5 Easy Tips and Tricks for Staying Happy and Healthy

The summer time always seems to bring out huge long lists of tips of getting skinny . Well...how about being healthy? Just a bit of different verbiage, but I think it's a better way to go about it. So in my mind (and from what knowledge I've collected), here are the best ways to BE healthy:

1. Exercise, and find the exercise(s) you enjoy. It's essential to exercise. No way around it. But you might as well enjoy it, right? I cheered in high school and college and loved it - kept me in phenomenal shape. However, once you hit your 20's, cheerleading isn't as easy (awful, I know). So I started doing yoga, and now I'm obsessed! It's not forced like other exercises (running outside and whatnot) for me.
   
2. Do things you love. Remember that life isn't all about work...some play needs to be involved! So even if you have a tight budget, find time for doing things you enjoy: going for a walk outside, hanging out with your family, or even renting an old movie you haven't seen in years!
   
3. Laugh. It's been proven over and over that laughing increase happiness (literally!) and decreases stress. So when something's funny (or maybe even if it isn't), laugh out loud!
4. Eat healthy, but eat what you want. I constantly get criticized for eating "like a guinea pig" with my tofu, carrot, and spinach lunches...but you know what? I love them! They taste good to me. So if even you like chips, you can substitute a healthy alternative like Soy Crisps. My personal vice is ice cream, so I go with the Edy's Slow Churned, it has less fat than normal ice cream, and less sugar than fat free frozen yogurt. The way I figure it, if you have a craving, your stomach won't settle for anything but what you're craving. So why not have a healthy sampling of it?!
5. Watch portion sizing. As Americans, I blame portion sizing for our obesity issues. It's blamed on parents (of course) as the "finish all the food on your plate" rule. When eating, just watch how much you have! Look at those labels and see what the portion size is, and STOP eating when you're full!

There are tons and tons of tips and tricks out there, and they all have some sort of clout. These are just a few that seem to work for me!