18 Health and Fitness tips that you should do
As a personal trainer based in Windsor I want to share the top health and fitness tips that I use to keep my body fit and healthy. These are also principles I like my clients to follow. If you already do some of these. That’s great keep on doing them because they will help you throughout life to keep your body in shape. If you don’t do these, start by choosing 5 that you want to try and integrate them into your daily lifestyle.
1. Hydrate
Hydration is key to a healthy body. Staying hydrated throughout the day is a must. If you find it hard to drink water because it’s not right in front of you. You should start carrying a bottle with you, so that you can easy access it. Besides, our bodies are made up of 50-65% water.
2. Eat a balanced diet
Eating a balanced diet with lots of vegetables, various carbs, protein and fats is healthy. Your body need all of these to function. You should look at were you get your each category of nutrition from and change it up regularly. Adding variety to your food is a great way to make sure you don’t get vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
3. Eat your vegetables more than 5 times a day
Your vegetable intake will make sure you have all your micro nutrients you need for a healthy body. If you don’t eat at least 5 varied vegetables a day it can mean you might have deficiency. I would aim for 7-10 a day. You should start to know where you get certain vitamins from so you can add that vegetable into your diet.
4. Move very day
Moving every day will keep your health and fitness up. You can do this by doing yoga, working out or even walking. By doing this you will make sure that the blood in the body is oxygenated, releasing endorphins and it also makes you burn calories throughout the day.
5. Do specific strength training
Strength training makes sure particular muscles are strong. As you get older the body can start to break down muscles. You will want to prevent this from happening because it is a natural thing that happens after 40. Start to do some weight training focusing on big compound movements. You can do this add home with kettlebells or dumbbells. Or you can get a personal trainer to help you understand what to do.
6. Stretch and mobilise your body
Your body will naturally get tighter throughout life. Especially if you lead a sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, stretching the posterior chain muscles in your body will help you stay flexible. This will keep you away from back pain and other issues that come from a sedentary lifestyle.
7. Breathe
Breathe properly, if you feel lethargic or tired throughout the day it can be from not getting enough oxygen to parts of the body. Take deep breaths that fill the whole of your lungs, do this everyday and it will help you wake up and feel better in many ways. Otherwise the brain will start to be slower because it uses 20% of the oxygen we breath, the heart will not be as efficient and can lead to colder extremities and oxygen shortage can make the muscles go stiff.
8. Work on your cardiovascular health
Cardiovascular training is amazing. It makes you feel on top of the world. If your health and fitness is good and you can go for a run or do a HIIT session. You should, it releases hormones into the body that make us feel great and it a brilliant way to help get rid of depressive thoughts and anxiety. I know many people who have found out that cardio helps them with anxiety control.
9. Reduce your sugar intake
Experts say that sugar is linked to many western illnesses and diseases. If you reduce it it can help you in many ways. You wont get insulin spikes which put your blood sugars out of whack. You will start to feel more energetic and you will lose fat as a result. It’s a win win situation.
10. Get enough sleep, at least 8 hours or more
Sleep enables your body to regenerate itself and heal the body. If you are sore from working out sleeping will be used to repair muscle tissue that you’ve broken down during exercise. If you don’t sleep enough you will feel you’ll have less energy throughout the day and will start to eat more calories as a result.
11. Eat nuts, seeds and pulses
Adding more natural fats with nuts and seeds is an easy way for you to snack and get omega 3’s into your body. Your body will feel fuller after eating a small portion of nuts instead of having a granola bar for example. Also pulses and lentils are a food that isn’t eaten much by a lot of the population. However, it really should be. It’s full of vitamin and minerals as well as fibre. You can put lentils and pulses in foods like bolognese or curry.
12. Avoid processed food for good
This is a big one if you want to increase your health and fitness. You might not think that there is anything wrong with it. But do you really know what’s in the foods that you are eating, if they’re processed. There could be a whole load of additives that aren’t good for your body. Whereas if you ate foods that are all natural you would know what’s in them. Giving you better knowledge of what is in the food you eat.
13. Spend more time outside
Spending time outside on a walk by yourself or with the family can increase your mood dramatically. It’s a great added bonus to your health and fitness without even realising it. It gets the blood moving and the oxygen into your lungs which is vital for life. It will make you feel less confined to the four walls you live most your life in. You can also take a walk on your lunch break at work. I suggest this to most of my clients. You can also play an outdoor sport which is even better than going on a walk. It has so many physical, social and positive benefits of sports. You can find football 5 a side leagues that anyone can play in. You don’t have to be an athlete to participate just go and have fun.
14. Eat more protein
If you are focusing on your health and fitness eating protein is a must for your body to rebuild broken down muscle tissue. It is completely natural for your body to break down muscle tissue when used for exercise or general life. Without eating enough protein it can have implications on how the body works and repairs itself. You can workout how much protein you should be eating for the type or person you are and the type of exercise you do. In general you should eat 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight. This will increase if you do exercise everyday.
15. Don’t smoke or do drugs, and only drink in moderation
Smoking, drugs and drinking too much alcohol can have bad effects on the body that make you age quicker. They also have links to certain cancers and diseases that are fatal. There are many way that I suggest my personal training clients reduce there alcohol intake or quite smoking. But I can only show them the paperwork, I can’t force them. You can join a free personal quit plan from the NHS or us “How to cut down” from the drink aware website.
16. Avoid artificial foods
Artificial food are things like sweetness, high fructose corn syrup and Aspartame. These chemicals can be in fast food or processed foods. The chemicals can make food taste sweet but don’t have any calories, for example with the sweetness or the Aspartame. This lets the brain think that there is calories coming from the drink for food you’ve just consumed. Confusing your brain and making it want more when you actually start to eat something of substance.
17. Don’t go on a diet but change your diet
When you hear people say ‘I’ve been on every diet going and it hasn’t worked’ there is a reason for that. Diets only work in the short run. You may lose some fat but you wont keep it away for the future. It’s all about lifestyle change and taking away bad foods that you eat and adding in healthy good foods to eat. This way you give you body the nutrition it needs and you don’t need a massive calorie deficit to lose fat. Because you will loose fat naturally.
18. Eat more eggs
Eggs are a great form of protein and is packed with vitamins and minerals. If you get your eggs from a free range farm they will be even healthier. Eggs actually have all vital nutrients for life except for vitamin C. They are great for breakfast or a snack. You will have another form of protein if you don’t eat eggs already. They aren’t bad for you and are part of a balanced diet.