Keeping your body's health in check and preventing illness and disease is an important part of living a happy and healthy life. There are a large number of stresses in today's world, and taking time to maintain yourself mentally and physically can help you stay ahead of the game. Here are three tips you can implement to help you live a healthier and happier life.

Exercise on a Regular Basis

One of the best ways you can improve your lifestyle and increase your health and mood is by exercising on a regular basis. When you exercise, your body produces more serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter important to your brain function and its health. With more serotonin produced, your mood will improve and your mental ability will increase. Exercise also helps reduce anxiety and depression, lowers your blood pressure, and lowers your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

And you don't have to do strenuous workouts every day, as it is recommended for you to exercise only 30 minutes every day or 150 minutes each week at a moderate level. Activities, such as walking, mowing the lawn, and riding your bike are regular activities that you can complete to fit in your daily exercise.

Eat More Whole Foods

The more processed foods you eat, the more likely your diet is going to be full of preservatives, unhealthy starches and sugars, and unhealthy fats. When you choose to eat food in its natural state, such as with fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and unprocessed meats, you can see a change in your weight and your overall health. When you add in processed foods to your diet, such as white bread, bologna, ketchup, and other foods that have been altered and processed beyond their original forms, your health can be adversely affected.

When foods are processed to make snacks and other packaged products, a great deal of the fiber, protein, nutrients, and vitamins are taken out. By preparing your own meals by using whole foods, you can make an improvement in your diet. There are a growing number of health and whole-food stores which provide a broad selection of whole food-based and organic, healthy products to help you make these changes. Even if you can't overhaul your entire diet all at once, making smaller changes and implementing them one at a time will improve your health.

You can make changes to your diet by substituting a healthier food for a processed food you normally use. For example, switching out regular white pasta for whole wheat pasta or pastas made from vegetables is one idea. You can also make your own pasta sauce from organic tomato sauce and mix in your own seasonings. Or, you can make your own barbecue sauce with a combination of seasonings, tomato paste, and fresh pineapple juice for sweetener. Not only will the food taste better because your using health food products, but it will include more nutrients and you will know exactly what is in it.

Use Mood-Boosting Essential Oils

Essential oils have become more readily available in local health stores and online and have a great number of health benefits when you use them. You can use a basic essential oil diffuser to diffuse the aromatic oils into the air, or you can combine a few drops to a small amount of coconut oil to make a mood-boosting skin moisturizer.

There are many different oils you can choose from to help your mood, such as lavender, chamomile, bergamot, lemon, and orange. To help boost your energy, you can use eucalyptus, cinnamon, basil, spearmint, peppermint, and grapefruit. By inhaling the aroma from an essential oil, it stimulates your brain's limbic system to affect your emotions, behaviors, and long-term memory.