Healthy living is a choice that you can make. And you can choose to live your life just the way you want it to be.

However, many people believe that when they grow old, they would be miserable because they would suffer from dementia, osteoporosis, heart diseases and the like. After all, who yearns to grow old, if you have to depend on your children or the folks from the nursing home to hold you by your hands?

In fact, in spite of the enormous amount of money being spent on health care and cancer research, the number of people dying from these diseases has not decreased tremendously. Perhaps the greatest advancement in cancer research is the ability to diagnose and predict the disease, but as for the ability to completely cure a person, it still remains a distant dream.

However, the fact remains that there are knowledge out there on how you can grow old gracefully without having to suffer from these diseases. Therefore, I would try my best to share with you through a series of health articles on how you can choose to live to a ripe old age, and die shorter.

To start of, these are the two ways to living your life by choice and not by chance.

Eating Right. Eat your greens! Well, not just greens but also a balanced meal of proteins, carbohydrates and other minerals. Eating right in this aspect is thus to have a healthy diet. Doctors, nutritionists and even your parents would advise you to eat at least seven servings of fruits and vegetables daily. And some of the health benefits includes an enhanced immune system; weight maintenance; increased energy; decreased risk of most cancers and heart diseases, just to name a few. So it seems that eating right is a win-win solution right?

My record was to eat twenty three slices of pizza, crust and all, when I was twelve! But it was definitely not healthy as I was a chubby boy for a very long time. Only when I started training intensively in water polo, then did I lose some of those fats. Even then, I would devour any meals placed in front of me and I was nick-named “The Bottomless Pit”.

I learnt to eat a balanced meal only when the nutritionist came down to our training camps and taught us about how some foods can give you the right energy boost, whilst others simply made you more lethargic and would not help in recovery.

Sufficient Exercise. Your body is built for movement. Your strong back, arms and leg muscles enables you to walk, run and swim, and not to position yourself in front of a television set watching people walk, run and swim! Even if you don’t feel like running, take a short walk from your office lobby and climb up the stairs. If you need to cross the road, try not to jay walk and instead use the overhead pedestrian bridge. That would really save your life!

I remembered that in my former work place, I had to pay an extremely high fee just to park outdoors. The multi-storey car park was often full and only the highest paid executive could afford to park in it. Hence instead of trying to outbid the rest, and knowing that my salary would never hit that astronomical level in those months, I decided to park my car at a nearby hill which was connected by long flight of steps to my workplace. I walked up and down every day and I realised that my thigh muscles were really getting firmer and stronger! I was also able to breathe properly while climbing after five months! So do yourself a favour and go for a brisk walk after reading this article!

So do you think that you could choose a lead a healthy lifestyle by beginning a consistent exercise programme while embarking on a good balanced diet? Try it and you would see wonders.