Vocabulary to speak about family and friends a lifelong friend

Examiner: What part of your lifestyle would you most like to make healthier?
Rose: That's a hard question! Every year I make a resolution to do more physical exercise, eat healthy foods, adopt healthy eating habits and to go to bed earlier in order to be more effective and productive at work and when I study but this is much easier said than done. Unhealthy habits such as poor diet are something I struggle with even though I know of the health risks such as reduced mental health and heart disease, and I don't want to develop a medical condition which would impair my health. I spoke to a medical practitioner who advised me to stop eating junk food, avoid unhealthy habits, and instead to try eating healthily. He offered great advice to promote healthier lifestyle options.
Weeks ago I took up ballroom dancing as a form of physical fitness with some colleagues from work in an effort to improve my healthy habits, and this has given us the opportunity to keep fit, practice healthy living, learn new skilful dance techniques, and have lots of fun simultaneously! I'd love to be as good as the dancers on Strictly Come Dancing which is a very popular TV show.
IELTS speaking part 2 style question
Describe a change you have made to benefit your own healthy lifestyle
You should say:

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  What it is
  
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  Why you decided to do it
  
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  How you have benefitted from it
  
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  and explain why you would recommend it to others
  

Diana: I have always been interested in Health, Diet and Nutrition as I am aware that keeping healthy is extremely important to function successfully, sleep well and to prevent illness. I have been tempted by diets over the years, but my determination for achieving healthy eating habits usually fluctuates quite a lot and they can be pretty boring, as well as rigorous. A healthy diet and health conscious attitude can help me maintain a healthy lifestyle and avoid bad health habits. However, recently one of my flatmates adopted a vegan diet and, because we share a kitchen, I decided to be as broad-minded as possible and learn from her!
There's been a lot of stuff in the media about how people worry about how unhealthy it is to eat too much meat, especially red meat and how people continue bad habits. I was already fairly healthy and ate a balanced diet without too many bad habits, but when I started to read about veganism and the potential benefits of not eating meat, I was hooked and determined to make some healthy lifestyle changes myself.
In fact, I recently watched a documentary on Netflix about a professional, health conscious sportsman who was even more successful after becoming vegan, and this was revealing and surprising, as I had imagined that he would have needed vast quantities of meat to be strong. (note – grammar third conditional which is quite unusual!)
At first, the cooking was both time consuming and challenging, involving a vast range of new ingredients, techniques and recipe books, but it was fun at the same time, and our kitchen soon became a hub of not just friends but delicious odours!
After a few months, I decided to make this change and, whilst I do occasionally miss not enjoying a large steak, I feel healthier, have lost weight, feel energised and am much more alert at work. I know too that I have cut down my risk of serious disease such as a stroke or heart attack and this is reassuring.
I would definitely recommend cutting down on red meat and processed food to all my friends who want to stay healthy, even those who are rather sceptical about vegans and argue that this diet is too complicated and limited. We all know that the over production of meat is damaging to the environment and as an added bonus, being partly vegan has definitely saved me money as the price of meat has risen steadily in price over the past few years.