Increasing Activity
You may have heard “Wellness is 80% Nutrition and 20% Exercise.” It’s important to make sure as we start our journey to health that we understand the benefits of both good nutrition and why it’s important to start to increase our activity levels, especially the healthier we get. Staying healthy physically can help you stay healthy emotionally too. If you’re eating the right food and keeping fit, your body will be strong and help you to cope with stress and also fight illness. Getting regular sleep is another really important way to help you maintain your health.
Good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Combined with physical activity, your diet can help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight, reduce your risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote your overall health and wellness. Wellness is a combination of both. You should be more active because it strengthens your heart, lungs, bones and muscles. Gives you more energy and overall body strength, helps control your weight and blood pressure. You can even get pleasure from dancing or doing any of the home videos or classes with your friends and family.
Why is it important to exercise?
Physical activity can improve your health & reduce the risk of developing several diseases like type 2 diabetes, cancer & cardiovascular disease. Physical activity can have immediate & long-term health benefits. Most importantly, regular activity can improve your quality of life.
What are the benefits of regular exercise?
Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help maintain weight loss. When you engage in physical activity, you burn calories. The more intense the activity, the more calories you burn. You don’t need to set aside large chunks of time for exercise to reap weight-loss benefits.
Reasons to Exercise
- To make muscle not fat the more physically fit you are, the more muscle tissue you have. “Active tissue” burns calories while fat just keeps getting fatter.
- To feel better in your body and your mind. When your body & mind are in sync you can’t help but feel good. It’s a wonderful feeling when your endorphins kick in. Exercise is a gift, not a punishment.
- To gain control. When your life seems out of control and you have the desire to eat to compensate, stop, you need to change course & exercise. Research shows that exercise regulates appetite. It turns it down before meals & raises metabolism after meals so you burn calories at a greater rate. You’ll be in better control of food temptations.
- To raise your metabolism. People who are constantly dieting may suffer a 20% reduction in their metabolic rate. This means that weight loss becomes increasingly difficult on fewer calories. The body is in a conservation mode and doesn’t want to give up any fat. You can change that through exercise. The metabolism will normalize and reduce the chance of this happening again.
- For heart health. A regular exercise program helps your heart, blood vessels and lungs work better to circulate oxygen and other nutrients. Your blood cholesterol, triglycerides (type of fat), glucose (blood sugar) and blood pressure may decrease while your heart healthy HDL cholesterol may increase. You may feel more agile and have increased stamina and endurance to tackle the tasks you avoided while overweight.
- For a positive self-image exercise may help you feel more self-confidant about yourself and your accomplishments. This positivism will help improve your overall outlook on life.