Back on Track: Fitness vs. Health
When you look at what it takes to get on the right track it needn't be painful or horrible. The best way to begin a successful new beginning is to start with realistic goals. These include action steps that can actually be pleasant and continued the rest of your life.
Fitness versus health
There should be a balance between the two. Fitness is the ability to perform physical activity. Health is a balance of all the systems of the body, the nervous, muscular, skeletal, circulatory, digestive, lymphatic, hormonal and all the other systems. There are many athletes who are very fit, but due to bad eating habits and other poor health choices, can actually have a low health status. Looking at goals for long term, of course it is nice to be fit, but being healthy is more important. Exercising too much and picking the wrong physical activity for you can impair your health just as badly as a sedentary lifestyle can.
Walking is one of the best ways to get started on an exercise program since it is a simple, low-stress workout that is not easily overdone. Most studies done about the benefits of exercise and especially cardiovascular health have been done utilizing walking as the main exercise.
Some of the benefits of walking include the following: increased life expectancy; prevention and management of coronary heart disease as well as hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and depression; lower rate of colon cancer, stroke and low back injury.
Remember, inactivity is almost as great a contributor to coronary heart disease and hypertension as cigarette smoking .
As for your diet, simply put, fad diets do not work. Using some common sense and choosing a healthy way to eat the rest of your life is the only way to go. Your daily intake of food should consist of carbohydrates, protein, fat and of course, water. Depending on your height and weight, you should drink anywhere from eight to twelve eight ounce glasses of water per day.
Points to remember:
- Vegetables are carbohydrates and should comprise anywhere from 60-80% of your carbohydrate consumption.
- Eat more carbohydrates than protein and fat. Protein should be obtained mostly through lean meats, fish, chicken, soy and tofu products, eggs, yogurt, and cottage cheese.
- The best fat is through fish such as salmon and lean organic free-range meats and poultry.
- When cooking, try to use mostly olive oil.
- Watch your portions and avoid seconds. Utilize small snacks to avoid a drop in blood sugar, which can increase your hunger and cravings throughout the day.
Food plans that do not include positive reinforcement will not work. Allow yourself two days a week to have a dessert. Remember these changes need to be for a lifetime. And therefore they need to work. May 2005 bring us all good health, happiness and peace.
 Top of page
|
