What does health look like to you? When you picture the best version of yourself, what do you see? Six-pack abs, a muscular body, or perhaps a lean and toned physique with a slender build? And how about your mental state? Are you fulfilled in your career? Your personal life? Are you happy? If you are frustrated with your current level of fitness or perhaps you’ve been experiencing a decline in your mental state and you want to turn it around.
Table Of Contents
Here are 10 ways to take control of your health and fitness.
Exercise Consistently
Exercising regularly is one of the most important aspects of achieving a healthy mind and body. We all know that physical activity can help manage body weight, but it can also improve brain health and strengthen your bones alongside your muscles. Strength training in particular is beneficial for women as they have a much higher risk of developing osteoporosis or brittle bones compared to men. For more info on specific exercises and help with improving your form, check out this interesting content.
The key to seeing results, however, is to exercise on a consistent schedule and these days it is easier than you might think. If the gym is not really your scene there are a myriad of at-home fitness programs available to you and many of them are free. Additionally, things like fitness apps and online personal trainers can help keep you accountable if you need extra support.
Wearable Fitness Tech
Wearable fitness technology like fitness trackers, smartwatches, and heart rate monitors have been a total game changer and have taken the world by storm in 2022. These devices make it almost too easy to collect important health metrics that give insight into your workout routine and increase your success rate. Some of these include counting steps, tracking your heart rate, calories, sitting and sleeping time, blood pressure, and respiratory rate.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Eating a healthy diet is absolutely vital to maintaining a good quality of life, but what works for some may not work for others. It’s not a one size fits all concept, and it might take a bit of trial and error to figure out what your body responds well to. Your diet should consist of a variety of foods that supply the nutrients it needs to function effectively. On top of that, you should try to avoid processed sugary foods as much as possible.
Prioritize Sleep
Sleep is incredibly important to maintaining our health. It affects every process of the body from our mental and physical functions to our ability to fight off diseases. It allows us to recharge after a long day and without it, our brains cannot function properly. Most adults require between seven and nine hours of sleep a night and an insufficient amount can have serious repercussions.
Meditate
Meditation is a habitual practice that involves concentrating or emptying your mind and focusing on the present moment. It is an excellent way to reduce stress and improve concentration as well as reduce anxiety. It can give you a sense of calm, peace, and balance which benefits your emotional well-being and ultimately your overall health. Other benefits include a positive mood or outlook, self-discipline, and healthy sleep patterns among other things.
Practice Gratitude
There are so many things in this life to be thankful for and the daily expression of gratitude has been proven to benefit both our mental and physical health. Regular practice has been shown to boost the immune system, contribute to mental health, improve relationships, and increase optimism.
Practicing gratitude can mean different things to different people. Some choose to write in a daily gratitude journal while others prefer to express their gratitude through evening prayer. No matter how you choose to express yourself, the benefits of being thankful can have a life-changing effect.
Do More of What You Love
Studies show that hobbies have physical and mental health benefits. In childhood, many of us used to have hobbies like painting, music, fishing, woodworking, etc., but as we got older, and life became more complicated somehow those things just fell to the wayside. Making time to do the things you love has been proven to have positive health benefits such as improving mood and decreasing stress.
As a bonus, if your hobby includes physical activity like playing basketball or tennis, you can experience the benefits previously mention regarding daily exercises like weight management, brain health, and overall well-being.
Take Breaks When You Need Them
Continuous work without taking breaks is doing you more harm than good. Taking breaks during work is often associated with a feeling of guilt. This is because during a break you’re often still and appear to be doing nothing. This in turn feels unproductive and can seem like a waste of time, but it isn’t.
In fact, in recent studies breaks have been shown to help prevent and reduce stress, enhance mood, improve physical health, restore motivation, fuel creativity, improve memory and learning, increase productivity, and improve concentration.
Spend Time with Loved Ones
It is important to spend time with your family and friends. When we spend time with our loved ones it greatly decreases the rate of depression, anxiety, and other mental illness. In addition to creating strong emotional support, those with solid healthy family relationships tend to pursue healthier coping methods for stress like confiding in friends and family as opposed to other unhealthy outlets.
Walk Whenever Possible
Not everyone has the time, energy, or desire to go to the gym on a regular basis, but I think it’s safe to say that everyone wants to be healthy. Everyone has their own version of what healthy looks and feels like to them, but even the simplest forms of activity such as walking can yield surprisingly powerful results.
Daily walking has a surprising number of benefits. Some of these include preventing or managing heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, and type 2 diabetes among others. You can also burn body fat by walking for at least 30 minutes a day. It’s also just a really great way to destress.
All in all, our health is arguably the most important aspect of our lives. As the saying goes, if we don’t have our health, we have nothing, and these days most of us don’t really have an excuse to not put in the effort to achieve a good quality of life. We have so many resources at our fingertips, and it has never been easier to take control of our health and fitness. Make a change in your life for the better.
