Your Health and Fitness (part 5)

Emotional Eating

We touched on this subject just a few minutes ago in our dieting
chapter but it’s important for you to address now, too. Emotional
eating is eating when things go bad, when you are stressed or when
you are in the mood for a certain feeling that you can’t get from the
world around you.


For many millions of people, this is one of the prime reasons that they
are overweight or unhealthy in their diets. While food never used to
be so readily available, today its easy to have a pantry full of food and
a refrigerator that’s stocked to the brim. It’s easy to go to the food to
get the satisfaction that you need.

Yet this is a dangerous situation. Those that use food to fight their
emotional instability are most likely to fall deeper into a path of self
destruction. For example, consider this scenario that happens over
the span of time.

You begin by getting stressed at work. You find yourself reaching for a
candy bar to get the extra rush that you need to get through the tasks
at hand. You then find yourself dealing with pressure from the boss;
you didn’t do the job right. You decide you need a big, fatty lunch.

Soon, the pounds are creeping onto your hips. There’s no time to
exercise and to meet deadlines you increase the amount of bad foods
you are eating. Soon, you are not fitting well into your clothing. You
become upset at yourself, your self esteem drops.

As your self esteem drops, you find yourself in even more problems.

Now, you hate your job so much that the only thing that makes it feel
better is eating something bad for you. In fact, you almost purposely
make the situation worse by eating bad. You aren’t any good. You are a failure. You can’t make the right decisions. Just look at
you….these are all things that people end up saying to themselves
when they are emotionally depleted.


Emotional eating is one of the hardest cycles to break, yet if left intact,
it’s also one of the worst things you can do for both your physical and
your mental health state.


In just a bit we’ll talk about some of the ways that you can have good
mind fitness, which includes emotional eating. The first step in
fighting the way that food makes you feel, though, is to recognize that
there is a connection between the way that you feel and the way that
you eat. Realizing this makes a large difference in improving both
your physical fitness and your mind’s fitness.

How Can You Improve?

How can you improve your mind’s fitness? There are many great ways
to make this happen. Remember when we said this fitness plan was
going to be fun? Here there are many great ways to improve your
emotional and mental fitness through fun methods.

Each aspect is unique in itself and in the way that it will help to
improve both your physical fitness and your quality of life. Incorporate
as many of these things into your life as you can, and you’ll see
differences in the way that you feel and the way that you see the
world.

Your Self Esteem

We’ll tackle one of the hardest things to improve right from the

beginning: your self esteem. A health self esteem is one that’s

confident but not overly macho. You should be able to feel confident

in the decisions that you make and in the way that your life is moving.

Confidence is built on many things including the fact that you have to

realize that you do have weaknesses and you do have limits to your

abilities. Accept those, work on improving them if you can and then

do the best job that you can overall.

In addition, learn how to accept compliments and to take criticism.

Getting down on yourself because someone doesn’t like the job you

did isn’t okay.

Although challenging, you need to be able to say, “Hey, I did a good

job!” You also need to recognize when it wasn’t your best work and

realize that it’s okay not to be perfect 100 percent of the time. Learn

to take criticism positively. If your boss says that the job wasn’t good

enough, ask what you could have improved on for next time. Then,

you set yourself up for success rather than a pint of ice cream!

One way to improve the way that you look and feel about yourself is to

take care of your outward appearance. Those that dress well, take

care of the way that they look and those that do things for themselves

are the most confident people out there. Just putting on a beautiful

outfit can make you feel good about yourself.

Build A Social Network

A social network is a very important to your well being, both physically

and mentally. Those that have people around them to support them

do well in many more aspects of their lives. Let’s face, its fun to have

people around too! But, how can you build a social network of people

that you can rely on?

Make time for those that you already have. Don’t assume that they

will always be there when you need them, even when you don’t pay

attention to them otherwise. You should always strive for a lifestyle

that’s positive with those in your family and your friends. That means

taking on the challenges that come up between people, working

through them and then letting them go.

Relationships take time and work. If you are married, that relationship

alone will be one that you have to work on. Realizing that you aren’t

always right and making sacrifices for those that need you to can be

an important and difficult risk you have to take.

Commit to going out and having fun, whatever way is fun to you, at

least one time per week. Getting away or even just finding time to

play a board game is essential. This allows your mind to repair

damage and it allows you to improve your network of friends.

Don’t take friends for granted because they won’t be there when you

need them the most. In part of that comes the fact that if you want to

have family and friends you need to be a friend, too. Giving others

support helps them to accomplish their life’s needs and it gives you a

sense of gratification. You’ll feel good about life and your social

network.

Managing Stress

Its not easy job, but you have to do it! Stress is one of the largest

problems in health today. Stress affects your ability to function

properly. It hinders you throughout your life by causing unhealthy

living situations, physical risks and puts your entire well being at risk

for emotional breakdown.

To help remedy stress, there are many things that you can do. For

starters, find an outlet. You need to find something that you love to

do. A hobby, a physical activity, or some other thing that really brings

you happiness is necessary to have. By doing that activity even after

a long and stressful day it can offer you improvement in your health

and well being, by relieving stress.

If the situations that you are in provide you with high levels of stress,

it is important for you to find solutions to those problems. You need

an effective manor for relieving stress and if you can’t do so by solving

the problem or by letting go of the stress you need to remove yourself

from such situations. Stress that is ongoing without any real stopping

is a large health risk!

Brain Power!

To improve mental fitness, use your brain power! You don’t have to

do any type of exercise with your brain physically of course, but

mentally you do!

For starters, always keep yourself learning. Learning new things

keeps the mind active and that means health. Someone that is learning new things that interests them is likely to continue to having

a mental state that’s positive and motivated.

You should also use challenges to help power you through your day

and your life. Giving yourself the ability to overcome challenges from

puzzles to problems in life (yours or others) can help to keep your

brain working. Asking questions, getting the answers and working at

it helps to improve the brain’s function, allowing you to fend off

Alzheimer’s and other conditions like it.

Your Overall Mental Fitness Plan

So, now you have it! You know what to do to make your lifestyle

improved through these changes. Here’s a quick look at the changes

that you can make today that will increase your mind’s power later

and throughout your life.

1.Improve your stress levels and see physical, mental and

emotional benefits right away.

2.Improve your social network to reduce stress and to improve

your quality of life. It also helps to make it through difficult times

when you have someone by your side.

3.Improve your brain’s fitness by challenging it through new

adventures, continuous learning and through challenges of all types.

4.Do things that are enjoyable to you. If you can’t think of

anything, learn something new. New adventures coupled with doing them with those that you love make life better and help to improve

your mental fitness.

5.Keep your self esteem positive. Working on this is hard, but

feeling good about yourself is a must for overall health.

By doing these things it will significantly improve the fitness that your

mind has physically and emotionally. The good news is that you can

change the outcome of your day by just making the right decisions on

the way to look at challenges during the day. Make changes like these

today and see results today.

Your Health and Fitness (part 4)

Overall Diet Fitness Plan

Does this sound like a lot of work? Don’t worry; we’ll make it simpler
for you. Here are the tips that you need to get your diet fitness plan
off the ground and allowing you to improve your health considerably!

1.Eat more fruits and vegetables. Visit your favorite recipe sites on
the web and look for vegetable recipes that aren’t rich with sauces,
butter or creams. Add one new recipe to your diet each week.

2.Start looking for leaner cuts of meat. Remember, meats that are
high in saturated fat are clogging your heart. One good switch is with
ground meats. Don’t reach for beef, but replace at least part of it with
ground turkey or pork. You won’t notice the taste difference. Eat
more fish, chicken and pork over beef.

3.Reduce portion sizes. No food in one sitting should be a larger
quantity than the size of your palm. To help you to not feel hungry,
eat a bit slower.

4.Visit the website of the American Heart Association to get heart
healthy recipes. Try to look for ways to improve your current recipes
through replacing butters, salts, unhealthy foods with foods that are 

better for you. Look at your grains. Replace white rice and pasta with
whole grain. Replace white bread with whole grain bread.

5.Remove soda from your diet. This single movement alone will
improve your health considerably. It adds weight to your body and it
causes all types of health risks later in life.

6.Look at labels. Learn to read labels so that they tell you what’s
in the foods you eat. Reduce the amount of fat, cholesterol, and
sugars in the foods that you eat.

If you need to lose weight, then you need to consider a calorie
reduction. Dropping just a small amount of weight means that you
need to eat less and do more physically. There is no fad diet that is
more comprehensively safer and effective than just that: eat less and
get more exercise every day.

Eating healthy isn’t an option if you wish to increase your lifespan and
increase your health. While you may love food, learning to make
healthier recipes shouldn’t be something you put on the back burner
because you are too busy, don’t like those foods (you probably don’t
know what they taste like anyway!) or you think its too much work.

Food is a requirement to living and a healthy diet is an essential part
of living a long life. Don’t make sacrifices here for speed, convenience
or habit. Remember; while making changes at first is a challenge, you
will get into the habit and will eventually love the differences you have
made, guaranteed!

Mind Fitness, A Healthy EmotionalLife

As you can assume, your mind is a powerful tool and it helps you

through each step of your day. It controls the way that you perform

each action, the way that you see life and it controls all of those little

things like breathing and your heart pumping that you don’t think

about.

Yet, there are many ways that your mind’s fitness may not be the right

level that it should be. In fact, for many people living in today’s hectic

lifestyle, it’s anything but easy to make it through the day without

dealing with some type of stress or pressure.

The mind’s health is quite an important aspect and, believe it or not,

plays a significant role in the quality of life and the longevity that you

have in your life. When you are emotionally or mentally unfit, your

body’s health is directly related.

There are many different ways that this can happen, including the

simple fact that you may have to battle illnesses more often and with

greater intensity.

Although you may be wondering just how you can control your minds

fitness, the good news is that this can be one of the easier steps to

take in total health and wellness if you allow it to be.

Let’s get started by learning what exactly is healthy and what may not

be the best choice for your overall health and well being.

What’s Healthy?

For your mind to be in a healthy state, several key things must play a

role. First, you need to be fully capable of thinking clearly; performing

mental tasks and you need to be able to conquer problems effectively.

In addition, you need to tame those other things that happen

throughout your life that limit you or otherwise affect the quality of

your mind and lifestyle.

A Healthy Brain

With the onset of Alzheimer’s happening to more and more people, the

importance of having a healthy brain is very evident. Whether or not

you can stop this disease or other debilitating diseases from happening

to you is yet to be seen, there is evidence that says that you can

actually push off the onset by some time if you do the right things.

For this particular battle, you need to exercise your mind. Keeping

your mind active, challenged and attentive is essential to your well

being and this fight.

Emotional Health

Another aspect that you probably don’t want to talk about is that of

emotional well being. While life affects each one of us, the way that

you handle the problems that happen to fall into your lap are critical in

maintaining a healthy life. For example, should something emotionally 

troubling happen to you, such as a death or deception, you need to be

able to effectively deal with it and then to move on.

Emotional health is an important battle that everyone must strive to

improve. There are many various ways that you can improve your

emotional state by learning how to react to critical situations. Indeed,

the right social activity is one way to improve your emotional health.

Stress Management

Yet another factor that plays a significant role in the well being of your

mind is that of stress. Not only does it pull you down through causing

large amounts of emotional trauma, but it also causes all types of

physical problems for those struggling with it. It can lead to various

health issues physically, too.

While you can’t take away everything in your life that causes stress,

learning to effectively manage stress is important. It can help you to

tackle even challenging tasks with more ease and with success.

Sometimes it may be important to remove the stressors from your life,

but that’s not a common occurrence.

Spiritual Well Being

Spiritual well being is yet another consideration that you need to take.

While there isn’t always a need to be religious or spiritual, it can often

play a role in the way that you see your life as well as in your

emotional state of mind. For those that do believe in a Higher Power,

the need for spiritual well being is even more evident because it places

a significant role in your self esteem and your outlook on your own

life.

Spiritual well being is a critical factor in maintaining your health, too.

Those that are spiritually fit, feel good about themselves which allows

them to be more likely to improve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

This is a personal decision, of course, but aren’t all of these aspects of

fitness personal decisions that you need to commit to? Spiritual health

is something to think about.

Where Are You Now?

When it comes to determining how mentally fit you are, you may think

that you have nothing to worry about. After all, you do all that you

need to do and there’s nothing limiting you. But, have you actually

reached the highest level that you can?

Usually people struggle with this aspect because of the vast number of

misbelieves about mental and emotional well being. Believe it or not,

most people go through stages of depression, mental turmoil and even

times when they are so stressed that they can not function properly.

During these times, you can consider them, and you, mentally

unstable and unfit.

Yes, it hurts to hear but just like your body goes through illness, your

mind can be struggling at the same time, although you may not realize

it.

To determine where you stand in mind fitness, ask yourself these

questions. Be honest, now, there’s nothing for you to be embarrassed

about but a lot to be gained when you can improving your mind’s

fitness.

1.Do you have physical pain that is not the result of an injury?

This could be stress related!

2.Do you struggle with remembering things from one moment to

the next? Do you find yourself struggling to remember why you

walked into a room?

3.Do you struggle to make the goals that you set for yourself?

4.Do you feel anxiety, stress and angry often? What does it feel

like and how intense does it get?

5.Do you hate the life that you are leading, are you unhappy with

your lifestyle or do you have regrets about your life?

All of these things play a role in how mentally fit you are. While you

may not want to do this, you should schedule a meeting with a

psychologist just to talk through some of the feelings that you have.

For the most part, working through these issues can be the best way

for you to overcome your problems and to find overall benefit in your

life.

If you have trouble sleep, or are eating whenever you feel like it, then

you should be considering the vast number of mind fitness needs you

may have.

Improving the fitness of your mind not only improves your daily life

but increases your longevity, too!

To be continued...

Your Health and Fitness (part 3)

Diet Fitness, You Are What You Eat,Really!

“Diet” is a word that is only second to that of exercise when it comes
to hatred by many people. But, here, we aren’t talking about a diet to
lose weight. We aren’t talking about a diet that you will go on to lose
weight and then come off of later.

What you need to accomplish through a diet is to train your body to
eat healthily. You need a diet that is actually a way of eating, not a
temporary thing but a permanent thing.

Although that sounds even worse, dieting is something that is simple
to do healthily even if you can’t live without certain foods. You can do
it even when you are in too much of a rush and don’t have time. And,
you can do it with lots of favors that you AND your children will enjoy.

Don’t think about a diet that’s taxing, troublesome, limiting or boring.

Think of your diet as being free, open, full of taste and adventure, with
all of the comfort that you want and need, too.

What’s Healthy?

The foods that you need play a significant role on your health. Foods
are the fuel that your body requires to do a good job at the tasks that
you ask it. In our machine look at the way that food works, the food
that you consume is the fuel that your machine needs.

If you don’t give it quality food, it won’t perform the right way. Have
you ever gone to put gas into your car and gotten to a really bad gas
station where the fuel wasn’t high quality or even up to standard? It
slows your car down. You don’t get the gas mileage that you are used
to and you may even need to perform more maintenance on your car
than you usually need to do.

In the way of your body, healthy food is just as important. If you
consume the wrong foods all of the time, your body will not be able to
perform as well as if you gave it the highest quality foods.

•Without nutrition, your body can become ill faster and with
greater intensity.

•Your body does not heal as quickly from injury.

•Your blood pressure rises, your heart rate increases to unhealthy
levels.

•You are more prone to limitations physically as well as mentally.

All sorts of problems arise from not eating a healthy diet of food. But,
what is healthy and why is it healthy?

•Vegetables are one of the highest nutrient rich foods out there.

They provide antioxidants to a high level that helps to heal your body,
improve your physical fitness from the inside to the out, and they are
very low in calories meaning you can eat more.

•Fruits are sweet so they can solve the sweet tooth. They also
provide you with antioxidants and all types of nutrients that give your
body the fuel it needs.

•Whole grains are also an important product of a healthy diet.

Unlike “white” foods, whole grains give you so much more health.

They don’t cause you to gain weight like others. Choosing simple
differences from bread to pasta to potatoes allows you to get the
tastes that you love but without the added calories, fats, and sugars
that can cause you health issues.

•Water intake is also important. Those that do not get enough
fluids end up having a body that retains water rather than having less.

The body goes into dehydration mode, causing you to keep in all that
you can. Consuming enough water means that you’ll system is
hydrated, you’re eating less and that you aren’t getting as many
calories from other liquids.

•Meats are important parts of the diet, too. You need protein but
you shouldn’t want to get it from fatty meats. Improving your diet to
just lean meats will allow you to cut down on the intake of cholesterol
which will ultimately clog your heart minimizing blood flow to the rest

of your body.

If you don’t do anything else, improving these five areas is all you

need to do. The good news is that you don’t often need a lot of work

to make them happen.

Your doctor may have additional or different recommendations for

your health, too. He or she may recommend a diet that is different for

your specific health issues. In addition, you may want to find out if

there are any possible problems with the foods that you eat to your

overall health specifically for your health problems.

Dieting To Lose Weight

Finally, if you need to lose weight, you need to minimize the amount of

calories that you are taking in by monitoring how many you are

consuming.

The average person should consume about 1800 to 2000 calories per

day. If you are dieting and need to lose weight, you need to reduce

this amount to at 1500 to 1600 calories per day. Go with the

reductions that your doctor recommends here so that you have

enough fuel for the day but are not allowing your body to store the

extra fuel as fat throughout your body.

Where Are You Now?

When it comes to improving your diet fitness, you need to take into

consideration the location that you are right now.

What do you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? How many calories

are you consuming per day?

To help you to see the clear picture of what’s happening to your health

in the foods that you eat, take note of how a normal day or week goes

for you. Here are some steps to follow to find out how healthy your

diet actually is and how healthy it isn’t!

1.Spend one or two days recording the foods that you eat in an

average day on a piece of paper. All foods and drinks should be

noted!

2.Figure out how many calories you are consuming in an average

day.

3.Look at your list of foods and see how many of them are high in

transaturated fats, sugars and calories in general.

4.How many servings of vegetables and fruits are you getting?

How many servings of protein has been lean protein? Did you get in

any whole grains? How much soda did you drink (which puts pounds

on your waist each time?)

5.How often did you eat without actually being hungry but being

instead bored, anxious, stressed or otherwise emotionally impared?

When you look at these facts you may clearly see where the problems

lie. Being honest with yourself is important, though. For most people

this is as simple as tracking what they eat over the period of a few

days to a week.

Seeing just how much in calories as well as in unhealthiness can really

cause them to see what reality really is rather than to assume they are

doing okay.

I Can’t Give It Up!

If you are one of the many that feel that they can’t give up the foods

that they love no matter what, there are several key things for you to

address. Don’t worry, they aren’t all bad!

First, find out why it is that you can’t give them up. For example, are

you connected with that big slice of apple pie because it was your

favorite growing up, you may have an emotional attachment to the

foods. If you love your mashed potatoes loaded with gravy, sour

cream and butter just because you love the taste, that’s a different

story.

Identifying why you have to have a specific food is important so that

you can actually see the benefits of eating those foods. If you need

apple pie to feel safe, you need to address this emotional problem. If

you just love the taste, you can find ways to get much of the same

taste without a lot of the calories.

Next, determine if there is a better way for you to get the foods that

you like. For example, will sweetened sweet potatoes that are mashed

still give you the same texture and creaminess that you are craving?

By making small changes to the recipe you can get all of the flavor and

texture that you want without causing yourself to become a victim of

high fats and sugars that really do a number on your entire system.

Indeed you may want that slice of apple pie. But, use it in a different

way. For example, instead of eating it every few days make it the

reward that you get for a week of good eating. Limiting how often you

get the treats means that you don’t have to give them up but that you

don’t consume nearly as much of it, and therefore you can improve

your health overall.

One limit to this is when the food itself is detrimental to your health

condition. If you are a diabetic, you simply should not eat foods that

are overall sweet because they can cause your blood sugar level to

rise so fast that you can cause serious damage to your brain and your

heart through the consumption of just some foods.

You should know what types of foods you can not eat. If you don’t

know you should talk to your doctor about this. There are certain

times in life that foods become prime suspects to leading to health

risks. Food isn’t worth the risk of your life, is it?

How Can You Improve?

Okay, here is comes. The awful, limiting diet that’s going to make

your taste buds go permanently bland is up next, right?

NO! You don’t have to be limited by what you can eat because most

food that is available that is in its natural state is just fine for you! In

fact, if you give it a try you may find that you like these foods better

than you do the high fat, high cholesterol foods that you currently are

eating.

This section of our book is long for a reason. Foods are a main part of

why people are unhealthy and therefore it is a mandatory part of

improving your health to improve your diet. If you can not commit to

making changes here, your diet fitness can threaten your life through

disease and even early death.

Yet, much of the damage that is done through eating the wrong foods

can be reversed over time by eating a healthy diet. That’s exactly

what you need to strive for here.

We’ve already talked about what foods you need to eat for a healthy

diet, now you need to consider how you will make changes that you

can actually live with.

Here are several key areas to make changes and exactly how you

should make them. Don’t fret about the foods you love, remember

moderation is the key factor in real diet fitness health.

Heart Health

Improving your heart’s health is essential. For this, eat lean cuts of

meat. Paying attention to the amount of saturated fats in the food you

eat is also key to improving your health and well being.

In addition, there are various foods that can help you to improve your

hearts health. For example, replacing the vegetable oil in your diet

with olive oil, in moderation can improve your health. Garlic is a great

antioxidant for your heart too. Reducing the amount of sodium that

you take in is also a key factor in improving health. Instead of using a

lot of salt, try other flavor additions to your dishes.

1.Consume more fish. You should try to consume at least 2 to 3

servings of fish per week. Or take a supplement of fish oil.

2.Eat unrefined whole grains as they add fiber to your diet which

reduced your cholesterol and keeps you feeling full.

Improving Health Risks

Another very powerful tool that you have when it comes to diet fitness

is that of improving your health through the foods that you eat. Your

weapon is that of antioxidants!

Antioxidants are powerful nutrients that are in fruits and vegetables.

A good way to know if they are in the foods that you are eating is to

look at the color of the food. The darker, richer and brighter the color

is, the more antioxidants are in it.

Antioxidants can help to transform your health. They can help to

repair damage to cells throughout your body and thereby make you

look and feel younger. They can help to unclog your heart’s arteries

from cholesterol. And, they help to remove toxins from your body

which means a reduction in risks of cancer.

Using antioxidants for your overall health is a key factor in improving

your health! While you can get many of them through supplements,

you should instead consider getting them from whole foods as they are

richer as well as tastier that way!

Eat Whole Foods

One of the best things that you can do for your health is to eat whole

foods rather than foods that are pre-made. Yes, you are in a hurry

and who has time to chop up vegetables? Well, there are reasons why

an investment in a bit more time here can literally save your life.

Many foods that are pre-made contain high amounts of preservatives,

or products that are placed in foods to keep them fresh and looking

good. Some of these preservatives can clog up your heart, can lead to

increased health risks for cancer and they put the pounds on.

The trick you should follow, then, is to visit your grocery store and

walk around the outside aisles only as much as possible. No boxed

dinners, no frozen entrees. The produce section is your friend filled

with riches. Meats, milks, eggs and other fresh products usually line

the walls of the building. Avoid the aisles and you’ll improve your

health overall.

See you in the next part...

Your Health and Fitness (part 2)

Body Fitness And Its Effect

On Your Life

Remember how we referred to your body as a machine? Well, the
time has come to improve the way that machine is working. This
means physically. Your body is a well designed machine, actually.

Each part of your body functions well because of the support that
other parts play.

Your heart pumps oxygen rich blood to each cell in your body,
delivering fuel to is so that it can perform its duty. Your lungs supply
your heart with that necessary oxygen. Your brain keeps everything
working, even those things that you don’t think about doing like your
heart beating and your lungs breathing.

Your job is to give your body what it needs to continue to perform
correctly. While your diet is something for the next chapter, we need
to address your body’s ability to do what it needs to through being
physically capable.

What some people don’t realize is why their body has developed as it
has. Well back in the time of the cave man, the body had to do what
it needed to so that you could stay alive. It would store food in fat so
that when there wasn’t enough food available, these fat reserves could
be used.

Your muscles are necessary for functioning but they have been built to
be used, not to sit ideally. Your body is used to providing your
muscles with the fuel that they need to work hard. If you don’t work

hard, your body can’t maintain a healthy muscle mass.

What’s Healthy?

As we mentioned early, to know what level of fitness your body is in,
you need to take into consideration the vast number of measurements
that we’ve already taken. Your weight, your blood pressure and your
body mass index are good indications of your overall health.

Yet, it goes further than this, too. You should understand how well
your body is working, too. Do you have any physical limitations? If
you physically can’t lift things for fear of hurting your back, this could
be a potential problem that needs to be considered.

If you have problems with your legs, your neck, your arms or anything
else, you should address these specific concerns. The best place to
start is to work with your doctor to determine why you aren’t
physically fit in those areas. That way, you can improve your overall
health and then improve upon your situation by knowing how to.

Where Are You?

As we’ve mentioned, it’s important for you to know where you stand
health wise. That means taking the measurements that we’ve listed.

You should weekly weigh yourself, the same day at the same time
each week. Keep a log of this information so that you can see your

progression.

Talking to your doctor is a great place to start when it comes to

determining your overall health. You shouldn’t skip this step. If you

are overweight, chances are good that your heart has been affected by

it. You may not physically be able to exercise to a certain level. We

won’t even include that level of exercise here because your doctor

must tell you what’s okay and what is too much.

If you aren’t having any physical limitations, pains or weight problems,

that’s a great sign. Now, look at your body in other manners to

determine what you can improve on. Even an overall fit person can

often improve their body’s fitness through improving their body’s

makeup.

Understanding where you are is difficult for many at first. It’s a hard

realization. But, it’s not the permanent solution, its going to improve,

one step at a time.

How Can You Improve

Improving your body means improving your body’s ability to move and

function. Its not easy thing to do at first, but it will get easier. Our

overall plan to improving your body’s fitness level is through exercise,

coupled with the other fitness elements later throughout this book.

Exercise is something that people hate, but remember your body is

built to be used, not to sit in a chair at a desk all day. It is estimated

that most people don’t get the exercise that they need and that leads

to all types of health problems.

Again, even if you aren’t overweight, chances are good that you aren’t

getting enough exercise and fitness into your life anyway. Using your

muscles and strengthening them are vital to improving health and

fitness.

Aerobic Training

Movement is important for your body. Exercise is the best route to

take to gain that health. Aerobic training is the best way to improve

your overall exercise tolerance and therefore to improve your muscles.

Aerobic training helps to increase your heart’s ability to pump and

therefore to get oxygen throughout your body faster. In this type of

training, your body will work to improve its function by improving how

much work your heart can do.

To find out if you have any limitations, talk to your doctor. If not, then

start with a basic program. Here are some tips for you to get in

aerobic training.

•Start with basic aerobics and work up as your tolerance

increases. Walking is a great place to start.

•Increase your resistance by taking trails that offer hills or

speeding up your walk as you improve.

•Move on to more aerobic style exercises. Swimming, bike riding,

playing your favorite sport, running, elliptical machines, and other

physical activities are perfect for aerobics.

Your goal is to start with 10 minutes of continuous aerobics three

times a week. You should try to increase this to 30 minutes three

times per week, though, as soon as your body allows for it. The

guidelines of your doctor are a must to follow!

Strength Training

Along with aerobic training, you also need to consider adding strength

training to your workout. Now, you don’t have to be a body builder

here. You don’t have to have bulging muscles. But, you do want to

develop lean muscles that are strong and therefore healthy.

If you need to lose some weight, strength training is a very essential

aspect of making sure that happens. With strength training, you will

be able to move flabby muscles and fat into lean muscles. Muscle

burns through fat faster, allowing you to lose weight faster.

Strength training is essential because it allows you to improve the way

that your body works, too. Muscles that are strong are less likely to

become injured. They are able to be used easier, with less likelihood

of being strained or hurt through your daily exercises, movements or

even in accidents.

Here are some tips for exercising through strength training.

•Work with a low amount of weight first. Never increase the

weight you are doing unless you are okayed to do so by your doctor.

•Consider working with a physical trainer. This small investment

of time and money will allow you to improve your overall muscle mass

faster, and more effectively.

•Change up the exercises that you do so that the process is easy

and fun. You’ll enjoy it and you’ll see improvement in the tone of your

body quickly.

With strength training, you should add in ten minutes per day three

times per week at least. Again, you’ll want to increase this number

over time to at least 30 minutes per day three times per week.

Remember to include ten minutes before and after your workouts for

warm up and cool downs!

Your Overall Body Fitness Plan

To improve the physical fitness of your body, you need to give it the

physical movement that it needs. This means feeding it the right

regimen of movements.

Start by working in exercise through aerobics and strength training

into your day. Visit your local recreational center or community

center. You can even start doing these things at home, too, which will

make the process easier and even more enjoyable.

To make it even better, consider these easy and fun ways to get in the

exercise that you need.

•Do it with a pattern. You are 80 percent more likely to be

successful if you don’t try to do it alone! Recruit someone to work

with you!

•After dinner, head out for a walk with your spouse for a few

minutes. If you can’t leave the kids, take them with you. This is a

great way to get in some quality time away from the television.

•If you can’t leave the television, use a stationary bike. During

your favorite show, ride the bike. You get the exercise you need

without missing your television program and time will fly by.

•Do sports and other physical activities that you enjoy.

Swimming, playing a game with the kids and even joining a sports

team is a great way to get in exercise without it feeling like exercise.

Your overall body fitness means exercise and movement. When you

begin to add these into your day, you’ll probably find every excuse not

to do them. Yet, you will come to enjoy exercising. For many it’s a

great stress relief and it can be a lot of fun. Make it your goal to

actually put together a workout that you enjoy. It will make all of the

difference in how effective it is for you.

Your Health and Fitness (part 1)

Introduction

What does the words fitness and losing pounds mean to you? To each person, it’s
something different. To many it’s a word that brings on the cringe of pain, of doing
something they simply hate and even something they will avoid at all possible costs. But,
that’s not necessary for most people. Most people can exercise and watch what they eat
and do just fine. For those who need a little with a diet I suggest you try following a diet
involving the glycemic foods index.

In fact, fitness and weight loss can be enjoyable if you know how to make it be just that.

Through this short book, we will show you key elements to keeping yourself fit. Each tip
and tool given is something that you can do easily, without much help and with the
ability to see benefits.

You won’t lose a magical 100 pounds this first three months. You may be able to drop
that amount of weight, though, in a year’s time. In many ways, fitness can be fun and
we’ll show you how to make it just that, healthily. Instead of a gimmick diet, another
useless fad and any type of crazy health food that costs more than all of the meals from
your family, this is a simple, no nonsense approach to overall fitness that simply makes
sense.

You’ll learn something and you’ll be able to implement these tools today to start seeing

success. Really, it can be that simple to be healthy. Let’s make fitness fun, then.

A Look At Yourself

Fitness is a term that is used to help define the ability to stay in the best physical shape. You may ask, then, “What am I staying in shape for?” To each person, this will be something

different.

For most, it is a matter of staying healthy as long as possible. You see, your body is designed to work as a machine. When each part of the machine is cared for, the entire machine works the best that it can. When the machine is neglected either in part or in the whole, then the machine won’t run well and eventually won’t run at all.

If a car, for example, is well maintained for many years, it will last many years longer. If it isn’t taken care of, for example you don’t change the oil in it, you cut several years off the life of the car. That’s costly to you, but when you look at this as your body, you are shaving away days, weeks, and even years off of your life when you don’t take care of your machine (your body.) Fitness is a necessary part of life. Before we get on the soap box, remember that fitness is something that you can get into the habit of doing which makes it easy.

Fitness is not something that you have to struggle with. When you were three you were probably taught to brush your teeth. You learned to put your clothes on. When you were learning how to do them, you likely hated it. But, once you learned how to do it, it became something that you didn’t think twice about. Do you worry about brushing your teeth today? No, because it’s a habit. That’s what we want you to think of when you think of fitness.

It’s just something that you do. Granted, the first weeks of learning to be fit and staying healthy will be the hardest. You’ll dread it. You’ll find excuses about not doing it. You’ll claim that getting fit is just too hard. You just can’t give up what you love. That’s not true.

In fact, if you have the will power to save your life by sacrificing for just a few weeks, you’ll see that fitness can be easily mastered by you.

Our first goal is to determine where you stand right now. Don’t worry, this is painless, but it may hurt your ego a bit to do it. Nevertheless, it’s an important first step.

Where Are You Now?

Take a look at yourself right now. What do you see? If you are unhappy about any part of your body, chances are good that area of your body is bothering you because it’s an unhealthy area.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine where you stand right now.

•Do you have aches and pains in parts of your body that are not from an injury?

•Do you have clothing that doesn’t fit parts of your body well?

•Do you struggle to do physical activities? Do you avoid them because you know you

can’t do them?

•Are you unhappy with the way that your body looks? Do you avoid looking in the

mirror?

•Have you been told by your doctor, your family or others that you need to consider your

fitness?

If so, then you need to begin by understanding that change needs to happen. There are several tools that you need to use to determine your health level currently. You can find calculators for many of these available to you free of charge on the web. You need to use them to understand exactly where you stand right now.

•Your Blood Pressure: The pressure in which your heart pumps blood throughout your

body. You need this number to be there, but it needs to be in a certain range to be healthy. For adults, this is generally 120 to 139/80 to 89. Ask your doctor where your blood pressure is.

•Body Mass Index: Your BMI is a measure of the percentage of fat on your body. The

higher this number is, the more prone to health risks you are.

•Ideal Weight: In comparison to your height and body structure, your ideal weight is the

weight that you should be, ideally.

These three things are critical elements for you to take into consideration when considering where you stand right now. But, there’s much more for you to consider.

One thing that we want you to do besides getting the above information is to grab a tape measure and get one of the most important measurements out there: your waist.

What To Start With

To get started with fitness, start by getting through these basic first steps.

1.Meet with your doctor to talk about your overall health. Ask him for measurements of

your blood pressure, your heart rate as well as any other important factors he may be interested in you improving. Determine that you are healthy enough physically to begin improving through diet and exercise.

2.Get your weight. Do this at home on a well programmed scale, not at your doctor’s

office. Do it first thing in the morning after you’ve gone to the bathroom but before you have eaten. Do it the same time and same way every time you weigh yourself.

3.Calculate your BMI. You need this to see just how unhealthy you are currently. It’s

going to come down and that will be quite rewarding!

Your waist is important because it is the indication on your body of your potential health risk.

Those that have a larger midsection are most prone to health risks.

This is an important piece of information because of how vital it is to your health. Those that have a large midsection are the most prone to heart problems. The fat that is here will push into your body, causing difficulty for each organ there. Your kidneys, your lungs and even your heart are suppressed. In effect, the fat here is likely to be what kills you, if you are overweight.

Measure your waist. Stand up straight. Pull up your shirt, suck in your gut and measure

at your belly button all the way around using a tape measure. This will be your indication of your weight loss and health improvement.

5.Set your goals. Determine what’s important for you to maintain, to improve on, and to

work on first. Write them down and post them in several locations in your home.

Now that you have this done, you can begin to improve your health. We’ll help you throughout the process!

Its Not Only For Weight Loss

Although many people start looking into fitness because they want to lose weight, fitness is not just about weight loss. By understanding where you stand on these factors above, you can work to improve your overall wellness and increase your lifespan as well as the quality of life that you are currently living.

If you don’t think that you need to lose weight, that’s great! You are one step closer to being healthy. But, that’s not to say that you don’t have health problems beyond that level. Many people are still at risk for high

blood pressure, high cholesterol as well as other concerns even though they aren’t technically overweight. Therefore, you need to take into consideration the fact that overall health is in fact important to improve.

To help you improve your health I have found an exceptional book that will give you the tools you need to get your body back in shape and improve your overall health. This book is called

“Glycemic Foods Index” by Jimmy Jacks.

Throughout this book, we’ll point you in the direction of improving your overall health. For many that will mean losing weight. For others, that will mean improving other qualities of your life. There’s much to learn and improve on for most of us.

What You Will Learn

So, what will you learn through this book?

•Improving your body fitness

•Improving your diet fitness

•Improving your mind fitness

•Improving your lifestyle fitness

Each of these aspects is quite important. While your body must be maintained as much as

possible for health, it doesn’t do much good if you don’t eat the right foods. Losing weight, for example, isn’t enough if you aren’t eating the right foods even if you are losing weight.

With your mind fitness, we mean making sure you are emotionally and mentally fit. That means insuring that your overall life is healthy in regards to the life that you lead. Emotional stability is critical to overall health.

With lifestyle fitness, the goal is to improve your stress level. It has been shown that those that are under a lot of stress are often the most at risk for health problems due to the stress.

Throughout each of these aspects, we’ll teach you how to improve your life through easy, and even fun, ways. Because each plays a role in your overall health, we’ll tackle what the healthy standard is, help you to understand where you are and then help you to get to the goals that you have.

Since your body is likely to be your largest factor impacting your life, we will start there.

Remember, each aspect is just as important as the next, though.