Defining: A life in the simplest definition is: a life that demonstrates the ideas, attitudes and behaviors of an individual or group of individuals. The most accurate definition: a life is “a manner of life that exhibits the attitudes, beliefs and values of an individual or group of persons.” It is important to emphasize that the above definition does not intend to imply the validity or importance of social concepts of right and wrong, justice and fairness. These are merely concepts to aid in the understanding of how humans relate to each other and to the world. What the above definition is intended to illustrate is the fact that your definition of life has to be one that suits you and one that allows you to live the life that is most meaningful to you.
What is Lifestyle: The term “Lifetime” is used here in a non-technological sense. The concept of “Lifetime” refers to your life as it evolves and comes to a close, rather than your life being compressed into a defined time frame (i.e. during your life style) or into some sort of statistics (i.e. per capita sales of particular products at certain times).
Living the Lifestyle: The above definition is really a bit narrow. To be quite frank, the lifestyle of the modern individual is extremely diverse and personal to him or her and it is this individual’s interpretation of that lifestyle that will determine its applicability. The fact that you chose to refer to a single person’s “life style” in this article makes it rather difficult for you to apply your definition of LIFESTYLE in the context of the human lifestyle. In this light, the following definition may be more useful: “living the Lifestyle” is an approach to living a healthy, uncomplicated, and productive life as an adult. (This is similar to how the “French Paradox” refers to a unique set of choices that lead to beautiful and creative lives while ignoring some of the social norms of the country in which they were living). (The “Paradise Solution” on the other hand, pertains to a much larger body of ideas and principles regarding healthy living that transcends the definition of LIFESTYLE and actually requires quite a bit more effort on the part of the person who would like to live this way.)
In other words, there are two parts to the question of what LIFESTYLE is and, as such, there can be two correct answers to this question. The first part is whether or not LIFESTYLE is a legitimate scientific term whose usefulness can be judged by the work of scientists who have measured various aspects of human life-beings, habits, and behaviors in order to determine what is “healthy” and what is “unhealthy.” As far as this assessment is concerned, the only conclusion I can draw is that there is agreement among most scientists that the term LIFESTYLE really does refer to a particular set of behaviors and practices that have been associated with a general sense of well being in society. Those behaviors and practices, however, are not the exclusive domain of LIFESTYLE but, rather, are a subset of LIFESTYLE itself.
One aspect of this subset is the common practice of consumption prioritization. That is, in a LIFESTYLE world, people look at their total lifestyle situation and decide which lifestyle choices they’d prefer to make over other lifestyle choices. For example, a person who values total healthiness may decide to eat healthy foods and limit their portion sizes to things like fast food. On the other hand, a person who values social interaction and wants to make connections with other people in a LIFESTYLE world may decide to eat unhealthy foods and consume excessive amounts of alcohol.
Another aspect of this subset is the use of LIFESTYLE as a synonym for HIPHO, or “healthy on trend.” This term was recently coined by sociologist Alfred Adler as a means of describing how a particular brand of clothing relates to current trends regarding healthiness and social media usage. The word lifestyle has its own baggage of cultural meaning and its own sets of expectations. For some, this word denotes trendyness, while for others it refers to the overall experience of being a sociable human being. Changing the way you view “Lifestyle” will not change your health or your habits, but it will certainly open up your horizons toward possibilities and new directions.