Lifestyle is the attitudes, behaviors, interests, and behavioral orientations of a person, community, or society. The word was first introduced by Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler in his famous 1929 treatise, The Case of Miss R. With the implied meaning of “the basic nature of a human being as established early in life”. I define it today as “the patterns of thinking and behaving that individuals apply to their own lives”. It can be seen to have four essential elements:
These four elements of Lifestyle our attitudes, behaviors, objectives, and tangible factors. Attitudes and behaviors are your thoughts and feelings about life. Your objectives can be in many shapes and forms, but they all have one underlying thing-to serve you well. Even within a community, you would have many different lifestyles prevailing. Here we will focus on tangible factors as these directly affect your quality of life.
Healthy Lifestyles There are many ways to identify what a healthy lifestyle is, but the most popular is to refer to the ones that promote longevity and well-being. For example, do you smoke? Do you drink alcohol? Are you inactive or are you active during the day? All these behaviors affect your quality of life. If you don’t smoke, you are likely living a healthy and active lifestyle, if you drink, your lifestyle might include unhealthy practices such as binge drinking, which can be harmful both physically and socially.
Developing Healthy Lifestyle Changes One of the keys to living a healthy lifestyle is making healthy lifestyle changes. These lifestyle changes can range from eating healthy to engaging in physical activities. When you make healthy lifestyle changes, your body will begin to respond naturally and you won’t find yourself struggling with weight gain and related health issues. If you are thinking about making changes to your lifestyle, consider what you are doing now and ask yourself if it’s helping your body cope with the challenges you’re facing.
Minimalist Lifestyle For those of us who aren’t active or who lead a busy lifestyle, it’s difficult to find time to exercise or to plan a healthy, productive meal. A healthier, minimalist lifestyle offers plenty of time to get enough exercise and also gives you more time to eat a satisfying meal. Many animal rights activists advocate a vegetarian lifestyle or a vegan lifestyle and if you’re considering either of these alternatives, you may benefit from a healthier, simpler way of eating. These types of lifestyles may seem a bit extreme, but many people report improved health and fewer health problems after making the switch.
Changing Your Habits Veganism and a minimalist lifestyle may seem different, but many health advocates have combined these two lifestyles into one – they call it a vegan approach. Vegans reduce their intake of animal products, while also reducing the amount of fruits, vegetables, and other dietary sources of protein. A vegan diet is low in saturated fat, salt, sugar, and other dietary allergens. A minimalist approach to food allows you to enjoy delicious meals and to have greater ease and enjoyment with your food choices.
Changing Your Life Style There are many ways in which you can make dietary and lifestyle changes to suite your needs. De Vie offers many recipes for healthy, guilt-free meals. Her book offers advice on how to eat right from the start and how to avoid bad habits you may have developed over the years. Some of the ideas she discusses may seem extreme, but there are some lifestyle changes you can make to accommodate your health and wellness needs. She focuses on the need to reduce stress in her writing, and she discusses how being a minimalist allows her to achieve this through stress management techniques.
Change doesn’t always come easy in our sometimes highly charged and competitive world. Changing your life styles to suit your needs can be one of the most satisfying things you can do. Changing your lifestyle to suit your lifestyle needs is also one of the most difficult things you’ll ever do! De Vie’s book is a great reference guide that includes lifestyle examples, food lists, shopping lists, nutritional information, shopping tips, shopping lists for other dieters, and even some exercises. The lifestyle you live every day is reflected in your thinking, your relationships, and your life style, so why not take control of it, and make a positive change for the better?
