Aging will impact your health and activeness. It’s difficult to stay healthy and active with increase in age. Daily routines also impact your health. Healthy and active life may increase your lifespan. Healthy diet is the main component of a healthy and active life. Exercise also helps you to stay healthy and active.
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Maintaining a Healthy Diet:
- Limit packaged foods: Healthy food is necessary to stay healthy and active. Packaged foods are totally unhealthy for you. Packaged foods contain many harmful and toxic ingredients such as artificial chemical additives and preservatives. Most of the packaged foods also contain saturated and trans fats like chips. Pre-packaged foods are high in triglycerides and unhealthy fats. It’s better to eat homemade foods and cook at your home because homemade foods are healthy and fresh.
- Watch those portion sizes: Keep an eye on your food to eat less food at one time. Eat slowly to recognize the fullness of your stomach. Overeating should be avoided because it will provide you with extra calories which are hard to burn. To eat less, take small portions of foods in your plate that have nutrients in them. Daily requirement of calories limit is 2,000 kcal/day. If you want to lose weight then cut down to 1800 kcal/day but not to eat less than 1200 kcal/day.
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- Eat 3 ounces of meat, fish or chicken in one serving.
- Eat half cup of cooked pasta.
- Eat one serving of grains which equals one bread slice, one pancake or one waffle.
- Take a small cube of cheese as your thumb size.
- Take fist size vegetables and fruits as one serving.
- Make sure your half plate is filled with vegetables.
- Share an entrée: When you go to the restaurant and order some food, they will serve you a large portion of food which is too much in quantity. This will lead to overeating. So, it’s better to share your dish with 2 people to eat small portions of food and save your money as well.
- Eat less meat: It’s very difficult to avoid eating meat in your meal but you can reduce the quantity of meat. Eating less meat has positive results on your health and keeps you active. Many meat like beef has high calories and saturated fats which leads to many diseases and health problems such as clogged arteries, higher cholesterol, and heart problems.
- Eat more whole grains: Processed grain gives you extra calories that increase your body weight. You can eat whole grains instead of processed or white grains. Whole grains have a positive impact on your health because they contain many healthy nutrients and minerals. Oatmeal, brown rice, and whole-wheat bread are rich in fiber which helps in proper digestion and improves your digestive system. Whole grains also contain vitamin B that boost your energy and metabolism.
- Snack on nuts, seeds, and legumes: Eating unhealthy foods in snacks causes massive increases in body fats and weight. Go for healthy options in snack time. Eating nuts and seeds will provide you with vitamin E while legumes such as peanuts, lentils, beans, and soybeans will give you protein, fibers, iron, folate and other important nutrients and minerals. So, prefer nuts, seeds and legumes in snack time to stay healthy and active.
- Limit your inner saturated and trans fats: Some fats are unhealthy for you like saturated and trans fats which will increase your body weight. Limit your saturated and trans fats intake in your meal. Excessive intake leads to many heart diseases and may cause death. These 2 bad fats increase bad cholesterol levels and decrease good cholesterol in your body.
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- Saturated fats: You should take saturated fats in low quantities like 10% of your daily calories. For example, if you take a 1500 calorie diet then take 15 gm of saturated fats or if you take a 2500 calorie diet you should take 25 gm.
- Trans fats: Limit your trans fats intake to 1% of your total daily calorie intake. For example, if you take a 1500 calories diet then take 1.5 gm of trans fats or if you take a 2500 calorie diet then take 2.5 gm. Because trans fat can increase heart disease risk up to 46%.
2. Stay Fit Through Multiple Exercises:
- Choose the activity that you enjoy: It’s not necessary to join a gym to stay healthy and active. Many fun and healthy activities also help to stay healthy and active. You choose activities that you enjoy like walking, running, swimming etc. You can also join classes or lessons of dancing, skating or surfing etc.
- Try the four types of exercises from time to time: Exercise is really an important activity to keep you healthy and active all day. There are many four different types of exercises that have different benefits including endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility.
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- Endurance: You should do at least 150 minutes of high-intensity exercises in a week (30 minutes daily in 5 days a week).
- Strength: Lifting weights will improve your muscles and bone strength. This will build the shape of your muscles.
- Balance: These exercises maintain your body balance such as walking in a straight line by touching your feet to other feet’s toes.
- Flexibility: Stretching exercise improves elasticity of your muscles and bones.
- Enlist the help of a friend: If you have an exercise partner or friend that keeps you motivated and makes your workout more enjoyable and relaxing. Contact your friends to play healthy sports at weekends like basketball, softball, volleyball, or tennis. This will stay healthy and active.
- Set realistic goals: Setting healthy goals helps you to stay healthy and active. It keeps you motivated towards achieving the goals. Making small workout goals and completing them step by step will develop a boost of confidence and a feeling of accomplishment.
- Work with your body’s natural clock: Best time to exercise is early in the morning after waking-up. But it isn’t necessary to exercise early in the morning. If your body is not capable of waking-up early or exercising early in the morning then you can also do exercise in the afternoon or in the evening. But workout is necessary to stay healthy and active.
- Consult a pro: You can also consult with the professional trainer to get expertise to stay healthy and active. You can get a professional trainer at the gym. Some gyms provide you free consultation with a pro while you can also appoint an independent trainer. Trainer will tell you your strengths or weaknesses and suggest your best health plan to stay healthy and active.