Perhaps you are a stay at home mom taking care of six kids and a husband, perhaps there’s only one kid but still each day come with this endless To-Do list. Perhaps you are an executive, always on the move, always on the road and the only time you really get to yourself is the time spent on airports, in hotel rooms and going between meetings. Perhaps you are both. Not only that, age is creeping up on you too, and even though it felt like you were 25 just yesterday, you are not today. Somehow the universe is conspiring against you and your attempts to keep fit and healthy for yourself, your family and your career. But it is not all doom and gloom; there are in fact many, many things you can put in place today to combat that lifestyle induced weight gain and put your life back on track.
Just like you need to spend money to make money, you need to spend time to free-up more time for yourself. In this sense exercise is a false time thief, as a healthy and active body will work to your advantage in many ways. Increasing your fitness will leave you more energetic and less sluggish and tired, and thus you can cut back on your afternoon naps and complete the day’s task more efficiently and effectively – saving you time. It also helps you burn calories, making weight loss and maintenance easier, while toning and maintaining your muscles. You see, your muscle mass is responsible for much of your metabolism (amount of energy burnt at rest and at activity), but without physical activity your body feels little need to keep much of it as it’s not needed to complete your daily tasks. Exercise also helps you to cope with stress better and that is really important, because excessive stress can lead to abdominal fat gains, increased blood pressure, and loss of sex drive. But exercise need to be accompanied with healthy eating as well and there are three really good guidelines for this without any calorie counting:
1. Choose foods with minimum human intervention (e.g. a chicken breast that you cook and season compared to marinated and pre-cooked chicken preserved in a tin can) and exercise portion control. 2. Eat five servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit every day. Vary the colours. 3. Keep your ratio to 80% healthy foods and 20% treats. You know which is which.
TIP: There are several effective ways to exercise at home or while on the move with little or no equipment. Do your research; there are more solutions than there are problems. Same goes for healthy eating. And if you have the opportunity to get some professional coaching, programming or system to follow; it will save you precious time and effort.
In your daily life you can keep your metabolism fired up by having regular meals and a small snack every 2 or 3 h in between. This allows for more stable blood sugar levels, which affects your energy. It also keeps your engine firing at all cylinders all through the day rather than little or not at all as the case is with skipping breakfast, meals or leaving too much time in between. You should also be drinking enough water to keep your urine looking pale at all times. Water not only makes your skin look better, it flushes your system of toxins, increases your performance levels and helps your liver converting fat into energy. And last but not least you need to get 7-9 h of quality sleep every night. Night-time is when our bodies recover and reset. Upsetting this recovery cycle will mess with your hormones, increasing your appetite (especially for salty, sugary and fatty foods) and reducing your feelings of satiety, making it easier to eat and overeat on all of the things working against your goals. So my reasoning is; you are going to spend your 24 h hours anyway, why not do it more effectively?
I may be preaching to the choir here, but if you haven’t had a check up recently you need to see your doctor and have one. Any adverse effects of ageing, stress, thyroid or long-term self-neglect on your physical health are absolutely crucial information for you to consider. And while I’m not advocating the pill solution, there are certain issues only medical intervention can solve.
There will never be a perfect time to get started because life will always get in the way if you let it. Tomorrow won’t be any better than today and six month’s from now life will be just as busy, but if you get started today your life may look quite different by then – and hey, you may too!
Anders N W Lindgreen is a Swedish/Australian Fitness Specialist. Visit his website for free articles and e-books featuring the unbiased truth on Personal Fitness Training and Corporate Health and Fitness.