All of us would like to live a healthy life, being disease-free and able to enjoy all the good things in life. Well, it is really up to us to decide the kind of lifestyle we want to live . There has been a lot of recommendations to help us achieve good health by the relevant authorities. Most of these recommendations have stressed the importance of including daily physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. A recent report indicates that less than 10% of adults followed the recommended amount of daily physical activity.
1. Regular physical activity is needed to maintain one抯 health and sense of well-being
Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles resulting in energy expenditure. By performing regular physical activities, this keeps the body in top shape to meet the demands of work and leisure in a comfortable manner. Other benefits include improved endurance, flexibility and muscle strength. It has also been shown that maintaining a high level of physical fitness will help to reduce the risk of developing chronic disease.
2. Reduce the risk for being overweight and obese
Regular exercise will help to reduce weight effectively. The physical activities that we do will burn away the excess calories that normally would have been stored as fat. The simple mathematics involved here is your weight will be determined by the amount of calories you eat minus those that your body uses. Whatever food that we eat contains calories and every physical activity that we do uses calories. This includes breathing, sleeping, walking and doing the everyday chores in the house. Whatever extra physical activity in addition to these will help to burn the extra calories. Therefore it would be a matter of balancing the amount of calories taken in to that which we utilize doing the physical movements is all that is required to achieve the body weight that we want. It is often stressed that a key component for successful weight loss is to incorporate physical activities into our daily routines.
3. Decrease the risk for many chronic diseases.
Chronic diseases are major sources of illnesses, hospitalizations, healthcare costs and long-term disability in the U.S. This trend is expected to continue and to worsen. Many epidemiologic studies and investigations have shown the protective effects of physical activity towards developing chronic diseases. These include hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression. Risk factors for developing coronary heart disease has been shown to decrease such as blood lipid profiles, blood pressure, glucose tolerance and immune function. Other studies have demonstrated a decrease in the mortality rates associated with improved regular physical activity.
4. Prevention-based care is better
Many diseases can be prevented, given the right support, information and promotion. Increasing daily physical activity has been recommended as part of the strategy, along with early detection, reduce tobacco smoking and healthy nutrition among others. Preventive healthcare still falls short in most communities, probably because current healthcare systems tends to respond to acute problems faced by patients. The sedentary lifestyle and leisure time activities will worsen the present scenario. As part of this preventive strategy to make people more health-conscious, then we need to exercise more frequently and fit physical activity into our lives.
5. Simple steps will add up
Start to think 揥hat can I do today to add exercise into my routines??You can start climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator to your office. Do more walking instead of sitting. Park the car further away so you can walk the extra distance. You might have an exercise equipment tucked away somewhere in the house. Start dusting off these equipments and take the baby steps. Probably you find it hard to allocate the time to exercise. Remember you can start small with 15 to 20 minutes and increase gradually. If you need emotional support, then ask your spouse or family members to join in the sessions. It could be more fun. Start small and keep it simple, but just do it.
