Contents
Stay fit, healthy eating, and keep our mind in peace – this should be our mantra of success in life. These three things are very important to live a successful life amid today’s hectic life schedule.
Healthy Eating
Copyright © 2011, Harvard University. For more information about The Healthy Eating Plate, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, www.thenutritionsource.org, and Harvard Health Publications, www.health.harvard.edu.
We should always eat healthy food. Unhealthy and junk food might give some pleasure to our tongue but are never good for our health. Healthy food comprises balanced proportions of carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals. Along with healthy food, an adequate amount of water is essential.
Our diet should have green vegetables, fresh fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products. It should also include a variety of protein foods such as seafood, lean meats and poultry, eggs, legumes (beans and peas), soy products, nuts, and seeds. We should always try to avoid added sugars and saturated fats. The most important factor is we must stay within our daily calorie needs.
Healthy Eating and Balanced Diet
A healthy diet does not necessarily mean you remove all foods you love because of nutritional value or calorie count but keeping the focus on the overall dietary pattern to have more energy and better health. If we eat a diet high in either carbohydrates or proteins or fats, then it’s not a balanced diet. Each element is essential and the absence of any of these could hamper our body’s function.
Some people believe that only protein is essential for our muscle growth and development and tend to ignore carbohydrates thinking that this will only increase the calorie count. People also remove fat from their diet without knowing that a certain amount of fat is also essential for our bodies to function properly. Some people remove sodium from their diet without knowing that it plays a vital role.
Healthy Mind
Anxiety and stress are opposite sides of the same coin. Stress is a feeling of mental and emotional tension. It can come from an event or a thought that makes us feel frustrated or nervous. A challenge or demand of our brain or body can cause stress. Anxiety refers to worry, fear, unease, nervousness, or frustration. It is the reaction to our stress. Changing the lifestyle is an effective way to relieve stress and anxiety. In the first place Getting proper sleep helps to deal with anxiety. Meditation is equally important.
We should always feel connected with other people. It is an important part of what makes us human. If we ignore this and try to stay aloof from others, in long term it will hurt our mental health. Most mental problems are due to a lack of communication or difficulty in expressing yourself to others.
Traveling is a perfect way to uplift our mood, relax and change the boring day-to-day scenario. We can also use a different route to work to change to scenario. Due to huge work pressure, we sometimes forget to enjoy the beautiful life and opportunity given by God. We should enjoy our life. Take up some hobbies such as painting, gardening, singing, etc which can relieve our stress and through which we can express ourselves.
Our mind is a natural wanderer. It is always active and races from one thought to another in a split of a microsecond. It dwells on incidents from the past to possibilities in the future. This makes us tired and stressed. Though meditation sessions could be of any length, 30 minutes of clear mind can do wonders for our health. Start slowly but try to increase the meditation session with time. Meditation helps us to overcome
- Anxiety
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Chronic pain
- Depression
- Heart disease
- High blood pressure
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Sleep problems
- Tension headaches
Stay fit
Regular exercise is very important. It can prevent excess weight gain or maintain a healthy weight. The more you engage yourself in physical activity, the more calories you can burn. Daily exercise can help you fight against heart conditions and many deceases. Being active will help you to keep the bad cholesterol (LDL) and triglycerides in check. Regular exercise also helps you to combat stroke, metabolic issues, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, anxiety, arthritis, etc. You will get an energy boost, confidence, and increase self-esteem from exercise.
In the first place Getting proper sleep helps to deal with anxiety. Meditation is equally important.
Regular exercise will uplift your mood. It will relieve stress and help you manage illness. It also will develop your overall sense of well-being.
What type of exercise should you do to stay fit?
There are many different types of exercises. It’s up to our need and goal that we select the right types for you. There is endurance or aerobic activities such as brisk walking, swimming, jogging, biking, etc that increase our breathing and heart rate which keep the heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve our overall fitness. To make our muscles stronger we should go for strength or resistance training, like lifting weights, karate etc. Exercises like yoga or asanas which include various stretches make our body more flexible.
We should choose exercises that work different parts of the body, including our core (muscles around our back, abdomen, and pelvis) which in terms improves the stability and balance of our body. Also, we should choose activities that we enjoy, and it will be easier to make them part of our daily routine. We should set goals. They should be challenging but realistic.
Exercises for Kids to Stay Fit
These days kids spend a lot of time in front of smartphones, tablets, and television watching tv shows, YouTube videos, games, movies, etc. also called sedentary activities. Because of this, they do not get enough time for physical activities. As a result of this obesity, other health problems start showing up.
- To put a limit on sedentary activities parents, need to
- Set a limit on time spent on electronic devices.
- Make sure that online gaming does not replace actual physical activity
- Should not encourage or allow kids to get used to mobile gaming or videos
- Parents should not allow tv, mobiles, etc during eating time.
- Kids should spend at least an hour on various physical activities daily.
Healthy Mind Healthy Eating and Staying Fit bring together the final output – HAPPINESS.
References
- Health information and medical information. (n.d.). Harvard Health. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/
- The Nutrition Source. (n.d.). The Nutrition Source. Retrieved August 2, 2022, from http://thenutritionsource.org/