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Physical Exercise + Diet + Rest = Success
One of the main questions I get asked is what is the most important out of physical exercise and diet. Well the only answer I can give is that they are both as important as each other but for optimum health and fitness it is more than just the two. Along with your exercise regime and dietary plan you must be sure that your body is getting plenty of rest.
Lets take a look at these three main factors for success with your health and fitness regime.
1. Physical Exercise - Keeping fit and healthy should be an enjoyable and beneficial part of everybody’s life.
There are only 24 hours in the day so with our busy lives we often do not have much time left for physical exercise. It is often seen as an extra part of life separate to everything else. Physical exercise should be part of your main life. Many people tend to think of it as being a less than enjoyable way to spend the limited time they have and it will ultimately involve many hours down the local gym.
Keeping fit does not only mean going to the gym, as there are many other sporting activities you can do to help keep in shape. Which type of exercise you decide to take part in will in some part depend upon exactly what you wish to achieve from it. If it is just the enjoyment of playing the sport then that’s fine and you may get fit in the process but if you have specific goals such as losing body fat, toning up or gaining muscle mass then you need to be more specific with the exercises you choose.
Doing cardiovascular activity is very important for fat loss but for toning, your efforts will be sped up with the use of weight bearing exercises, which will help to tone you as well as help you lose body fat.
Although there are many ways in which to maintain your health and fitness, here I will be mainly looking at gym based exercise. It has many advantages over other forms of exercise. It is all weather and with a well-equipped gym you will have everything you will ever need to help reach your goals. At the gym you can make your workouts more targeted and dynamic towards fat loss or muscle gain. You can make your time more productive and results more effective.
2. Diet - Just the word diet sends shudders through people’s bodies as they run for the hills in panic.
Well first of all running to the hills is not a bad idea. But seriously, diet is just a word. Some people’s definition for this word is – restriction, boredom, limits, hurt, hurt, hurt. Well that does not need to be the case. Try to rethink the word and make it mean – healthy look, healthy mind, healthy body, healthy immune system, and healthy digestive system, healthy, healthy, healthy. A healthy eating plan and lifestyle could help you to maintain a healthier and hopefully longer life with less serious illness, which may come about due in some part to inactivity. With the correct fuel (food) in your body your whole body and brain will perform much more efficiently. With the wrong fuel in your car (diesel instead of petrol) your car will need to be taken into the garage (the doctor). Yes it’s true that a car is not a human body but you will find it is possibly easier to fix the car should it go wrong.
It has been well documented through many people’s personal experiences that diets do not work for the long term – whereas a change of lifestyle and eating habits will work for life. Consistency is the ultimate key to a healthy diet. But do not expect to change all of your bad habits over night. People opting for the quick fixes soon realise that as soon as they cease their new eating habits and return to their normal eating habits they regain their weight plus added extra.
Some tips for healthy eating
Check food labelling for hidden fats
Check the labels of food that you are not sure about. Although the food may be low in fat it may also be high in sugar. Also just because a food may be low sugar does not mean it’s also low in fat. Make sure you avoid saturated fats, hydrogenated fats, highly salted food and food containing too many added extras.
Limit your intake of processed foods and ready made meals
Try to opt for fresh food, which you cook yourself whenever possible. Cooking larger amounts and freezing it would be favourable to overly relying upon ready-made meals and processed foods.
Eat smaller meals more often during the day to help avoid calorie over spill
Your body can only absorb a certain amount of calories in any one sitting. If you were consuming around 2500 calories daily but you consume most of these calories with one main meal each day and snack for the rest of the time it is possible that you may experience weight gain in the form of body fat. After all consumed calories are absorbed by the body and used as energy or for other bodily processes; the remaining calories will be converted to and stored as fat. Splitting the calories into smaller meals would mean your body is more likely to be able to absorb most of the food without any calorie over spill. Try to eat 4 to 5 times per day if possible. Also by eating more times per day, this will speed up your metabolism.
Include plenty of EFA (essential fatty acids)
Essential fatty acids omega 3 and 6 are part of the structure of every cell and we need them for a wide range of body processes. Omega-6 fatty acids can be mostly found in vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, safflower and corn oil. The primary sources of omega-3 fatty acids are found in seafood, fish, rapeseed oil, walnuts and green leafy vegetables. If you are not taking omega-3 supplements or consuming enough fatty fish during the week (2-3 times/week) you are possibly going to be deficient in the EFA omega-3. A typical western diet is deficient in omega-3 and therefore imbalanced. Many serious problems have been linked with the imbalanced ratio of omega-3 and 6 such as depression, obesity, heart attacks and asthma. It is recommended that at least half your fat intake come from EFA’s.
Put variety into your diet
Variety will help to avoid dietary boredom. It is a combination of foods rather than any one type of food that will help you to obtain a full spectrum of nutrients required by the body.
Get your five-a-day
Fruits and vegetables are essential for their vitamin and mineral content. Food such as broccoli, green leafy veg and a fruit like kiwi and tomatoes are high in vitamin C. Just one tomato will give you more than 50% of your daily vitamin C requirements.
Avoid eating sugary or high carbohydrate foods close to bedtime
Late in the evening when your body is at rest you will be using less energy than with your normal day’s activities. At this point you should limit the amount of high carbohydrate, sugary and fatty foods. They will more easily be stored as fat as opposed to during the day when they would be used up as energy.
Avoid snacking between meals
Snacking between meals will lessen your appetite for your main meal. As a result, you will be consuming more calories from unhealthy rather than healthy foods.
Keep a food diary for one week
This will allow you to look back on what you have eaten and help eliminate unhealthy eating patterns. You may not notice some of the mistakes you are making until you have them written down in front of you.
Your daily diet can affect energy levels, performance and overall health. Nutrition is one of the factors that can optimise athletic performance. Optimal nutrition can allow the athlete/fitness participant to train for a longer duration and recover faster between exercise sessions. Proper nutrition can optimise energy stores for competition and may make the difference between winning and wishing. Nutrition can possibly reduce injuries, or speed injury repair and ultimately affect training status. Good nutrition is important for the general health of the athlete/fitness participant and all people as a whole.
3. Rest
Humans sleep for a third of their lives. Sleep is a natural process and is necessary for proper functioning of the body. It is recommended that we try to get around 8-9 hours sleep each night (9-10 is recommended for teenagers). Some people can survive on less than this and some people require more. Even if you are one of those that can survive with less time you should try and reach the recommended amount.
It has been shown in studies that the ability to carry out simple tasks diminish with fewer than 8 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep can result in mood swings, fatigue, suffering from lack of concentration, memory loss and affect your ability to move and behave rationally. Depression could follow along with emotional instability.
It is hardly ever only one factor that’s leads to success in any walk of life. Just like with your health it is a combination of factors that will help towards success.
One of the main questions I get asked is what is the most important out of physical exercise and diet. Well the only answer I can give is that they are both as important as each other but for optimum health and fitness it is more than just the two. Along with your exercise regime and dietary plan you must be sure that your body is getting plenty of rest.
Lets take a look at these three main factors for success with your health and fitness regime.
1. Physical Exercise - Keeping fit and healthy should be an enjoyable and beneficial part of everybody’s life.
There are only 24 hours in the day so with our busy lives we often do not have much time left for physical exercise. It is often seen as an extra part of life separate to everything else. Physical exercise should be part of your main life. Many people tend to think of it as being a less than enjoyable way to spend the limited time they have and it will ultimately involve many hours down the local gym.
Keeping fit does not only mean going to the gym, as there are many other sporting activities you can do to help keep in shape. Which type of exercise you decide to take part in will in some part depend upon exactly what you wish to achieve from it. If it is just the enjoyment of playing the sport then that’s fine and you may get fit in the process but if you have specific goals such as losing body fat, toning up or gaining muscle mass then you need to be more specific with the exercises you choose.
Doing cardiovascular activity is very important for fat loss but for toning, your efforts will be sped up with the use of weight bearing exercises, which will help to tone you as well as help you lose body fat.
Although there are many ways in which to maintain your health and fitness, here I will be mainly looking at gym based exercise. It has many advantages over other forms of exercise. It is all weather and with a well-equipped gym you will have everything you will ever need to help reach your goals. At the gym you can make your workouts more targeted and dynamic towards fat loss or muscle gain. You can make your time more productive and results more effective.
2. Diet - Just the word diet sends shudders through people’s bodies as they run for the hills in panic.
Well first of all running to the hills is not a bad idea. But seriously, diet is just a word. Some people’s definition for this word is – restriction, boredom, limits, hurt, hurt, hurt. Well that does not need to be the case. Try to rethink the word and make it mean – healthy look, healthy mind, healthy body, healthy immune system, and healthy digestive system, healthy, healthy, healthy. A healthy eating plan and lifestyle could help you to maintain a healthier and hopefully longer life with less serious illness, which may come about due in some part to inactivity. With the correct fuel (food) in your body your whole body and brain will perform much more efficiently. With the wrong fuel in your car (diesel instead of petrol) your car will need to be taken into the garage (the doctor). Yes it’s true that a car is not a human body but you will find it is possibly easier to fix the car should it go wrong.
It has been well documented through many people’s personal experiences that diets do not work for the long term – whereas a change of lifestyle and eating habits will work for life. Consistency is the ultimate key to a healthy diet. But do not expect to change all of your bad habits over night. People opting for the quick fixes soon realise that as soon as they cease their new eating habits and return to their normal eating habits they regain their weight plus added extra.
Some tips for healthy eating
Check food labelling for hidden fats
Check the labels of food that you are not sure about. Although the food may be low in fat it may also be high in sugar. Also just because a food may be low sugar does not mean it’s also low in fat. Make sure you avoid saturated fats, hydrogenated fats, highly salted food and food containing too many added extras.
Limit your intake of processed foods and ready made meals
Try to opt for fresh food, which you cook yourself whenever possible. Cooking larger amounts and freezing it would be favourable to overly relying upon ready-made meals and processed foods.
Eat smaller meals more often during the day to help avoid calorie over spill
Your body can only absorb a certain amount of calories in any one sitting. If you were consuming around 2500 calories daily but you consume most of these calories with one main meal each day and snack for the rest of the time it is possible that you may experience weight gain in the form of body fat. After all consumed calories are absorbed by the body and used as energy or for other bodily processes; the remaining calories will be converted to and stored as fat. Splitting the calories into smaller meals would mean your body is more likely to be able to absorb most of the food without any calorie over spill. Try to eat 4 to 5 times per day if possible. Also by eating more times per day, this will speed up your metabolism.
Include plenty of EFA (essential fatty acids)
Essential fatty acids omega 3 and 6 are part of the structure of every cell and we need them for a wide range of body processes. Omega-6 fatty acids can be mostly found in vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, safflower and corn oil. The primary sources of omega-3 fatty acids are found in seafood, fish, rapeseed oil, walnuts and green leafy vegetables. If you are not taking omega-3 supplements or consuming enough fatty fish during the week (2-3 times/week) you are possibly going to be deficient in the EFA omega-3. A typical western diet is deficient in omega-3 and therefore imbalanced. Many serious problems have been linked with the imbalanced ratio of omega-3 and 6 such as depression, obesity, heart attacks and asthma. It is recommended that at least half your fat intake come from EFA’s.
Put variety into your diet
Variety will help to avoid dietary boredom. It is a combination of foods rather than any one type of food that will help you to obtain a full spectrum of nutrients required by the body.
Get your five-a-day
Fruits and vegetables are essential for their vitamin and mineral content. Food such as broccoli, green leafy veg and a fruit like kiwi and tomatoes are high in vitamin C. Just one tomato will give you more than 50% of your daily vitamin C requirements.
Avoid eating sugary or high carbohydrate foods close to bedtime
Late in the evening when your body is at rest you will be using less energy than with your normal day’s activities. At this point you should limit the amount of high carbohydrate, sugary and fatty foods. They will more easily be stored as fat as opposed to during the day when they would be used up as energy.
Avoid snacking between meals
Snacking between meals will lessen your appetite for your main meal. As a result, you will be consuming more calories from unhealthy rather than healthy foods.
Keep a food diary for one week
This will allow you to look back on what you have eaten and help eliminate unhealthy eating patterns. You may not notice some of the mistakes you are making until you have them written down in front of you.
Your daily diet can affect energy levels, performance and overall health. Nutrition is one of the factors that can optimise athletic performance. Optimal nutrition can allow the athlete/fitness participant to train for a longer duration and recover faster between exercise sessions. Proper nutrition can optimise energy stores for competition and may make the difference between winning and wishing. Nutrition can possibly reduce injuries, or speed injury repair and ultimately affect training status. Good nutrition is important for the general health of the athlete/fitness participant and all people as a whole.
3. Rest
Humans sleep for a third of their lives. Sleep is a natural process and is necessary for proper functioning of the body. It is recommended that we try to get around 8-9 hours sleep each night (9-10 is recommended for teenagers). Some people can survive on less than this and some people require more. Even if you are one of those that can survive with less time you should try and reach the recommended amount.
It has been shown in studies that the ability to carry out simple tasks diminish with fewer than 8 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep can result in mood swings, fatigue, suffering from lack of concentration, memory loss and affect your ability to move and behave rationally. Depression could follow along with emotional instability.
It is hardly ever only one factor that’s leads to success in any walk of life. Just like with your health it is a combination of factors that will help towards success.
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Fit Nutrition Health and Fitness Services trades under the name of Food4Sport ltd
Home Fitness Nutrition Personal Training Fit Nut Hut About Us Contact Us Offers and Discounts Picture Gallery
Video Gallery Exercises Jobs Terms Advertising Links Help Subscribe Sign Up FAQ's
Fit Nutrition © 2012 - fitnutrition.co.uk. All rights reserved.
Fit Nutrition Health and Fitness Services trades under the name of Food4Sport ltd