Archive for February, 2012
Six Steps To a Healthier Life
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Being sedentary is, as we know now, very detrimental to our health. The reduction in muscle and increase in fat (under the skin, around the organs and throughout muscle) that can occur with a sedentary lifestyle can lead to all kinds of nasty and life-threatening diseases – type 2 diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, osteoporosis and so on. Not to mention feeling lethargic, having back pain, being unable to move quickly when needed, feeling out of breath and the list goes on.
One of the easiest and healthiest things you can do for your body is to get it active, the other is to eat a nutritious diet. The problem for a lot of people who have been sedentary for a while is, how to get started. Below are six simple things you can do to get you started on the right track:
- Join a gym or a group (such as a walking group) in your local area. The easier it is to get there, the more likely you are to go. If you’re lucky enough to live up the road from a gym or other activity, you can warm up by walking there instead of driving.
- Schedule time to exercise; actually write it in your calendar (the one you use regularly). You might have to take some time to plan when would work best for you and it’s a good idea to schedule it for before you sit down to watch TV in the evenings.
- Make your own food for work or school instead of buying it. This way you can control the type of food you’re eating and the quantity and you won’t run into the situation of having to eat a high-calorie, nutritionally deficient muffin because you’re in a hurry.
- Drink more water. Start with a couple of glasses when you wake up in the morning. If nothing else, you’ll have to get up regularly to go to the bathroom, which will get some more activity into your life. Try for at least 8 glasses each day.
- Remove high sugar, artificially sweetened products and processed foods from your pantry and your life. Not only are these items lacking in nutrients, they often don’t require much digestion because they are already in a form that can be absorbed by the body quickly. Digestion, when you eat healthy, unprocessed foods, actually takes a lot of work and your body is designed to do this work, so let it do its job properly by feeding it right.
- Get educated. Buy a good book, like FIT LEAN HEALTHY, 8 SIMPLE STEPS to give you plenty of useful and high-quality information and a plan for getting active and healthy.
Tracey Thatcher
Writer for gofitnow.com
