Health & Fitness Blog

Physical Fitness is very important for all of us. Do you sometimes think you’d like to get fit and toned, but you’re not sure how to achieve your fitness goals or how to set up your fitness routines- or at least, you want to achieve it but you don’t want to spend hours in the gym to get fit?

Most of us do.   But in fact, do we need to join gym to be fit?  No – not necessary, if you don’t like!

Many of us have jobs where we sit most of the time, and in general there are less opportunities to get fit with our modern lifestyle of cars, labour-saving appliances, and machines which save us from having to do any kind of heavy manual work.  This means that we are not physically active, and therefore we feel physically tired, and maybe we become susceptible to coughs and colds and general poor health. However we need to be active for fitness.

General health and fitness has become more and more of a hot topic with lot’s of fitness strategies in the market, and now many people are interested in making an effort to eat a more healthy diet. With this increased awareness of the value – and fragility – of our health and fitness, many of us are also wishing we could incorporate some physical activity and exercise into our daily routine in order to complement our improved eating habits.

Of course, overall fitness improves quality of life.  Being fit help us to keep healthy and looking great. Fitness helps to increase body flexibility, which in turn helps to reduce aches and pains.   Fitness routines and exercise helps build stronger bones. It helps to keep us from the perils of obesity, stress, insomnia, diabetes, depression, heart disease – the benefits of fitness and exercise are endless!   Fitness is the magic bullet.

So how do you motivate yourself to do what you need to do to achieve all the benefits of fitness?

Here are some fitness tips to help you stay motivated.

Walk and move whenever you get an opportunity, take the stairs instead of the elevator, especially if you’re only going up or down one or two floors. Get off the tram or bus one or two stops before your destination, and then walk the rest of the way.

If you have the time and the facilities, and the dedication, you may get to enjoy swimming, or cycling, or running – whatever you like, so long as you enjoy it and don’t push yourself too hard. Combining your hobby with the fitness goals will help you achieve results faster.

The latest research has shown that the benefits of exercise can be gained even from low-intensity activity, like gardening, golf, and others – it doesn’t have to be hard and sweaty work out to help you keep fit!
And then there’s another way to achieve your fitness goals which opposite of exercise – relaxation.  I’m talking about more subtle “exercise” like yoga, meditation, or tai chi.   It’s a good idea to take sometime off from your schedule and relax like this, as these are all good ways to relieve stress.   And this is important, because stress is one of the common factors in many diseases, from headaches to heart attacks.

Exercise and Fitness routines combined with meditation is the best medicine to help you sleep better, relieve stress and renew your energy for the coming day.

As we’ve been discussing in earlier blogs, healthy food plays a very important role in fitness. And always remember one rule of Fitness – Diet comes before exercise, whether you want to gain muscle mass or reduce excess body fat, healthy diet combined with a good work out will help you achieve your fitness goals soon.

As an example, labourers who work hard for eight hours a day, they are getting a real good physical workout, but you see them with fat guts and double chins because when they get home they eat twice as many calories as they’ve worked off during the day – and then they go to bed so all the food turns to fat.

I hope these ideas will help you stay motivated and achieve your fitness goals.

Here are some Best Fitness routines for you. If you’ve been visiting this health and fitness blog for fitness tips, over last couple of weeks you’ll know by now all about how to get fit and healthy by following my free fitness routines.

For those of you who are new to this, I’ve been giving advice about fitness routines and fitness tips and how to make great improvements in your diet without making any major changes to the food you eat, and how to have a good exercise workout without taking any time out to exercise in a gym.

We’ve talked a lot about healthy diet, but last week we focused on exercise, and I’d like to continue with Fitness Routines and exercise tips this week.   The great news is that you can get an essential minimum amount of exercise in daily life without going to the gym, and without even setting aside time to exercise at home.   Refer back to last week’s article about exercise at home to get a couple of great workouts  for your legs and abs.

You probably drive to work, and even if you don’t, then you probably spend some time in the car going to the shops or wherever.   And isn’t it frustrating and boring when you get stuck at the lights, or caught in the peak-hour traffic!   Well, here’s a way to make it not so boring, using my system of fitness routines in your daily life while you are driving.

Next time you have to stop at the lights, put your hands on the wheel in the “quarter to three” position.   Now, pull outwards as though you were trying to stretch the wheel out to the sides.   You don’t have to strain, just use about 70% of your strength.  You’ll feel a very pleasant stretch in the muscles of your shoulders and your back.    Pull like that for a slow count of 5, and then relax. This kind of stretching fitness routines helps you do your stretching exercises while doing other chores.

If the lights have changed, then that’s passed the time for you, but if you’re still at a standstill, hold the wheel again, in the same position, and this time push inwards, as though you were trying to compress the wheel flat.  This time, you’ll feel a very nice stretch in your pecs. You may also notice a good stretch in your lats – these are the big muscles that run down outside of your back from your shoulders down towards your waist. Remember by following these fitness routines, you will be able to motivate yourself to go at a next level of your fitness journey. Just hold this squeeze for a slow count of five, and that’s all you need to do.   Probably the lights have changed now so you can go with this great workout and your daily fitness routines while driving.

You had to stop at the lights anyway, and instead of getting frustrated and filling your bloodstream with all those anger-chemicals, you’ve actually had a little workout or a nice and easy exercise that comes under the fitness routines it helps tone up your upper body, and worked off some of that traffic frustration !

Here’s another one of the easiest  fitness routines for you.   Next time you have to stop, put the handbrake on and try this.   Put your hands on the wheel and push yourself back into your seat to hold you steady, and just lift your feet off the floor.   Just a couple of centimetres is all that’s needed, as soon as your feet aren’t supported on the floor any more you’ll get a really good stretch on your abs, your stomach muscles.   Just hold your feet like that for a slow count of 5, and then put them back down.   If the traffic is still stopped do it once more, then put your feet back on the pedals and get ready for the traffic to move again.   This is a great one, it’s one of the excellent fitness routines and stretching workout for your abs, and it only takes a few seconds.

The beauty of all this is that you don’t have to put aside half an hour of your precious home-time to exercise, because you‘ve done one of your fitness routines while you were driving home!   These 3 exercises or you can say your fitness routines will help to tone your body.

Exercise without exercise, that’s the secret.  Now, like I said last time, these fitness routines will give you more energy, and might motivate you to actually take it to the next level of your fitness journey and start going to a gym, and if that happens then I can give you some seriously good fitness routines to follow in the gym.

Contact me today for any questions about how to get fit doing your daily fitness routines.

Follow these top diet tips to get started with your fitness program, and live a healthy life

# Drink a lot of water every day – Drinking water has many health benefits. It is a key ingredient in keeping your internal systems in balance. Around 6-8 glasses of water is the recommended daily intake.

# Eat 5-6 small meals in a day rather than three big meals, this will help control your weight. Enjoy eating more in the morning and afternoon; dinner should be the last and the lightest meal

# Try to include protein plus fibre in all your meals, healthy proteins help to improve muscle mass, and fibre helps to make you feel full, which means you don’t want to eat so much.

# Try to stock your kitchen with healthy foods, try not to buy junk and fatty foods from the supermarket. If you have a selection of ready-to-eat healthy meals and snacks at home then there is less chance of you ordering a pizza delivery.

#When you are eating out, try to share meals, or order a child’s portion. Seriously, this is a great way to reduce your food intake. If possible, eat a healthy snack before you go out to eat, so that you aren’t tempted to over-eat, but still you don’t go hungry

# If you are on a weight control program, or trying to loose weight, buy a kitchen scale. It is easy to underestimate the amount you are eating, and when you weigh the food in your meal you may find that it is more than the recommended serving size. Aim to eat the right serving size as shown in the nutrition table at the back of the packet.

# Eat slowly, and chew thoroughly. This is good for the digestion, and also you will feel fuller sooner.

# Try to avoid eating anything, especially carbohydrates, in the last 2-3 hours before you go to bed.

#Avoid processed foods as much as possible. Instead, go for whole meal and wholegrain. Aim to eat carbohydrates, which are low G.I.  such as whole grains, oats etc.

# Avoid fried food, if you can’t, then at least avoid deep fry and go for stir-fry. Ideally, eat baked, or grilled food.

# Extra Virgin Olive Oil is good for cooking.

# Include 3-4 grams of Omega-3 fatty acids in your diet daily. Foods like salmon, walnuts, and flaxseed are excellent sources of Omega-3. Omega-3 Fish oil capsules as a dietary supplement are a convenient way to do this.

# If you are not a gym lover, then try to take a brisk 30 minutes walk once a day, 5 days a week.   This exercise, coupled with a healthy diet, is good for cardiovascular fitness and for overall good health.

# Drinking fresh fruit juice is healthy, but you can’t beat actual fresh fruit.   It has more fibre than fruit juice, which means that it makes you feel full sooner, and this makes you want to eat less without feeling hungry.

Come back soon for more Diet, Fitness, and Health Tips !