Whether it is through a poor diet, a lack of physical activity or the use of nonessential drugs and alcohol, unhealthy lifestyle choices can greatly affect your health. These choices are often made over the course of a lifetime and can contribute to major chronic diseases. A healthy lifestyle includes regular exercise, a balanced diet and adequate sleep. It also entails avoiding smoking and taking nonessential drugs. Moreover, a healthy lifestyle enables you to heal more quickly and resist illness better.
The word “lifestyle” is a popular term in the media and among those who are interested in personal development. It is often used as a synonym for “diet” or “healthy habits.” However, it is important to understand that lifestyle is much more than just a diet or healthy habits. A lifestyle is a way of life that reflects the choices and priorities of an individual or group. It can include many aspects of an individual’s daily activities, including what they eat, how they spend their free time and who they associate with.
One of the main issues with the concept of lifestyle is that there are many different interpretations of what it entails. Various authors have developed theories that focus on the internal and external dimensions of lifestyle. Those who favor an internal interpretation define lifestyle as a style of personality. This approach, based on the concept of personality elaborated by Alfred Adler, defines lifestyle as the framework of a person’s guiding values and principles, which guide her or him throughout his or her lifetime. This concept is reflected in psychological research such as Milton Rokeach’s work, Arnold Mitchell’s Values Associated with Lifestyle (VALS) and Lynn R. Kahle’s Life Values (LOV) research.
Another definition of lifestyle considers consumption as its starting point. This approach, based on the work of Berkman and Gilson, describes lifestyle as a non-verbal expression that manifests itself in consumption attitudes and behaviours. It considers that lifestyle is an individual’s way of claiming a sense of identity by connecting it with the world consumer class or nation they belong to.
A third theory focuses on the analysis of social structure as a factor in the formation of lifestyles. Thorstein Veblen identifies specific patterns of conspicuous consumption that differentiate social strata he or she regards as inferior from those to which they aspire. Max Weber’s concept of status groups also contributes to this interpretation of lifestyle, defining it as the distinctive element that a status group exhibits and uses as a means to communicate its prestige. This perspective is a significant part of contemporary sociological studies of lifestyles.