You know what the health experts say. To maintain proper physical fitness, adults need two and a half hours of moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity per week.
But it’s a mistake to think that you will be physically fit just by getting a certain amount of exercise. Without proper eating habits, no amount of activity will make you as healthy as you can be.
Not only will following the guidelines help you manage your weight and improve your fitness, they will help you get the nutrition you need to maximize the benefit you get from your physical activities too.
1. A Balanced Diet
We all know we should eat a balanced diet but few of us know exactly what it means. To be healthy, your body needs to get a variety of different nutrients from the foods you eat. Fats, proteins and carbohydrates are the ‘macronutrients’ in food from which you get your nutrition. Your body needs certain nutrients from each macronutrient for optimum health.
Your diet is balanced when you eat the right proportion of macronutrients, which is approximately 25% to 35% fats, 40% to 50% carbohydrates and 25% to 35% protein.
2. Enjoy Every Meal
Like balancing your diet, you need a balanced eating schedule. It’s a huge mistake to avoid meals with the idea that it will help you lose weight by not eating. On the contrary, when you skip breakfast, lunch or dinner, your body compensates for the imbalance by making you crave high-fat, high-energy foods. That pushes your diet out of balance and can lead to weight gain.
3. Cut the Junk
Foods that are high in salt, sugar and fat, including many snack foods and fizzy soft drinks, put your diet out of balance by giving you too many extra calories from carbs and fat. Your body stores all the extras as fat.
4. Talk to a Nutritional Specialist
It’s odd that so many people spend hundreds of dollars every year on gym memberships and personal trainers, yet they spend little or nothing on nutritional counseling. Your overall physical fitness depends on the right nutrition as much as it does on physical activity.
Why not visit the nutritional counselors at your local Herbal One Centre today. They will be happy to help you balance your diet, get the right nutrition and manage your weight.