Healthy Lifestyle: Definition, Benefits, & Examples

By Eser Yilmaz, M.S., Ph.D.
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
What is a healthy lifestyle? Find out about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and discover tips and ideas you can use to make your life healthier.
*This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products.
We all want to live healthy, happy lives. Some of us are fortunate to lead healthy lifestyles already, but others might be unaware of their harmful habits or find healthier options difficult or impractical. Those of us who know our lifestyles could benefit from a few changes may resolve to implement healthy habits sometime later, such as the first day of the new year or after completing a demanding project at work. 
Yet, many get caught up in a whirlwind of busyness and never fully commit to those resolutions. Often, we continue treating the needs of others or our careers as priorities and ignore our physical and mental health. Thus, eventually, our self-neglect starts chipping away at our well-being.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can improve our general health and mood and extend our life expectancy. In this article, we will define what a healthy lifestyle is and discuss its benefits. We will also learn about healthy lifestyle habits and discover tips to reach your wellness goals.
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What Is A Healthy Lifestyle? (A Definition)

There is more than one way to stay healthy, and if you asked people around you what a healthy lifestyle is, chances are you’d get a different answer every time. This difference stems from the fact that everyone makes choices based on their cultural and personal priorities and can only access options available within their socioeconomic and geographical environments (Cockerham, 2021). Therefore, a healthy lifestyle can be defined as a health-promoting behavior pattern based on available personal choices. 

So what do we mean by health-promoting behavior patterns? Simply put, they might be any habits associated with positive health outcomes as well as the lack of health-harming practices.  With so many choice combinations, it is essential to understand the benefits of healthy choices and distinguish them from unhealthy choices. 

Healthy Lifestyle Benefits

Scientists have long been conducting studies focused on the effects of lifestyle on health and wellbeing. A large meta-analysis that included the health outcome data of over 500,000 individuals concluded that adherence to a healthy lifestyle was linked to lower mortality risk (Loef and Walach, 2012). 

A more recent study tracked the health habits and outcomes of over 120,000 participants for three decades. Individuals that met the researcher’s healthy lifestyle criteria were far less likely to die prematurely because of cardiovascular disease or cancer (Li et al., 2018). But how much lower is the risk of premature deaths when people live healthy lifestyles? According to this study, women with healthy habits lived an average of fourteen years longer than their counterparts with unhealthy lifestyles (Li et al., 2018). In contrast, men with healthy lifestyles lived approximately twelve additional years (Li et al., 2018). 

Of course, a longer lifespan isn’t the only benefit of a healthy lifestyle. A study with over 3,000 men and women between ages 55 and 85 has shown that individuals with healthy lifestyles performed better than their counterparts in all measures (Visser et al., 2018). For instance, the individuals in the healthy lifestyle group were faster in physical agility tests and less likely to display symptoms of depression (Visser et al., 2018). They also had slower declines in cognitive function and social interactions (Visser et al., 2018).

In short, living a healthy lifestyle can help us feel healthier and be less likely to be depressed. Moreover, we might live an additional decade by adopting health-promoting habits. 

Opposite of A Healthy Lifestyle

When we are asked to describe what an unhealthy lifestyle is, most of us can immediately come up with a long list of behaviors that put our health and well-being at risk, even though they may feel good. In short, a lifestyle that includes choices that lead to adverse health outcomes is the opposite of a healthy lifestyle. Here are some ‌behaviors that are typically associated with unhealthy lifestyles. 

  • Binge-eating or overeating
  • Anorexia or other unhealthy caloric restrictions
  • Consuming processed foods and beverages
  • Heavy drinking
  • Smoking
  • Using drugs
  • Gambling
  • Poor hygiene
  • Lack of physical activity
  • Lack of adequate sleep
  • Spending too much time on social media or watching TV
  • Risky sexual behaviors
  • Skipping routine medical and dental checkups

You might have noticed that this list doesn't contain every unhealthy choice. Moreover, several other practices sneak into our routines by appearing healthy (i.e., fad diets and juice cleanses). Nevertheless, these behaviors may end up damaging our well-being in the long run. Although the unhealthy effects of the behaviors on this list and elsewhere are apparent to most, many people find it hard to disengage their lifestyles from one or more of them. Generally, the reason for our inability to quit unhealthy behaviors is trifold; these behaviors feel good, are easily accessible or more effortless than their healthier counterparts, and have become habits in the past.

Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Now that we discussed the behaviors associated with unhealthy lifestyles, you might be wondering about healthy choices. As mentioned earlier, specific healthy lifestyle choices will differ for each individual depending on where they live and other factors, such as socioeconomic status. Yet, most healthy lifestyle options have overarching characteristics. Here are some of the shared features of healthy lifestyles.

  • Eating whole foods instead of processed foods
  • Being mindful about food portions
  • Avoiding substances of abuse
  • Being physically active 
  • Getting adequate sleep
  • Good hygiene habits
  • Practicing safe sex
  • Prioritizing medical and mental care needs

Choosing options that fit one or more of these criteria may be easier said than done, at least initially. Suppose a person spends most of her day in the office, sitting in front of a computer. Then she rushes to pick up her children from school and drives them to their activities. Moreover, having very little time to cook, she picks dinner at a drive-thru most weekday nights. After dinner, she watches a few hours of TV and falls asleep on the couch without even brushing her teeth. Changes are, this person might feel quite guilty about her lack of physical activity, food choices, and evening habits. But with so many aspects of her lifestyle being less than ideal, she might feel overwhelmed by the thought of changing them. So let’s learn how to make healthy lifestyle changes without getting demoralized.

Making Healthy Lifestyle Changes

Making healthy lifestyle changes starts with a step-by-step plan. In other words, before you start doing many things differently at once, you might want to assess what parts of your lifestyle you’d like to improve and how you might be able to improve them. Then, you can determine which changes you’d like to make first and how much time you might need to turn that change into a habit. Therefore, the key to making healthy lifestyle changes is to start small and make only one realistic change at a time. 

Taking small steps might appear slow and ineffective during moments when you feel self-motivated to quit all harmful habits cold turkey, and you might be tempted to drastically change every aspect of your life. After all, you may want to live a healthier life as soon as you can and reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle sooner than later. Nonetheless, many people become frustrated when they try to change too much in a brief span and cause themselves unnecessary stress. Taking small steps ensures that more of the progress you make is successful before moving on to the next. In addition, small and carefully planned steps also allow you to try alternatives if the change you try doesn’t work out so that you find something else that works for you.

Building Healthy Lifestyle Habits

The goal of making healthy lifestyle changes is to build healthy habits. Yet, transforming a change into a solid habit is a challenge in and of itself. But how can we make lifestyle changes that will stand the test of time?

One thing you might want to keep in mind is that, besides careful planning, changes in your lifestyle will need a long-term commitment. You might have observed a friend or a loved one resolve to lose weight. They might have gone on a restrictive diet and spent many hours at the gym. Yet, soon after reaching their weight target, they might have returned to their old eating habits and put away their gym bag in the far corner of their closet, slowly gaining all the weight they had shed. Outcomes like this are associated with a lack of commitment to behavioral changes. The secret to building healthy habits that last is to choose sustainable behaviors that you can stick to.

Choose healthy habits that you enjoy
So how do we know if a behavior is sustainable? The sustainability of a behavior depends on how much time and effort it requires and whether we are willing to commit to it day after day. Thus, habits that require the least time and effort might be easier to incorporate into our daily lives. Yet, there is another secret ingredient to make habits stick: likability. As discussed earlier, many people find detrimental behaviors hard to shed because they feel good. It becomes even more challenging if we attempt to replace them with habits that we don’t enjoy at all. Therefore, if we want our habits to last a long time, we might pick those we like and enjoy doing.

Examples of healthy habits
For instance, at this stage of my career, I ‌spend most of my day sitting on my office chair. Hence, about five years ago, I decided to increase my physical activity level. Some of my close friends regularly work out at a gym, and I followed suit. Unfortunately, I felt awkward every time I stepped into the weight room and tried to figure out how to use any of the machines. Similarly, running on a treadmill made my legs feel like noodles and left my head spinning every time I stepped down. Using an elliptical or riding a stationary bike wasn’t exciting, either. So, I decided to try something I’d enjoy. Remembering that I used to love hiking while in college, I started walking on nearby trails. Soon afterward, I adopted my dog from a shelter, and the two of us have been walking or running three to four miles most days for the past four years, rain or shine. What transformed my walks into a lifestyle habit? Enjoying fresh air and the company of my canine friend.

Social support and healthy habits
Speaking of the company of friends, another factor that may help lifestyle changes stick is the support from others. If you have family and friends who encourage you to take healthy steps and cheer you on your journey, you may find it easier to commit to those changes. If you don’t have a support system, no worries. You might be able to find support groups or organizations where you live or online and interact with others doing similar changes. Moreover, you might also use apps to help you set goals, send you reminders, and display daily affirmations.

How to Have A Healthy Lifestyle

If you are changing how you live to have a healthy lifestyle, you may doubt whether you’ll ever succeed, especially when old habits lure you back. If you find yourself in this struggle, try to remember that you need to be patient while changing your routines slightly and gradually. Eventually, your tiny steps will add up, become habits, and you’ll reach your personal goals.

Sometimes, when we think about healthy lifestyles, we think of strenuous exercises and constant dieting. This way of thinking is neither valid nor encouraging. First‌, it ignores the essential quality of healthy lifestyles: the lack of unhealthy habits such as alcohol or drug abuse. Second, although a healthy lifestyle involves physical activity and healthy eating, these behaviors should feel pleasurable instead of painful or restrictive. We will discuss exercise and dieting below, but before we get there, here is a video that touches upon this topic.

Video: How To Build Healthy Habits Without Dieting

Exercises for A Healthy Lifestyle

​​​​Lack of physical activity has many harmful consequences, ranging from cardiovascular disease to atrophied muscles and metabolic syndrome (Bowden Davies et al., 2019). Unfortunately, many adults in the U.S. don’t get enough physical activity. But how much activity is considered enough? According to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, adults should aim for a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week (WHO, 2010). Moderate activity is defined as an exercise that increases your heart rate by approximately 40% from its resting state, whereas a vigorous activity raises it by 60% or higher (MacIntosh et al., 2021).
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If you have been mostly inactive lately or want to find out which exercises you should incorporate, you might want to consider factors such as your age, body composition, and general fitness level. You can start with easy workouts and progress slowly if you are healthy. Yet, it is always a good idea to talk to a health care professional about any existing health conditions or concerns before starting any exercise routine. 

The other factors you should consider are the time, space, and equipment requirements for your chosen activity. Some exercises can be done easily at home with little to no equipment. Others require you to purchase a membership at a gym or a club, or you may need special equipment and lessons. 

Whatever activity you pick should not only fit your schedule but also fit your budget. Moreover, it should be fun or pleasurable for you so that you’d look forward to it instead of dreading it. If you are looking for an activity to incorporate into your routine, here are several moderate and vigorous exercise suggestions you may want to consider (American Heart Association, 2022; MacIntosh et al., 2021), some of which may surprise you.

Moderate-intensity activities
  • Walking briskly 
  • Water aerobics
  • Riding a bicycle (slow)
  • Dancing
  • Gardening
  • Tennis (doubles)
  • Washing your car
  • Raking leaves
  • Cleaning activities (vacuuming, mopping, etc.)

High-intensity activities
  • Running
  • Hiking uphill
  • Jumping rope
  • Swimming laps
  • Riding a bicycle (fast)
  • Farming activities
  • Tennis (singles)
  • Shoveling snow
  • Basketball, hockey, soccer, and other running-based sports
  • Martial arts

Diet for A Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy diet has two primary goals: prevent malnutrition and maintain a healthy weight. Unfortunately, many people don’t eat whole foods and consume high amounts of unhealthy fats (i.e., saturated and trans fats) and added sugars. According to the United States National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a healthy diet should include lean proteins (i.e., nuts, beans, fish, poultry, eggs, etc.) and limit added sugars, unhealthy fats, and excess sodium. Furthermore, it should include several servings of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains for sufficient fiber, calorie, and micronutrient (i.e., vitamins and minerals) intake (NHLBI, 2022). Here is an informative video explaining ideal food choices for humans from a historical perspective.

Video: Healthy Lifestyle - The Ideal Diet for Humans ​

When making adjustments to your diet, you might want to keep in mind that you shouldn’t restrict your daily calorie intake too much (NHLBI, 2022). Also, a healthy diet doesn’t mean eating bland or unappealing foods. For instance, if you don’t like Brussels sprouts, you can exclude them and eat other vegetables you enjoy. Moreover, you can season your meals any way you want and enjoy every bite. 

Healthy Lifestyle Tips

The first key to a healthy lifestyle is avoiding harmful activities. But how can we avoid harmful activities? The easiest option is making them harder. For instance, if you ‌eat a bag of chips every day, you might stop buying chips and stock your kitchen with healthier options instead. 

The second key to a healthy lifestyle is doing healthy things you enjoy. It is easier to turn a healthy activity into a lifelong habit if you enjoy doing it. Naturally, our tastes change over time, and something you like doing now may not be as pleasurable when you get older. Hence, you might want to try different activities once in a while and incorporate new habits if they suit your needs and give you joy.

The last key is to take care of your general well-being. This not only includes attending your routine medical and dental checkups but also having good hygiene to keep your body healthy and getting enough sleep to recharge your body and mind. Using these three keys may allow you to unlock a healthy and happy lifestyle for good.

Quotes About a Healthy Lifestyle

  • “It is health that is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.” – Mahatma Gandhi
  • “To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” – Buddha
  • “Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.” – Plato
  • “The groundwork for all happiness is good health.” – Leigh Hunt
  • “The greatest wealth is health.” – Virgil
  • “The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” – Ann Wigmore

Articles Related to Healthy Lifestyle

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books Related to Healthy Lifestyle​

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on A Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle allows you to feel your best day after day and add years to your life. Gradually replacing harmful habits with beneficial ones that you enjoy can help you attain a healthy lifestyle and increase your well-being.

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