We have all given up to the 21st-century lifestyle. Be awake till morning, and sleep till noon; that is the way we live now. In our desperate quest to lose control, we have lost the reins of a pleasurable life. Instead, we vicariously find pleasure in others’ lives and hate our own. It’s time, though, that we seized the moment and saw to it that our lives are lived for us alone. This article aims to answer all those questions one might have about Diet and Fitness Tips and how to live a healthy life, probably bring back dedication and punctuality to it.
Diet and Fitness Tips
1) Meals are important; all of them:
We instinctively stop eating whenever we feel like we need to lose weight, but that is the worst thing one can do to our body. Rather than skipping meals, it’s highly important to take regular meals every 3 to 4 hours. It’s time to give new meanings to words like “brunch” and “lunches” and “dinners” – it doesn’t make sense now, but think about it. Most importantly, breakfasts should never be missed. They are the kick start the body needs to survive the day, and skipping them leaves one feeling hungry and consume more throughout the day. It’s a vicious cycle that one puts the body in. You skip breakfast hoping you will lose weight, but you end up taking in more food throughout the day.
Moreover, the proportions of meals should be maintained. Breakfasts should be heavy, as again, they are the morning fuel for the body. And the rest of your meals should get gradually smaller in size. Lunches should be smaller in quantity than breakfast, and so on. Dinners should be the lightest amount of food that the body takes in every day, so you sleep on a light stomach, and the body gets to rest up well. If you feel too wanting of a midnight snack, keep some light food, like popcorn, and consume them slowly. Bowls of ice cream and cups of soda should be kept at a bare minimum.
2) Exercise while you wait:
Everyone knows it is hard to give up on habits too easily. We have all been there! So, rather than giving up the habit, it is time to take up some good ones. You need not stop watching the TV or using the Internet if you want to be healthy. While the advertisements are playing on the television, try doing some light exercises. Just normal sit-ups and crunches in those 5 free minutes that you have can do a lot of good to your body. In every television show of 1 hour, there are at least 20 minutes of advertisements. And if you watch 7 hours of TV every day, that is easily 2+ hours of exercise for you that can do you a world of good.
Even people who sit at cubicles all day long, and use their laptops and desktops continuously, can still exercise in regular intervals. Just take out 10 minutes every 2 hours, and do some normal exercises. Everything that you do contributes to your body in the right way.
3) There is no one best way to exercise:
Forget everything that anyone has ever told you about exercising. Every one that preaches about the best way to exercise is wrong. There hasn’t yet been an invention that lets people analyze the best way to exercise for anyone and everyone. Exercise in a way that you feel is the best for you.
On that note, exercise whenever you want to. The secret is to follow a basic routine. It need not be everyone’s cup of tea, but you can design a plan for yourself – made just for you – and follow it diligently. And the last part is where the thing gets tricky, but with proper determination, and motivation, one can definitely get there.
4) Fluids, fluids and more fluids:
The one basic thing that we tend to forget is that our body runs on water, and that plain, simple fluid – the one that keeps us alive – escapes our consciousness all too often. So, is there a way to make sure that one has enough water throughout the day? Yes and no.
For starters, you can definitely start drinking more water, and make sure you have at least five to six liters of it every day. But, those things are hard to manage and we sometimes run so much that we forget to stop and think about it. Therefore, the best way to manage the quantity of water one has throughout the day is to start and end the day with a lot of water. Drinking that transparent fluid just after you wake up, and just you sleep – lots of it – can ensure your body gets replenished just at the right moments. It doesn’t mean that you entirely skip drinking water other than the moments you are actually thirsty, but those two times of the day can very well be the ones that save you.
5) Regular tours of the fruit and salad bar:
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, as the cliche goes, but fruits are so beneficial to the body, that no write-ups on it are sufficient. You have heard millions of people tell you millions of advantages of fruits, but you always tend to forget them. So, the best way to stop hearing that advice is to start eating fruit already.
Like I mentioned before, fluids are very necessary for the body. And fruits are good in a way that they give you that fluid, mixed in with a lot of proteins and vitamins that they bear with them. Apples, oranges, melons, and peaches – all hold a ton of water and a bevy of benefits that can make your body go gaga without even trying.
Then there’s the old salad crunch. One tends to think that salads are just side dressings that are meant to be consumed with food, rather than as food. But, try eating a giant bowl of salad as lunch, and see if you need anything else at that point or not. Cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, and beet are deceptively heavy and can make you feel full with a small quantity. And the amount of calories that it takes to burn the starch that they carry does extra benefit to the body. Potatoes should be kept at a minimum, but in the right quantity, they, too, can make one feel satisfied with little.
6) Sleep more:
Two words that I’m sure will make you feel nice, but you might think about the repercussions of it on your work and personal life. But, hey, when I said sleep more, I meant to sleep more than you do now. It’s time to get rid of those dark patches and that laggard walk and sleep for at least six hours a day. This is where the idea of a magic nap comes in.
Researchers have found out that taking a small nap of 7 minutes makes the body feel better than a nap that tends to go on for as long as 2 hours. I know it is hard to leave that bed or sofa once you have gotten all comfy and stuff, but those seven minutes of heaven can make you feel more energetic than ever before. It does not come naturally to everybody and takes a lot of practice – as with everything – to get used to it. But, to make the most of the short breaks that you have, one needs to get into such a habit.
Also, try taking out time from the day – do more work in daylight, if possible – but make sure you go to bed at a time that lets you at least sleep for 5-6 hours. I need not repeat the essentials of that time, but if you just prioritize the fact that you need to sleep for a specific number of hours every day, you need not feel lethargic throughout the day and lose out on the work that you might do. Again, routine plays a big role here. And just remember, you should try waking up to the morning sun, and not sleep to it.
7) Healthy is a matter of perception:
It should not be taken as a cardinal rule, but “healthy” can mean different things for different people. Of course, there is a level up to which one can twist and turn the meaning of health and can make it fit for themselves – that’s what the Body Mass Index is for – but you get the gist. Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not what you should be. Only you need to know what you need to be. It might come off as philosophy, but it isn’t so.
It’s all about living a life that lets you do all that you should do. Unhealthy is when you feel so tired, or sick, that you cannot do the basic necessities to survive. Unhealthy is when you waste your life away in doing things that should not take so much of your life away. Unhealthy is when you fail to prioritize your needs, and do not have time for the important things. And this is where all our bad habits come from. We attribute eating too much, drinking too much, and sleeping for too long to our bad “mood”. And it’s all because we failed to prioritize the things that we needed and let other people control our lives.
So, if you want to be healthy, just be. Take basic care of your life. It simply doesn’t require much. Follow a routine. Do good things while doing the things that you like. Maintain balance. Exercise, eat, play, work, sleep, enjoy – all the things you need to survive are right there in front of you for the taking. You just need to do whatever you feel like is right for you at the moment, and that can come only when you have sat down and reflected on the things that make and break you.
All this article talks about is basic Diet and Fitness Tips that require one to make the most minimum of efforts. These are things we all might probably still be doing; it is just a matter of putting up some schedule to it. Like the classes we have back at college, it is time to put those things in the right order; in the right places. One does not need to stop eating fast food, or drinking alcohol – there are people who do tons of that and still live the most vibrant of lives. So, the best way to take control of your life is to enjoy it.
In the 21st century, that is the key thing that we miss. We feed ourselves with so much information from all corners that we fail to look at our own. All this talk of unhealthiness started when people made up a definition of “fit”. Forget it, and live for your own. The results will come eventually!
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