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When it comes to health, it’s not rare to hear ideas considering a change in lifestyle. Most of these changes concern healthier diets and increased physical activity. However, wishes don’t come true unless you work on them. But where to start? The first piece of advice – you don’t need to read and believe everything on the Internet. These are some of the myths and facts that mostly all nutritionists and health workers agree on.

Even a little exercise goes a long way

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The most common excuse for missing out on physical activity is the lack of time. Today you can find various types of exercises that can take as little as a couple of minutes. Remember: exercise is not just for losing weight, but for staying healthy as well. Cumulative effects of an inactive lifestyle can cause severe muscle or bone pain, back problems, low energy, heartache and many others. If you are not a fan of power workouts, you might consider the numerous benefits of yoga. With a variety of different styles to choose from (e.g. Iyengar, Kundalini or Vinyasa) you can find the most suitable workout that not only burns calories but helps you concentrate throughout the day and keeps you healthy too.

You DO have time to think about what you eat

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It is also not rare to hear that the lack of time to prepare healthy food is a problem. Luckily, today this problem can be avoided. With specialists like Gym Food Australia, you can have your healthy meal prepared and delivered to you anywhere you wish. Services like these invalidate all time-related excuses. If you have time to order a pizza, then you have time to order a well-balanced protein, carb and fat meal as well. Your body will be much more grateful, even if it might scream ‘pizza’ all the time.

Healthy food is TASTY

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When it comes to green, red and brown food, most people imagine tasteless roots or seeds. Even if you are not a veggie fan, there are still various types of food this coloring you might enjoy. One of the biggest myths that keep people from living on a healthy diet is the idea that healthy food lacks taste. Many bad, but largely popular diets have made this myth even more prevalent. It is important to underline that healthy food is not weight loss food. Extremely healthy whole seed brown rice, for example, has a richer taste than refined white rice. If oatmeal is tasteless to you, adding different fruits and vegetables that suit your taste buds makes your diet colorful and lets you experiment with different taste combinations. How well do you think currants, bananas and kiwis go together? Don’t be too lazy to find out!

Worry about nutrients, NOT calories

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Highly caloric food like carbs is essential, even though ketogenic diets do not agree. Fruits and vegetables have carbs as well, but there are various types of carbohydrates that your body uses differently. Simple carbs that your body easily converts to glucose are essential as energy sources. Same goes for fats, as long as you consume unsaturated fats (like in fish or olive oil) and avoid trans fats (like in baked goods or doughnuts). A handful of roasted almonds can have as good of an energy boost as a Mars chocolate bar, but has the ultimate nutrition combination for a healthy snack. Plus, almonds are delicious!

And if you are still thinking about when to start, the second best time is now, because the best time was yesterday. There is no need for a trigger or special occasion to start thinking about your health. Prevention is key to leading a healthy life and seeing doctors only for a cup of coffee. So, now all is left for you to do is to start making changes for a healthier you.

Contributing Author: Claire Hastings is Australian designer, writer and regular contributor at ripped.me. She’s been writing as long as she can remember, and she is very passionate about fashion, running, other cultures, and her cat. Social media links:  facebook, twitter