LET US FOCUS ON HEALTH
There is information overload out there in online land. It is hard to know what is right or wrong for us. So overwhelming! What I want to do in this post is give you 5 things to focus on to help you live a more healthy and hopefully happy life. None of this these things are rocket science and are not sexy or crazy in any way but they are all things we can do every day to help us on this journey of living our most healthy lives.
DRINK MORE WATER! Yes I yelled that. We as humans are so used to living in a dehydrated state. It is not healthy and we don't realize how bad we feel until we start drinking enough. Water is so important to our bodies in so many ways that is beyond the scope of this blog post. You can just take my word for this one. Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water, and i mean water, just water. If you sweat a lot or work out, drink more!
Processed foods. We have all got used to the convenience of processed foods. They really are not good for us. Most are filled with sugar, simple carbs and fats. We have forgot what real foods taste like. When we have to put sugar on our berries cause they aren't sweet enough, we have a problem. Let us try and stick to whole foods in their natural state. A potato is better for you than potato chips. you guys get the idea.
Hitting our protein goal. This is especially important as we get older. We lose muscle mass, and quite a bit of it as we age, especially as we hit our 40's and older. Protein helps us maintain our muscle and that can help stay physically fit and active as we age. Most of us don't come close to what we should be eating. Try and get around .8 grams per pound of body weight. If you have some fat to lose, eat that amount for the weight you want to weigh. Fish, chicken, lean beef, it all will help.
Lift them weights! You all know how i preach this all the time and it ties into number 3. They go together. We must put our muscles under stress to keep them strong and help us live an active life. Having more muscle helps with the uptake of glucose which in turn helps keep diabetes in check. Muscle also uses more calories to just exist. And face it, they just look good! moderate to heavy weights 3 days a week is great! another part of this is what you do throughout the rest of the day is just as import and the amount of time you exercise. Make sure you get up and move throughout the day. One way is to get up and walk after your meals for 10 minutes.
Sleep! We need to recharge from our day and that is what sleep does. This is such an important part of our health and don't really pay attention to it. For some reason, we in the states, take pride in running ourselves into the ground. We respect people who don't sleep a lot. Why is that? We need to sleep! And I get it, I have to work very hard on sleeping and during this pandemic, I have let myself take a nap if i needed it. Set a nighttime ritual and stick to it, darken your room, turn off your phone. Anything you can do so you get a good 7 to 9 hours of good restful sleep.
So there you have it. 5 ways to help us with our health and fitness journey. Take it one day at a time, establish some new healthy habits and set yourself up to succeed! You are so worth it!