We’ve all had this conversation with our doctors. The physician says, "It would be good if you could lose some weight and get more exercise."

Or we just know we need to do it to improve our overall health. We all know what a healthier lifestyle is, but we never get around to doing what we need to do to have a healthier lifestyle.

Change is always difficult. We have to discard bad habits and adopt new ones.

There are two key changes we have to make to get a healthy lifestyle in these two areas.

We have to find time to exercise.

We need to eat a better, healthier diet.

It sounds simple, but think about it. You have to make time in your busy life to work out, buy and prepare food and how much time do you have?

The first change you have to make is in how you think about your health.

Being healthy needs to be a personal priority in your life. The changes you make actually need to be a permanent commitment. After all the need to exercise and eat a healthy diet never goes away. It’s something we need to do throughout our lives. It requires a life style change that makes living a healthy lifestyle an integral part of your daily life.

You have to stop doing something so you can start doing something better.

So think. What can you stop doing so that you have time for exercising and finding and preparing better food?

Are you motivated enough to make this decision?

Before you say no think about what it can mean to your overall long-term health. People who get regular exercise tend to weigh less, they’re stronger, they may require less medication, they may have a more active life into old age, they may experience less dementia, less diabetes, less heart disease and a myriad of other benefits.

We all have to make hard choices about what we want to spend our available time doing.

Walking, swimming and weight lifting are easy on your joints and promote muscle tone over the long haul. They don’t require a lot of special equipment or coordination. You must dedicate 30 minutes to an hour to these activities every day.

It’s a great opportunity to connect with a child, friend or lover who could also benefit from some exercise. Even people with health challenges or disabilities can benefit from this type of activity.

The big benefits may come with the opportunity to reconnect with important relationships at the same time.

Then get and give some more love during the preparation of healthy meals. People seem to make eating a bigger chore than it has to be or they just grab a fast food meal on the way to somewhere. Fast food is VERY BAD for people. Eat at home instead.

Purchase all your ingredients from the fresh aisles at the grocery store. For a healthy preparation method serve organic vegetables and fruits either raw or steamed along with a little protein and small amounts of healthy fats like olive oil. Be careful not to overdo the carbohydrates because they can cause excessive weight gain.

Pay a lot of attention to flavor quality and pleasure in what you eat and your companions.

Take some good supplements to insure you get enough nutrients.

Get some exercise every day with someone who needs it, too and the attention you give them.

It all has multiple benefits to your health and the emotional well being of you and your loved ones.

Health and well being is connected intimately to our emotions. Make its benefits so important to you that you will never feel motivated to skip what you need so profoundly.