This is a guest post from Cathy Scarlett who runs a site over at Garage Gym Planner where she covers many different topics related to health, lifting, nutrition, and obviously planning your own home gym. After reading this article be sure to check out the site for some very useful information. Enjoy.
All of us are aware of the fact that healthy habits, including, but not limited to exercising, eating well and avoiding harmful substances are the logical way to live our lives, but what most of us miss out on is to stop and wonder why we practice them.
More and more research conducted by multiple individuals over the years, beyond any doubt, revealed that the key to lifelong good health is “lifestyle medicine” – which translates to making simple changes in one’s life without changing their lifestyle, per se.
Healthy habits, by their very nature, are difficult to develop and generally require you to change your mindset, entirely. However, if you understand the fact that these so-called sacrifices are nothing when compared to the far-reaching results that they present to you, your entire life will change drastically, for the better.
Most health problems that our generation suffers have their roots buried deep in the fact that we don’t eat healthy food. Most, if not all forms of medical treatments, including Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Western have recognized the fact that our health is mostly determined by our diet.
Another reason to live a healthy life is that unhealthy people generally suffer from physical and mental problems, which serve as a reason for them to be unhappy. Even if you are finding it difficult to get a gym membership, you can opt for a gym in your own garage which is a lot less expensive.
None of what has been said implies that all of us need to hit the gym and have ripped bodies. The point is to live a healthy life with minimal sickness simply by changing slight behavioral traits that we might have while keeping our general lifestyle intact. We understand that in today’s times most people don’t have the time and/or resources to keep aside dedicated to lead a healthier life. Which is why we present these five choices you can make in your daily life to lead a healthier, happier life, while making no changes to your lifestyle.
Make It A Point To Do Some Form Of Physical Activity Regularly
Research that has been on for quite a while now has shown that a sedentary sort of lifestyle has various negative effects on your health. When we say this, we don’t want everyone to hit the gym for hours every day. All that is required are small changes in the choices we make, move around to do those small tasks around you yourself instead of asking somebody else to.
Take the stairs whenever you can. Walk to places that are at a walkable distance instead of taking the car. Take a brisk walk for 30 minutes every day, or if you can’t find that much time at a stretch, two 15 minute bursts of intense activity at different times in the day have proven to have drastic benefits to a person. Studies also suggest that people who change from an inactive lifestyle to a slightly active lifestyle show the most benefits in their health conditions. Every little bit you do is worthwhile.
Check Your Food
How we feel is linked to what we eat in a very complex way. The healthiest approach to eating is by focusing on enhancing your energy and stamina rather than focusing on your weight. Just check your intake of food with high-calorie content and food that isn’t too nutrient-dense. Most Americans need to include fresh whole foods in their diet and maintain distance with highly processed and refined foods. Get your hands on carbohydrate-rich food along with healthy fat to fetch the satisfaction.
Give Yourself a Break
Most of us who are striving for a healthier life generally tend to have the same kind of complaints, that revolve around the fact that they spend hours and hours doing cardio in the gym and still somehow cannot manage to lose even five pounds. There are times when you need to shorten your workouts duration, believe us, overtraining might be a problem that you are not able to shed those unwanted pounds. Your body will tend to ‘plateau’ if it isn’t given enough time to restore itself, which might ultimately lead to poor performance of your body. If you are feeling fatigue, moodiness and lack of enthusiasm more often, it might be right to conclude that you are suffering from over training syndrome. What you now need to focus on is creating periodized programs. This can be done by segregating your workout routine into various training modes, which will prevent you from overtraining by providing rest to your body at definite intervals.
Sign Up for Events
You might or might not want to accept it, but it is a fact that exercising just for the sake of doing it, or for losing weight can get boring. Signing up for an event like a charity run/walk or a cycle race will spice things up a bit. Doing so will give your workout a new purpose, and it is also fun to meet people around you who are also exercising just like you are – not to mention the benefits to NPO’s that organize these, which will double your feel-good factor.
Keep Good Company
You can go ahead and follow all the right routines, but till the time you have people and personal relationships around you which preach unhealthy habits to you, it will remain an uphill battle. The healthiest people are often the people with the healthiest relationships. What you need to do is to make your family and friends to join you for walks, and get them involved when you plan healthier meals.
What all of this comes down to is the fact that no matter how busy you are, simple changes that you make to your lifestyle can go a long way in improving your health. Make the drastic decision to quit smoking, stop drinking, and make your loved ones stop with you. Avoid drinking more than 21 units of alcohol per week and avoid alcohol for at least two days a week. You will understand that minor changes you make right now will have massive consequences on your health, which in turn will make you happier as a person.
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