Healthy Way of Life

Healthy way of life is popular with the old and the young. What do you need to do to keep healthy?

It is widely known that life expectancy is increasing. But the reason why the average figures are higher than they used to be, say, hundred years ago is not that all people live longer than before. One reason is that, due to medical research, many illnesses were eliminated; the second one is that fewer people die in wars. Generally, the life of modern man is endangered by many factors. One is the increasing pollution of the environment by industry and transport; another one is sedentary lifestyle of people living in cities and towns, that is, the majority of the population of the planet. The third one is the quality of food we eat and water we drink which results in a lot of diseases. The fourth one is that living in big cities leads to epidemics, and even pandemics of many catchy illnesses. Unhealthy life results in the fact that many people are overweight.

The only possible way of preserving your health is, therefore, healthy way of life which includes keeping fit, balanced meals, and giving up unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking alcohol, and, of course, drugs.

Physical fitness is a general state of good physical health. For anyone who really wants to be healthy, fitness has become an integral part of their lives. The fitness boom resulted in a rise in the numbers of people participating in sports and sports activities. It is a well-known fact that even moderate physical activity can protect you from heart diseases and strokes, obesity and influenza. There are many ways of keeping fit. Firstly, you could visit health and fitness clubs. A lot of health and fitness clubs, public leisure centres, huge indoor water parks are very popular among people of all ages. Secondly, regular exercise is necessary. People of different ages can choose or design exercises that will fit them. Some people do aerobics or yoga; others prefer weight training in a gym. Many people prefer walking or jogging which are the cheapest and most accessible sports. Doing some sport or other on a regular basis is the best way of keeping fit. In Russia a number of sports activities are popular among the old and the young: football, swimming, cycling, skiing, skating, fishing, hunting, roller-skating, etc. Mass running competitions gain popularity with Russians. City marathons have become sporting events reported on the radio, television and in the press.

A healthy diet is an important part of staying healthy, too. This diet contains reduced amounts of cholesterol, fat, sugar and salt. It helps protect our body from a wide range of diseases; the most dangerous are heart diseases, liver diseases, and cancer.

To stay healthy one must, of course, abstain from smoking. Everybody knows smoking is hazardous for your health and can lead to fatal diseases like cancer. Smoking should undoubtedly be banned in all public places.

Generation Gap

One of the important problems of all times is a generation gap. Adult’s mentality is different from teenager's. We are the children of two epochs with different views on various subjects. Because of this parents and children sometimes argue with each other.

Some people believe that teenagers today are generally rude, lazy and ill-behaved. Other people, however, think that teenagers are not so bad. Sometimes people don’t understand teenagers. They don’t understand some problems and things which are very important in teenagers’ life, for example the lifestyles, piercing, tattoos, relationship with friends and teachers.

Some people don’t want to understand modern views, ideals and our system of values. They say that teenagers are cruel, brutal, heartless and rude. Yes, today new generation «plays» with smoking, drugs and alcohol, but this doesn’t mean that all teens are really bad! 
On the other hand, today many elderly people look at the world with new eyes. Moreover, they try to understand teenagers’ problems and solve them.

Most of the quarrels between parents and children happen because of children’s marks at school and generation gap. We try to learn better, but if we have a bad mark our parents can shout at us.

In most cases «new generation» doesn’t understand their parents and becomes depressed because of this. To protest against it, teens can shock people around them. That’s why it is considered that teens today are lazy and ill-behaved. Elderly people usually compare their childhood and youth with present, they are always talking about «the good old days». People are said to become wiser with age. Sometimes it is true and sometimes it is not. I think that you can meet a wise man among the old as often as among the young. It is wrong that when wisdom always comes in old age. Sometimes when we talk to adults, they listen only to their own point of view. That’s why some teens don’t like to talk to adults. To sum it up, nowadays everyone has a different view on teen’s life. But, in fact, we should simply learn to understand each other.