How To Live A Healthy Lifestyle - Proper Eating Habits Plus Exercise Are The Key

Posted on May 18th, 2008 by leon

How many times have you gone to sleep at night, promising to yourself that you’ll go to the gym in the morning, and then changing your mind just eight hours later because when you get up, you don’t feel like exercising?

While this can happen to the best of us, it doesn’t mean you should drop the ball altogether when it comes to staying fit. What people need to realize is that staying active and eating right are critical for long-term health and wellness. The more you know about how your body responds to your lifestyle choices, the better you can customize a nutrition and exercise plan that is right for you.

When you eat well, increase your level of physical activity, and exercise at the proper intensity, you are informing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This translates to burning fat more efficiently for energy. In other words, proper eating habits plus exercise equals fast metabolism, which, in turn gives you more energy throughout the day and allows you to do more physical work with less effort.

The true purpose of exercise is to send a repetitive message to the body asking for improvement in metabolism and strength. Each time you exercise, your body responds by upgrading its capabilities to burn fat throughout the day and night, Exercise doesn’t have to be intense to work for you, but it does need to be consistent.

I recommend engaging in regular cardiovascular exercise four times per week for 20 to 30 minutes per session, and resistance training four times per week for 20 to 25 minutes per session. This balanced approach provides a one-two punch, incorporating aerobic exercise to burn fat and deliver more oxygen, and resistance training to increase lean body mass and burn more calories around the block.

Once you make the commitment to exercise several times a week, don’t stop there. You should also change your diet and/or eating habits. Counting calories or calculating grams and percentages for certain nutrients is impractical. Instead, just use these easy-to-follow guidelines:

Eat several small meals (optimally four) and a couple of small snacks throughout the day
Make sure every meal is balanced — incorporate palm-sized proteins like lean meats, fish, egg whites and dairy products, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates like whole-wheat bread and pasta, wild rice, multigrain cereal and potatoes, and fist-sized portions of vegetable and fruits
Limit your fat intake to only what’s necessary for adequate flavor
Drink at least eight 8-oz. glasses of water throughout the day
Take a multi-vitamin each day to ensure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

That’s all to a healthy living. Live and enjoy healthy life, we all deserve it.