Easy healthy living tips: The 80/20 rule can simplify healthy living for busy people

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Most people want to start living a healthy lifestyle, but they don't have the time or energy to get started. Despite the overwhelming amount of good information about healthy living, more and more Americans are obese. They're dealing with premature death and obesity-related diseases -- which are largely preventable by living a healthier lifestyle.

Video offers ideas for healthy living made easy
Application of the 80/20 rule can provide a simple solution for healthy living. Especially for very busy individuals and families, applying the 80/20 rule may be the only way they can start living a healthy lifestyle. Why? Healthy living usually requires a lot of discipline and willpower. These requirements tend to discourage currently overweight or obese people who can benefit the most from making changes in their lifestyle.
Today's environment is obesogenic. This type of environment promotes obesity. It is characterized by decreased physical activity and increased intake of food -- especially unhealthy and fattening foods. For example, instead of being more physically active at home or at work, people often sit and work using their computers. Instead of exercising, people often watch television, play video games or surf the Internet to relax. Instead of cooking or preparing meals at home, people often buy fast foods which are usually loaded with fat and calories.
Millions of people in the United States are living a very unhealthy lifestyle. Americans are living such busy lives -- they're often stressed out. They're constantly over-worked, sleep-deprived, budget-challenged and time-starved.
Due to their unhealthy lifestyle, millions of Americans are at risk for dying prematurely or living with obesity, diabetes, hypertension as well as other obesity-related health problems.
The emotional and financial costs for unhealthy living are huge. Middle-class, insured Americans filed 75% of personal bankruptcies due to healthcare costs. People who have chronic diseases not only have to deal with expensive medications and medical equipments -- usually for the rest of their lives -- but, they often have to depend on their families or paid caregivers for nursing care. This puts an enormous financial and emotional burden on the families of people dealing with obesity, chronic diseases and disabilities. Some end up losing their jobs or cutting their work hours in order to care for their loved ones. Others, end up with depression and other mental health problems.
What's the solution?
More people would be able to live a healthier lifestyle if the strategies are easy-to-follow. By applying the 80/20 rule or Pareto’s Principle to living a healthy lifestyle, strategies can be simple enough for anyone to follow.
Forget trying to be perfect -- trying to do everything perfectly right can be too frustrating and overwhelming for most people. Instead, doing what's good enough most of the time may be the easier path to living a healthy lifestyle long-term.
What does this mean?
By focusing on the 20% of activities that can generate 80% of health-promoting results, even busy and stressed out Americans can live a healthier lifestyle.
Here's a brief background: The 80/20 rule is based on an observation by an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). He made the observation that 20% of the people of Italy owned 80% of it’s wealth.
Since Pareto’s time, other studies have also shown that in other areas of life, 80% of results are generated by 20% of activities. The 80/20 rule also applies to living a healthy lifestyle.
A huge advantage of applying the 80/20 rule is that people can avoid wasting a lot of time by not doing 80% of activities that will only generate 20% of results. These time-wasters tend to lead to unnecessary frustration and discouragement for many people.
Instead, people can focus on the best use of their time and energy -- they can take action on 20% of activities that can generate 80% of their results. By maximizing their efficiency and minimizing the roadblocks, more people can stick to a healthier lifestyle instead of giving up. This is particularly important for people just starting out and are more at risk of quitting.
This makes it a lot easier for busy people to focus on what matters most. By focusing on the few changes that can generate the greatest health-promoting results, busy people can achieve more using less time and effort.
What are the few changes that can generate the greatest health-promoting benefits?
*  Sress reduction is critical for healthy living. Chronic stress can lead to stress-related illnesses and health problems. Stress management is absolutely necessary for effective weight loss and long-term weight management. Even people who are exercising regularly and following a healthy diet may not lose weight and belly fat without stress reduction.
*  Getting adequate amount of sleep is an important factor for healthy living. Sleep plays an important role in regulation of endocrine function and metabolism. Chronic sleep deprivation can have significant health risks. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation is associated with increased risk of weight gain and obesity as well as type 2 diabetes.
*  Healthy eating is critical for living a healthy lifestyle. Even busy people can make easy and sustainable changes to their unhealthy diet slowly. For example, people who eat super-sized fast foods often, can start by eating one less super-sized, fast-food meal. Instead, they can exchange it with one regular-sized fast food meal and one healthy salad, fruit or vegetables. In a week or two -- as they re-train their brain and taste buds -- they can exchange one fast-food meal completely with a healthy meal. They can continue to increase the proportion of healthy meals and snacks versus junk food until they are eating healthy meals most of the time. This process can take some time. Occasional cheating by eating an unhealthy food from time to time may not be that bad since it can prevent feelings of deprivation and resulting binge eating.
*  Exercise and physical activity are important for healthy living. Lack of regular exercise is an important contributing factor for the growing obesity epidemic in the United States. The problem is that many people usually don't have a lot of time or energy for physical activity. They are too exhausted to exercise after a stressful day at work or after a long commute. NEAT movements may be solution.
Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) are small movements -- such as, tapping your feet, stretching your legs or standing -- which are essential for a healthy metabolism. These short bursts of exercise throughout the day can add up to a big weight loss.They can burn as many as 500 extra calories a day or even more. NEAT can be the easy way for busy people to increase their physical activity and get regular exercise. In addition, they can include resistance training once a week or more often to boost metabolism further.
The side effects of these healthy changes are almost effortless weight loss and lasting weight control. Looking better and feeling better can be very motivating. So, people are more likely to stick to their healthier lifestyle. These small changes can make a big difference in terms of living well and living longer.
By experiencing the benefits of healthy living -- including looking good, feeling better and having more energy -- previously unhealthy people can be motivated to make even more health-promoting changes. Instead of weekly workouts, maybe increasingly challenging exercises and activities can be done to achieve a more sculpted body and great abs. Instead of just doing 20% of health-promoting activities that can generate 80% of their results, maybe they can finally have the energy and motivation to live a healthy lifestyle most of the time.
By living a healthy lifestyle, people not only can avoid the huge emotional and financial costs of obesity-associated chronic diseases and disabilities, but they can also avoid dying prematurely.