Have you ever wondered how thin, more importantly – thin and healthy people stay fit? Genetics might have something to do with it, but we’re not talking about naturally skinny people here, we’re talking about fit people with healthy lifestyles. Lifestyles that involve plenty of physical activity, adequate rest, balanced diets, and positive energy. And, of course, looking good is a great by-product of healthy living. What are these ‘healthy habits’ and can a lesser mortal hope to imbibe them in daily living? Let’s find out…

Healthy Habit #1: Pay attention to nutrition
If weight loss is your only goal, you can lose weight like the Twinkie guy…by eating cookies, chocolates, anything as long as you count the calories. But you’ll end up damaging your body in the long run. In the long run it is important that you eat food that is wholesome and nutritious that will keep you full and satiated. A tasty whole fish, a colourful salad with delicious dressings, tasty nuts, eggs prepared in different ways, it’s all part of the deal A plethora of delicious, wholesome food awaits you if you choose to make a change in the way you eat. Health, nutrition and weight loss go hand in hand. Not to mention the impact good nutrition has on your hair and skin too.

Healthy Habit #2: Portion control
Eat healthy food that you love, and what is convenient to prepare. Just eat less of it. No matter what you eat, if you eat too much of it, your body is going to store it. If you go out for lunch with a thin and healthy friend, do observe his or her eating habits. You will notice that she eats until she’s full and happily pushes the plate away when done. If you habitually eat long after your stomach’s full and how, it’s time to start working on portion control. 

Healthy Habit #3: Daily exercise
Most of the healthy people you know are probably disciplined enough to stay active. Remember, if you can watch tv at night, you have the time to go for a walk. Evening walks, gym workouts, swimming sessions, yoga classes over weekends are just some of the activities that are not too hard to commit to. The idea is to keep moving and to use those muscles before the body starts shedding them.

Healthy Habit #4: Know good and bad carbs, fats
Don’t slash out an entire food group altogether, just because you are on a diet. That is neither sustainable nor healthy. Even so, we do need fewer carbs than are normally consumed on a daily basis. Unless we’re athletes or labourers, most of us won’t be able to burn most of the food we eat and the extra glycogen is converted to fat. However, carbs and fats in the right portions are essential to a well-rounded diet. So don’t believe anyone who tells you to cut out fats from your diet. Fat is high in calories, but being so nutritionally dense, it’s a smart, hunger-staving source of fuel. Just know your good fats from the bad ones.

Healthy Habit #5: Know what’s bad for hormonal balance
Huh? What’s this one doing in this list? Well understanding what roles hormones play in managing your weight is a subject for a separate topic altogether, but for now it’s important to know, that hormonal imbalance can cause weight loss, weight gain, obesity, and depression. An unhealthy lifestyle, which comprises of too much alcohol, starvation, junk food, lack of exercise, etc can throw your hormones out of balance, and cause a dysfunctional thyroid hormone and PCOS. If you’re doing everything you can, and cannot lose weight, it could have something to do with hormonal imbalance. 

In order to truly lose weight, and keep it off, it is important to look at your lifestyle from the above mentioned points of view, and try and emulate healthy people, who appear to be managing their weight with ease. 

*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images