What Are The Five Pillars Of Healthy Living?
Believe it or not, changing the way you look involves more than just working out more and eating a healthy diet.
I used to think that fitness was all about working out. As long as you pumped some iron, did a bit of cardio and ate some healthy meals you’d be on your way to a new body.
The more I failed at fitness the more I came to realise there is a lot more to it. If you want a leaner, harder or slimmer body making you stronger and more attractive then you’ll save yourself a lot of time and wasted effort if you discover what are the five pillars of healthy living.
These pillars are not all easy to achieve, in fact let’s face it, none of them are easy. But they are effective at burning flab and growing muscle. If you’ve been trying your darndest to lose that extra stubborn fat then you may like to measure yourself against these five pillars:
The Five Pillars Of Fitness
1. A Healthy Diet: Enjoying A Healthy Diet 90% Of The Time
By healthy I don’t mean counting your calories, nor do I mean eating the right proportions of fat, carbs and protein. I’m talking about eating healthy natural food that’s free of chemical toxins. You will be utterly surprised how much havoc things like synthetic pesticides, petroleum-based fertilizers, antibiotics and growth hormones are having on your body. How about giving yourself a chance and going organic?
2. Adequate Exercise: Working Out On A Consistent And Regular Basis
Having a workout plan integrated with you normal routine is going to automatically supercharge your weight loss/muscle gain goals. Of course if you’re not eating a healthy diet then you may as well forget about exercise. It all starts with what goes in.
3. Getting Enough Sleep: Less Is More, And More Is Less
Numerous studies now prove that the more one sleeps, the more they are likely to lose weight. Circus perfomers have been known to sleep for up to 16 hours a day in order to stay at their optimum physical levels. Don’t worry, most of us don’t have to sleep that long, but I am almost certain that most of the people reading this article are not getting enough sleep each night.
4. Flexibility and Posture: Being As Flexible As Your Body Can Be, With The Optimum Posture For Your Spine
If you want to look better and forget about your posture then you need to stop and think about things. Posture and flexiblity can change the way you look without any extra dieting or exercising. People often ignore this pillar but in my opinion it is just as important as a healthy diet or a full on workout routine.
5. Managing Stress Levels: Loving, Laughing And Living A Fulfilled Life
If you’re igoring the 4th pillar, then you’re probably not even thinking about the 5th pillar. I would like to argue that stress, not cancer is the number one cause of health problems in the western world. With all our progress and technological advancement we have completely forgotten how to enjoy life. We work jobs we don’t enjoy, and deal with stress througout our waken hours to earn money we really don’t need. At what cost? Our health and the way we look.
How are you matching up against these pillars?
You don’t need to rate perfectly for all 5 pillars in order to see success with your fitness goals. But if you want to achieve maximum results, then changing your life around to match and fit inside the area of these 5 pillars is going to the difference between some success and total success.
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Comment by Michelle
14 June 2008
Great article……..those are absolutely right on target! Simple and straight to the point. Being healthy is not difficult but changing life patterns can seem overwhelming. It takes commitment and an awareness that ‘feeling better’ is an option available to all of us. Ultimate health is not just achievable for the few but the masses. I would add 2 things, one shifting your mindset to limitlessness and apply the ‘five rites’
The five Tibetan rites is an ancient exercise used by Tibetan Monks for vitality, youthfulness and health. If you want to read a good article outlining the basic exercises check out http://healthy-holistic-living.com/five-tibetan-rites.html
Comment by Elliot Wilson
16 June 2008
Thanks for the info Michelle, I’d never heard of the five rites before.