Today, lots of people are concerned about their health and fitness.
Everywhere, you can access medical or hi-tech support for that.
But why stay fit?
And should we stop here?
Your body is a good working system, but it needs your help to be more efficient. In other words, to develop its cells well and regulate a good circulation of fluids.
You can choose your methods, from light to hard, but the most important part is routine. To follow that, you should commit to a set plan to keep things organized.
Once you are fit, you can have many common prospects in life. Opportunities will open out to you, like doing activities that are safe within certain fitness levels.
However, while focusing on your physical health, don’t neglect your mental health care.
If you train your mind to stay fit, you can train your body to act on it! Jesse Gonzales
- Instagram.com
What Does It Mean To Be Fit And Healthy?
From the 69% of men who believe they are physically fit, only 13% are really so.
So there’s more to just having good health.
For some, it can mean to push their limits and strive to be fitter and stronger, while many take it as staying in shape. The latter is very important for physical health.
How to live fit and healthy is outlined with acquiring a certain fitness level, or clinically good health status.
Here, the prerequisites are changes for the better in eating habits, social and physical activities, and self-encouragement.
When you eat right, for example, you provide your body with the essential nutrients and fluids that keep you healthy and energetic for your favorite activities.
Go out and interact with friends since it’s how you can take out your negative vibes off your body, as well as get into the right spirit with the pleasure of good company.
Try out any physical activity you find convenient for yourself, from simple exercises to extreme sports.
That’s where you will deliberately work out your muscles and other organs to their potential, and sweat to get rid of excess fat, and toxins off your body.
Encourage yourself often because doing that will make you believe in yourself, and hence, you can expect others to do it too.
Good levels of physical and mental health depend also on your work-life balance, which is clearly the balanced lifestyle definition.
It takes into account the challenging time you spend at work, to develop or test your skills and earn your livelihood.
And conversely, the facile time at home when you can relax with your family.
Why Is It Important to Be Fit And Healthy?
It is so, since everyone needs to have that positive outlook to stay on the better side of things.
As mentioned earlier, you will get to engage in certain activities you can perform effortlessly unless you’re unfit for them.
As a fit person, you keep yourself away from health conditions and diseases.
Physical fitness paves the way for a rugged and dynamic body, while mental fitness builds your confidence and positive mindset.
Being healthy not only favors you or any individual, but it also provides you the ability to help others when needed, as well as inspire them in your direction.
You might not actually be a hero, but your achievements can leave you the feel of being one.
What Constitutes An Active Healthy Lifestyle?
This part gives you easy ways to stay fit. Here are the components of a healthy fit lifestyle:
- Eat nutritious
Contributing to 80% of our overall health, nutrition has to be taken care of since (only) good food keeps us healthy and away from unwanted conditions.
So assure your food is organic, unprocessed and well-cooked to grab all vital nutrients.
- Exercise Regularly
Being inactive can be harmful, just as any random exercise.
What is good is an active routine of exercises to prevent heart diseases, high BP and anxiety, as well as promote good quality sleep.
You get options like regular workouts, meditation, mental health group exercises and yoga, each having their benefits as long as you keep a proper diet plan.
- Enough Quality Sleep
Sleep and efforts are mutually connected.
One enhances the other, in the cycle where the body breaks down during the day and gets built back during sleep, of which 8 hours is recommended.
- Managing Stress
Where the causes appear at every corner in the urban fast-paced environment, our control on events cannot always repair things.
Therefore, it is important to reduce stress, knowing how to concentrate on one thing, to avoid a possible breakdown, bodily loss or stroke.
Consider among meditation, healthy nutrition and deep breathing, before training the mind to think again.
- Exposure to sunlight
This means acquiring light, warmth, and vitamin D for the body. Despite the barriers like offices and indoor activities, we need at least an hour or so of sunlight each day.
It promotes our vitamin D production to absorb calcium for a healthy digestive system and melatonin conservation.
- Connect socially
We, human beings, get ahead with interaction. This means you can reach your full capacity after bonding in purposeful relationships.
Be there for your close ones to connect with them while improving your relationships.
- Take a break to relax and enjoy life
The mind needs a pause often after serious working time. Take it into the world of play, fun, ease and joy to fully relax. Bring yourself back into your favorite games.
You can also train yourself with Elevate – one of Google’s Editors’ Choice mind concentration games to improve focus and attention.
Users with at least 3 times weekly training have shown dramatic gains and enhanced confidence.
- Working enough
This makes us useful and efficient while cutting down on leisurely rest. It might be your professional work or simple household chores, each one its degree.
While you are at it, you can also benefit through the elimination of sweat and toxins.
- Consider supplements
However balanced might be the diet, there might be gaps somewhere.
Along with your main food, you can take supplements for sleep, healthy aging, low stress, physical performance or metabolism boost.
Be sure to respect the amounts prescribed for a good health.
- Cut down on bad habits
The most negative and risk-involving are your bad habits since you can’t stop now will stop you in the end.
The threat can reform you when you know or even doubt what it has in store for you or those around you.
So a decline on your vices to live responsibly is another important step for a healthy lifestyle.
- Take health-related measures
Health is indeed great wealth, so maintenance is compulsory.
It requires you to be proactive, to have regular check-ups for early diagnosis and easier treatment of possible health conditions.
- Engage in your favorite activities
I’m sure you must be having a list of favorite activities and hobbies like me. Carry them out often as doing something passionate leaves you happy and healthy.
Even better if one or more of them compose your job.
- Maintain a hygienic environment
Personal safety brings us to watch out on soil, air. water and light. If one of these comes to be polluted, we are bound to discomfort or even toxicity.
We must ensure they are clean and fresh through good regulation to avoid health compromises.
- Plan your day well
Unlike other resources, time flies by and many do not use or exploit it well.
For a successful and healthy lifestyle, you have to efficiently plan some time for your daily activities, be it eating, playing, working, chatting, sleeping or hygiene.
Fitness Programs
Each program has a specific reason for a person to start with. You can notice from any fitness person’s activities if he/she wants to:
- Build weight or increase metabolism
Trying to lift a bigger weight each time, but with more sets of weight and decreasing the number of repetitions with increasing weight.
- Increase endurance
Training intensely and frequently.
- Loose body fat
Working out cardiovascular exercises such that your heart rate rises.
- Maintain weight
Sticking to the same amount and number of exercise(s) on a regular basis.
You can find the kind of exercise that suits you and helps you to reach your desired fitness level.
Behind it lies four elements you will need to create workouts and are listed below. If well decided, they will make your plan more effective to attain your fitness goals.
Making up the F.I.T.T. principle, they are different for cardio and strength training.
| Element | cardio | strength-training |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Frequency (dependent on workout type and intensity, fitness level, and exercise goals) | (depends on your goal) Moderate exercise 4+ days a week, or intense cardio 3 days a week | (depends on your workouts) Any 2-3 days a week (keeping 1-2 days between sessions) *muscles workout (min. 2 days) on a split routine is more frequent |
| 2. Intensity (hardness of exercise/workout) | (monitored with heart rate monitor, perceived exertion, the talk test) Moderate for steady-state workouts, then high for interval training Mix low, medium and high for different energy stimulations and less overtraining | =exercises, weight lift, number of reps and sets – build muscle stability and endurance: 2 or 3 sets of 12 to 20 reps, with light weights – grow muscle: ~4 sets of 10 to 12 reps each, with light weights – build strength: ~5 sets of 3 reps each, with heavy weights |
| 3. time (duration of exercise per session, dependent on fitness level and workout type) | 30-60min as per guidelines Beginner: 15-20min workout Steady-state: 30-60min run/cardio Interval training (high I): 20-30min Vary intensities and durations in workouts for solid, balanced cardio program | (depends on workout type and schedule) total body workout: 1hr; split routine: <1hr (on fewer muscle groups) |
| type of exercise (chosen for less overuse injuries or weight loss plateaus) | change easily between: running, walking, cycling, dancing, stair-climbing with elliptical trainer (reduces boredom, provides progressive overload) | variable resistance: bands, dumbbells, machines Bodyweight exercises (training without equipment) Total body/Split routine workouts Supersets (same/different muscle groups, on strength and cardio exercises) Pyramid training (sets of increasing weights and decreasing reps, or vice-versa) |
If you start with light cardio exercises on a regular basis at a convenient pace, as a beginner, you will see your body adapting to those workouts where:
- Your body becomes physically efficient
The effort you require will decrease as you keep working out, like for the calories you burn.
- You experience weight loss
Due to new workouts, you will weigh less and hence, tend to burn less calories while roaming freely with a new slimmer body.
- You might get bored
Practising the same workout(s) over and over will eventually be deadening. Here, you could innovate ways to motivate you to exercise.
At this point, you will want to change one or more of the principles, using the above-mentioned guide, to help make a great difference in your workout and response to exercise.
In the end, you’ll be sure your body will be healthy and your mind, focused.
Conclusion
If you are not in your best shape, you can make an essay on staying fit by improving your lifestyle and/or entering fitness programs.
Once you have found the best way to keep fit, you can stick to your planned routine (open to variations) and reap the fruits of your efforts.
Do not forget the two sides of a healthy lifestyle. A good balance between ease and intensity leads to optimal results and good quality of life.
Andreea is a fitness enthusiast with a keen interest in nutrition. She has gone from 98Kg to 70Kg through relentless hard work and getting her nutrition right with the help of a personal trainer.
She writes articles to empower anyone to take control and not let go of their mental and physical health.