Best Choice for Healthier Life, Exercise or Healthy Eating or Both?
In life, we often have two choices:
- left or right
- white bread or wheat
- Clinton or Trump
But, if you want to live a healthier life, you can’t choose one of two options; you have to make two choices:
- Eating healthy
- Focusing on an exercise program.
The problem is: when someone makes sudden, drastic changes in two major areas of their life, it can set them up for failure.
Here, we will discuss Importance of Exercise and later about Healthy Eating.
It’s important to remember that we have evolved from nomadic ancestors who spent all their time moving around in search of food and shelter, travelling large distances on a daily basis. Our bodies are designed and have evolved to be regularly active.
In the same way that a sports car is designed to go fast, we are designed to move. If the sports car is taken out once a week for a 3 mile round trip through a town centre then it would probably develop engine problems fairly quickly.
Over time people too develop problems if they sit down all day at a desk or in front of the TV and minimize the amount of exercise they do.
The Benefits of Exercise:
There are many benefits of regular exercise and maintaining fitness and these include:
- Exercise increases energy levels
- Exercise improves muscle strength
- Exercise can help you to maintain a healthy weight
- Exercise improves brain function
- Exercise is good for your heart
- Regular exercise lowers your risk of developing type 2 diabetes
- Exercise enhances your immune system
- Staying active reduces the likelihood of developing some degenerative bone diseases
- Exercise may help to reduce the risk of certain cancers
- Active people tend to sleep better
- Exercise improves your mood and gives you an improved sense of well-being
- Exercise can help prevent and treat mental illnesses like depression
- Keeping fit can reduce some of the effects of aging
- Exercise can be fun!
Getting fit is not just about running on a treadmill for hours in your local gym, it can be
- a dance class
- a new hobby like fencing or mountain biking.
- It could be a group or
- Team activity like football
- a karate class
Whatever form of exercise you choose, you’ll almost certainly meet new people and may make new friends.
How Much Should you Exercise?
You should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.
These recommendations can be achieved through 30-60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (five times a week) or 20-60 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise (three times a week) or a combination of both types.
One continuous session combined with multiple shorter sessions (of at least 10 minutes) is also acceptable.
For those starting out, gradual progression of exercise time, frequency and intensity is recommended. You are more likely to stay on track and avoid injury if you start gently.
Even if you can’t reach these minimum targets you can still benefit from some activity.
Overall though, any activity that gets you moving, gets your heart rate up and gives you enough pleasure to do it regularly and often is good for you in almost every way.
Have fun, be healthy and feel good!
Various types of exercises and their benefits
There are different kinds of exercise suited to different constitutions. The forms of exercise that are almost always recommended nowadays are:
- Morning walk is the first is more common and is suited to almost all constitutions.
- Gymnastic exercises are best gone through under the guidance of an experienced teacher. To weak constitutions, gymnastics may be positively injurious.
- Free-hand exercises can be easily practiced by all.
- Yoga helps us to control both mind and body.
- Sports and exercise
- Sports such as swimming, climbing, cricket, football, hockey, basket-ball, etc. are simple and quite popular. They were both useful and amusing.
- Walking as an exercise is not entertaining except in congenial company or through a place where the scenery is interesting.
- It is admitted by all that walking is the most suitable exercise for all old people.
The games of cricket, football, soccer, etc. combines social enjoyment with physical exercise and has now become popular sports.
- Rowing and riding are also good forms of exercise but the latter is not open to the poorer classes.
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