Just like New Years, the Spring Season is always looked at as a time for new beginnings. The last of the cold snowy weather is in the rear view and the days, especially the evenings are nice and bright.
When it comes to your health, you should always be consistent every day to ensure you maintain a great balance of exercise, diet, mindset and of course take a great supplement. You need to work all sectors of health in tandem to ensure great health. The old saying, you can eat an amazing healthy diet but it doesn't mean much if you are a couch potato. On the contrary, you can be a gym rat, but if you indulge in fried food, it would be exactly a pinnacle of great health. Finally, your attitude toward life and how positive you are is the cherry on the sundae. OK, maybe the cherry on a nutrition bar.
As mentioned, your health maintenance is broken down into your fitness activities, diet, mindset and supplements. What I like to do is offer some tips for each that are very basic.
Fitness -
I can just simply say join your local gym and hire a trainer to put you through hell at the gym. Instead, I like offer some easy exercises you can do in place of going to the gym if you have a busy productive lifestyle.
- If you work in the office, take the stairs whenever possible and get up and walk around. or at a minimum stretch, every 15-20 minutes, so you maintain great blood flow and digestion of any food you eat. Sitting in your office for hours on end is worse than smoking a pack of cigarettes.
- Always take a walk after eating, breakfast, lunch and dinner. By walking, you will be able to easily digest your food and burn off any unhealthy calories. Do not do any strenuous exercise right after eating.
- If you don't go to a gym, pick up a pair of dumbbell weights and do about 10-15 minutes of exercise daily. Here is a great video on a full body workout using a pair of dumbbells.
Diet -
I wanted to first mention that when you mention that you are on a diet, it does not mean you are working to lose weight. You can always be on a bad diet full of fried foods and bad carbs.
- Water is the single most important beverage in your diet. Water helps you digest, provides energy and even helps you maintain a great weight. Your body is 60% water, so simply if you are thirsty, drink water.
- Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and lunch is the second most important. I know this sounds backward, but think about it, when are you the most active during the day. The worst thing to do is have a huge dinner then relax. There are basic like avoiding sugar, especially white sugar, too much dairy and processed foods, but if you eat small portions and exercise regularly, it is OK to treat yourself once in a while.
- Never ever skip a meal. Any weight loss program that recommends to skip a meal, or drink this shake or even wear this wrap around your waist, is not a worthy weight loss program. The key to maintaining a great lifestyle is eating small nutritious meals.
Positive Mindset -
It is how you feel about yourself and your life that will determine how focused you are on your fitness and diet. Always visualize yourself at your goal, looking and feeling great. There will be tough days but always know there are great days to look forward too.
- Avoid negative people. I know you hear this a million times, but really, what does a complainer do for you? Nothing. Hang out with people better than you.
- Find the root cause of your health issues. Is it stress? If so, find ways to relieve your stress. if needed, contact a professional to help you especially if stress is effecting your weight and your well-being.
- There will be traffic, there will be issues at your home, or you may lose your job. Everyone has bad days, but the difference is, is how they handle adversity. A positive mindset, great diet and exercise will help you get through those rough stretches.
Supplements -
Yes, supplements. Face it, our food is not as healthy as it was 30 or 40 years ago, We are always in a rush and the supermarkets are full of canned goods and processed cereal that is not very good for you. Walk around the supermarket and look at labels. I bet 70-80% of food you buy either has sugar,salt or pesticides on them. Do you really think that apple in the fruit stand has no chemicals on it? Think again. This is why supplements are more important than ever.
- Make sure your vitamins are liquid based and are biodegradable so you are able to absorb the nutrients within five minutes. A pill will need to be digested and broken down in your stomach. Your stomach breaks down food and anything else you eat, so why not take a supplement that goes to your small intestine and absorb the nutrients instantly?
- Be leery of any sugar snack such as cereal, pop tarts or even soda that claim that have extra vitamins and minerals. Think about it, sugar is evil so why eat or drink something that claims it is healthy for you and it has a lot of sugar in it?
- Milk does not do a body good. This may fall under diet, but I wanted to make something clear. The calcium in milk is not the pure calcium that your body needs to maintain good bone health. The supplement needs to also have magnesium in it to absorb the calcium. Does milk have real magnesium in it? I think not.
So hopefully our blog provided you some simple steps toward great health. Spring is all about new beginnings so why not start today on your healthy journey!
