used globally throughout the world.

However, BMI does not take into account fat distribution around the body. The accumulation of abdominal fat (visceral fat) may be harmful for the heart, kidneys and liver, while fat build-up around the hips and bottom is less hazardous to health.

Another method of determining ideal weight is by calculating the percentage of your body's fat. Our body fat percentage is the weight of our fat divided by our total weight. The result indicates your essential fat as well as storage fat.

Essential fat - this is the amount of fat we need to survive. Women require a higher percentage than men. Essential fat is 2%-5% in men, and 10%-13% in women.
Storage fat - this consists of fat accumulation in adipose tissue, some of which protects our internal organs in the chest and abdomen.
Total body fat percentage - this is essential fat plus storage fat.

Many experts say that calculating body fat percentage is the best way to gauge their fitness level because it is the only measurement that includes the body's true composition. Any male whose body fat percentage is over 25% or female over 31% is either overweight or possibly obese.

There are various ways of calculating a person's body fat percentage. None of them can give a 100% accurate figure, but the estimates are accepted as fairly close. Examples include near-infrared interactions, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, and bioelectrical impedance analysis. Many gyms and doctor's practices have devices that can tell you what your body fat percentage is.

6. Promoting Wellness and Disease Preventions

Giving people the tools to stay healthy is as important as helping them when they are sick. By encouraging healthy lifestyles, we can help reduce preventable diseases. Prevention and wellness include healthy behaviours such as:

• eating a well-balanced diet
• regular physical activity
• annual doctors' visits for physical examinations
• following a doctor's directions, like advice to stop smoking

So why is it important to promote wellness and prevent diseases? Below are some of the reasons:

1. Increase Life Expectancies

By promoting health and wellness through varies sort of public campaigns and others, we can increase the level of life expectancies. For example, currently in Malaysia life expectancies are somewhere around 70 to 90 years old, which is good but we are looking into improving to 100 years plus.

2. Reduce fatal disease counts

Day by day we heard so many news of death caused by cancers, diabetes and others. By promoting health and wellness programme, we can reduce the number of fatal counts and disease counts.

3. Promote safe and healthy environments

When more and more people are practicing a healthy lifestyle, it will in-directly affect the socio-environment as well. For example, if less people are smoking in an area, it will positively reduce the number of people smoking in that area as there will be an influence to society to stop smoking.

4. Better Productivity

Simple logic here. Less people get sick, less people on medical leave, and at the same time improves an organisations productivity which ultimately improve the country's economic growth.

There are so many benefits and factors why promoting wellness and disease prevention is important, however ultimately I believe that it is a person's self-initiative to carry out living a healthy lifestyle. Ultimately, this will benefit ourselves in the long run. 

7. Prevention of Coronary Heart Diseases

You can prevent and control many coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors with heart-healthy lifestyle changes and medicines. Examples of risk factors you can control include high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, and overweight and obesity. Only a few risk factors such as age, gender, and family history can't be controlled.

To reduce your risk of CHD and heart attack, try to control each risk factor you can. The good news is that many lifestyle changes help control several CHD risk factors at the same time. For example, physical activity may lower your blood pressure, help control diabetes and prediabetes, reduce stress, and help control your weight.

A heart-healthy lifestyle can lower the risk of CHD. If you already have CHD, a heart-healthy lifestyle may prevent it from getting worse. Heart-healthy lifestyle changes such as heart-healthy eating, maintaining a healthy weight, managing stress, physical activity and quitting smoking. Many lifestyle habits begin during childhood. Thus, parents and families should encourage their children to make heart-healthy choices, such as following a healthy diet and being physically active. Make following a healthy lifestyle a family goal. Making lifestyle changes can be hard. But if you make these changes as a family, it may be easier for everyone to prevent or control their CHD risk factors.

Maintaining a healthy weight is important for overall health and can lower your risk for coronary heart disease. Aim for a Healthy Weight by following a heart-healthy eating plan and keeping physically active. If you're overweight or obese, try to lose weight. A loss of just 3 percent to 5 percent of your current weight can lower your triglycerides, blood glucose, and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Greater amounts of weight loss can improve blood pressure readings, lower LDL cholesterol, and increase HDL cholesterol.

Research shows that the most commonly reported "trigger" for a heart attack is an emotionally upsetting event particularly one involving anger. Also, some of the ways people cope with stress such as drinking, smoking, or overeating aren't healthy. Learning how to manage stress, relax, and cope with problems can improve your emotional and physical health.

If you smoke, quit. Smoking can raise your risk for coronary heart disease and heart attack and worsen other coronary heart disease risk factors. Talk with your doctor about programs and products that can help you quit smoking. Also, try to avoid second-hand smoke. If you have trouble quitting smoking on your own, consider joining a support group. Many hospitals, workplaces, and community groups offer classes to help people quit smoking

Sometimes lifestyle changes aren't enough to control your blood cholesterol levels. For example, you may need statin medications to control or lower your cholesterol. By lowering your cholesterol level, you can decrease your chance of having a heart attack or stroke. Take all medicines regularly, as your doctor prescribes. Don't change the amount of your medicine or skip a dose unless your doctor tells you to. You should still follow a heart-healthy lifestyle, even if you take medicines to treat your CHD.