What do you understand by this statement?

I understand that it is a statement related to health, since apples are healthy, and they are not just literally "apples" but they could be related to fruits and vegetables in general. By an apple "a day" means that the apple, fruit or vegetable is to be eaten daily, not once in a while. "Keeps the doctor away" stands for being healthy so we don't have to see a doctor/go to a hospital if we get sick. Doctors are expensive, so we better keep them away.
Summarizing, I think a good interpretation of the statement would be that we should eat fruits and vegetables daily, or simply eat healthy because our nutrition is closely related to our well-being, therefore, if we are in good health conditions, the possibilities of having to go to a hospital for getting sick are considerably low, thus, reducing the expenses for not having to pay a doctor.

What are some practices/habits you do to make sure you're healthy? (State and give the importance in your own words)

I consider I don't have many healthy habits, and I should have. The healthier practice I can think of, consists of drinking water regularly during the day. This is important, and as simple or silly as it sounds, I recommend it to everyone. Why? because in the past, when I was younger, I used to drink less than a grass of water a day, no lie. I didn't feel thirsty, so I thought it was OK if I didn't drink water. This was causing me to be always constipated, which was awful. I had many problems regarding the basic functions we're supposed to do (if you know what I mean), my internal organs were begging me to drink water but I didn't know it.

Then, when I started working 6 years ago, I started feeling the need of drinking water more regularly. I did, so the changes I noticed in my body were very notorious. They were improvements, actually. Little by little I started having more energy and having less trouble with the "basic functions."

Walking would be another healthy habit that I can tell, only that I don't do it because of the mere habit of walking, but because I try not to spend so much money on transportation, since it is hard to find cash here because of the currency devaluation. However, it is said that it helps with circulation, cholesterol, and many other things, but in my case, it has helped me to deal with stress and anger.

How did you discover these activities? Did you discover the activities/habits by yourself or someone told recommended them to you?

As I said before, I started drinking more water when I had my first job. As a teacher, I had to talk a lot, and when you're teaching a second language (English in my case), you have to make pronunciation demonstrations/ practices constantly, so it makes your throat go dry. It was a must for me to have water by my side, it didn't matter if it was cold or warm, I needed it. That's how I "discovered" the benefit. And about walking... Well, poverty along with a chaotic economy in which the public transportation has become luxury made me adopt the habit.

As a matter of fact, the recommendations were always there: "you should drink more water", "go take a walk, don't be lazy" were things I was told my whole life, but I used to ignore for being too young to understand. Now I'm one of them, I became the one who's always recommending to drink more water and walk. Ironies, huh?

What are the health benefits of the habit(s)?

Drinking water has so many benefits that I will probably be short of information here, but I will list what I consider the most important ones:
-Digestion: Since water is the universal natural thinner, our organism depends on it in order to have a correct digestion process. Having no water, we would be forcing our organism.
-Kidneys: Our kidneys function depend a lot on water. They help us get our organism clean, so lack of water is especially perjudicial for our kidneys, and also the quality of water. The cleaner the water, the better they work, because they remove waste from our body and help balance our fluids, and of course, it prevents kidney stones.
-Energy: Just like plants, we need water as a source of energy.
-Nutrition: As I mentioned before, water is the universal natural thinner. It supports our nutrient absorption for that reason. It improves metabolism as well.
-Prevention: Water helps preventing lots of things such as bad breath, cramps, headaches, dehydration (an obvious one, isn't it), constipation, kidney stones, indigestion, etc
-Weight: Whoever says that water helps in losing weight is both lying and is not lying. The lie would be that only drinking water is enough to lose weight, but what isn't a lie is that water supports weight loss more that we think.
And there are many, many more benefits.

Walking also has some benefits. I know a few ones:
-Circulation: Walking is good for the heart and it improves the circulation of blood in our bodies.
-Weight: Since it helps us burn calories, it is highly recommended for loss weight. What's more, it works as an exercise and helps tone our legs.
-Metabolism: Like water, it helps our metabolism.
-Stress, anxiety, depression, anger: In my experience, it has helped me a lot when it comes to dealing with these problems, especially with stress and anger, since depression and anxiety are way more difficult to be dealt with.

Do you think everyone could engage in these habits? Explain

Indeed, anyone can engage in those simple habits, they are among the most common things we can do, and they don't require great efforts or money. Only walking might take some time, but it depends on each person.

However, the same way it would happen with any habit we're not used to but want to make part of our lives, it may be hard at first. My sister, for instance, she can't handle it. Drinking water has been like a kind of sacrifice for her, and walking is like an extreme punishment she can't keep up with. We are all different, what is easy for some of us, is hard for some others.

What health tips would you give steemians?

Besides drinking water and walking regularly, I would recommend:
-Sleeping early, so the body can rest and wake up with energy.
-Not smoking! This is important. No matter how much stress liberator it is, just quit smoking, it only increases your chances of getting cancer.
-Drinking natural tea: There are so many plants we have around that are beneficial for us and we don't take them into consideration, plus, a good hot tea is relaxing.
-Cleaning the house: As simple as it sounds, it is a healthy habit that prevents illnesses caused by flies, bacteria, rats, etc and also removing dust in our houses keep us away from allergies.
-Not using cotton tips for cleaning your ears! Oh, this is a very personal one. I suffer from vertigo, which is a condition that has its origin in our ears. When cleaning them with cotton tips, we push our wax inside, causing it to crystallize and making us lose balance, get dizzy, vomit and more. Take this advice seriously, please!

Thank you for reading!

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