It seems like there's always a new fad when it comes to healthy habits. New diets and new types of exercise may tout optimal benefits, but constantly jumping from fad to fad isn't likely to create healthy habits that will last. And it's those healthy habits that you practice regularly that will have an impact on your overall health. But with so many crazes popping up and so much advice out there, it can be tricky to decide what healthy habits are the most important.

If you'd like to live a longer, healthier life, it turns out that there are certain habits you can adopt tp help you meet your objective. According to a study by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, there are specifically five lifestyle factors that can be practiced that are correlated with a longer life. The study analyzed 100,000 people over the course of 34 years and found that people that engaged in these lifestyle factors had a longer lifespan. The researchers even went so far as to conclude that practicing the lifestyle factors together could increase a woman's lifespan by 14 years and a man's lifespan by 12 years. That's quite an impressive claim. Here they are, as quoted from an article from Gazette.

• Avoid smoking. Low risk is defined as never smoking.

• Maintain a healthy weight. Low risk is defined as a Body Mass Index in the range of 18.5 to 24.9. BMI is a ratio of weight to height that, though imperfect, offers an easy assessment of weight status.

• Exercise regularly. Low risk is defined as moderate or vigorous exercise for 30 or more minutes a day.

• Consume moderate amounts of alcohol. Low risk is defined as one-half to one drink a day for women and one-half to two drinks a day for men.

• Maintain an overall healthy diet. Low risk is defined as a diet with high intakes of vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains, polyunsaturated fatty acids and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, and low intakes of red and processed meats, sugar-sweetened beverages, trans fat and sodium.

Now, it might be easy to say that there are no surprises here. These factors seem kind of obvious, right? If you're thinking this, then ask yourself this: do you practice all of these things consistently? If so, good for you! Many people, however, have trouble sticking to a goal in any one of these habits, let alone all of them at the same time. If that sounds more like you, then a simple suggestion is to start small and ease your way to bigger, better things. If you want to eat healthier, add one more fruit or vegetable to your diet each day. If you want to start exercising more, add one 30-minute session to your routine. By starting small, you'll be more likely to stick to the change; you can work your way up to bigger changes over time.