How To Ace Your Healthy Lifestyle Essay
Photo by Miriam Alonso
Writing an essay on living a healthy lifestyle? Whether it's on the ways to live healthily or the importance of the lifestyle, this topic is a common one in exams and assignments.
Since this is a well-loved topic in IGCSE and SPM English essay exams, you really want to find a way to make your essay interesting. That’s why we’ve rounded up our four top tips to help your essay stand out.
Healthy Lifestyle Essay Tip #1: Start With An Inviting Intro
Most students will begin with the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle. But to immediately grab your reader’s attention, why not begin with a question:
What does healthy living look like in the 21st century?
To take it to the next level, you could then follow up with some interesting statistics on healthy living. Here are a few for you to include:
65% of Malaysians are practising healthier lifestyles since the pandemic
Almost a quarter of the world considers themselves unhealthy
Only 56% of people think their health is excellent or very good
To conclude your intro, you can set up the rest of your essay for success by saying something different, like this:
While eating well and exercising are important for a healthy lifestyle, there are other habits that we need to practise in the 21st century.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto
Healthy Lifestyle Essay Tip #2: Introduce Fresh, New Ideas To A Familiar Topic
The body of your essay – where your main points live – is arguably the most important part of your essay. This is your opportunity to shine.
Given the two most common SPM English essay questions are on the ways to live healthily and the importance of healthy living, we’ve outlined a few ideas below for both.
Essay Question #1: How To Live A Healthy Lifestyle
Often, students will highlight diets, exercise, and sleep as their main points. While these points are important to leading a healthy lifestyle, you could also choose 1 - 2 main points below to spice up your essay:
Schedule breaks from screens
Spend time out in nature and in the sun
Make time for your loved ones
Practise time-outs from technology
Do the things you love
Increase daily steps
Try meditating
Schedule regular check-ups for your teeth and eyes
One important thing to highlight here is that while this essay question has been around for years, your essay doesn’t have to follow the same, tired response.
Given our lives are so digital today – with online shopping and social networking sites – your essay can take a modern approach to healthy living.
Essay Question #2: The Importance Of Living A Healthy Lifestyle
With this essay question, it’s slightly more difficult to highlight refreshing, new ideas. But fret not, we’ve found a few for you to include:
Protects your mental health
Live longer
Helps you save money (eating junk food, smoking, and drinking sugary drinks are expensive habits)
Fewer health issues and medical expenses
Builds your self-esteem and confidence
Increases your energy and productivity
Healthy Lifestyle Essay Tip #3: Expand On Your Ideas
Now, time to get writing! This step will involve fleshing out your ideas to convince the reader of your point.
To do so, it helps to follow the PEEC format for essay writing. Here’s an example of how to build out an idea:
Point: A healthy lifestyle is important to help build your self-esteem and confidence.
Explanation: By looking after your physical and mental health, you’ll look and feel better.
Example: For example, people with good self-esteem are more mentally prepared to deal with challenges and are less likely to pick up unhealthy habits.
Conclusion: Even though it’s important, most people don’t know the major role emotional well-being plays in their lives.
And if you’d like to add a bit of colour to your essays, you could also include a few idioms as you’re building out your body paragraphs!
Photo by MI PHAM
Healthy Lifestyle Essay Tip #4: End Positively & Confidently
The finish line is in sight and it’s time to make a good final impression! Your conclusion should suggest to your reader that you have accomplished what you set out to prove in your intro.
Here’s what you should include:
Rephrase the final sentence in your first paragraph, i.e. the purpose of your essay
Summarise the main points of your essay in one sentence
End positively to make your reader feel they have learned something
For example, say your essay is on how to live a healthy lifestyle with the introduction outlined in Tip #1 and these main points: schedule breaks from screens, spend time in nature, and do the things you love. This is how you could conclude:
Rephrase: There are many ways to live a healthy life beyond the basics of eating, sleeping, and exercising correctly.
Summarise: By scheduling time away from technology, surrounding yourself with nature and making time for your hobbies, you’ll definitely feel happier and healthier.
End Positively: It’s never too late to change your lifestyle to truly enjoy the benefits of healthy living.
As you can see in our example, we’ve reworded key points and sentences previously used. By following this format, you can conclude with confidence every time.