Improving Your Health, Improving Your Life

Fitness for life

Improving one's health can be not only challenging, but confusing as well. Knowing when, where, and how to start is what gets everybody to quit as fast as they started.

The first couple of days to a week is the hardest, after you have gotten over that hump it should be easier.

Getting over the hump

As stated before, the first week will be the hardest. You will have to make certain changes that you haven't made in years overnight. Let say for the past five to ten years, you have been eating what you want, and when you want. All of a sudden you have to change your fitness plan, all of a sudden on a Monday everything changes. It usually causes people to have a drastic mood change. It gets easier when you try to look at it as a lifestyle, instead of a diet or a temporary thing. Learning new health skills can make it more exciting. Learning all the different exotic and beautiful meals that you can make, even something that is from a different culture such as Quinoa.

Why change?

You can actually look up the statistics on the life expectancy in the US. Heart disease has been the leading cause of death. Of course, being at a certain weight contributes to that. Let’s not forget about diabetes as well, it has also become more of an epidemic in the US. Not only does changing to a healthy lifestyle give you a longer life expectancy, but it also gives you a better outlook on life. Some people will go for more nice walks through the park, go swimming with the kids, and go on more vacations to places they’ve never been. You will have a better attitude, be more easy going, and happy.

How do you start?

The first thing is to have a good nutritional base. This would be the key to a healthy life. Try to make it a balanced diet instead of something that is one sided. some people like to only eat fruits and some people like to just eat vegetables. It is a preference to how you want to do it, but is has been said, in order to get everything your body needs, it should not only include fruits and vegetables, but whole grains, dairy (in moderation) and protein. Drinking plenty of water and some green tea. Try baking foods instead of frying, and reduce any extra fat. If it ends up being hard to make drastic changes, start with smaller portions. Always set realistic goals. Eating fish and chicken also provides good amounts of protein. Trying keeping alcoholic beverages to a minimum.

Exercise

People actually have a certain goal they want to reach. Some people would like to know how to lose weight in certain areas of their body, and some people want to know how long it takes to build muscle. Each goal requires a little bit of cardio along with weight lifting. Some weight lifting is a little more than the average based on goals.

walking is one of the most calorie burning exercises. You can do a fast paced 10 minute walk, or anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Joining a weight loss class can point you in the right direction if you are not sure of where and how to start. You can also get a personal trainer if you feel like you'd rather be one-on-one with someone that can help you. Some people prefer to be a little more private, in that case, there are really good DVDs that are really beneficial.