People are revaluating their lifestyle choices to focus on fitness, nutrition and health. They take conscious decisions on what they eat, how to exercise and even how long they sleep. An individual’s health is dependent on a lot of factors. Two factors that everyone can take control of are exercise and nutrition.
Medical evidence has shown time and again why exercise is so important. Beyond physical fitness, exercising is also responsible for keeping the mind sharp. Exercising 75 minutes a week keeps your brain from shrinking. It keeps your body in shape and prevents muscles from breaking down over time. It keeps us happy – exercising releases endorphins, which gives us a burst of satisfaction whenever we exercise. It is also a necessary factor for quality sleep. For people working desk jobs, the amount of exercise they get amounts to nearly nothing. The work these people do is mentally tiring, but with very little physical fatigue. Physical fatigue comes from moving your body around. It is essential for quality sleep. Try it yourself and see the difference!
We all sleep better when we’ve done physical work over the day. We wake up feeling refreshed the next day. We still feel great with only 5 hours of sleep - if it is quality, deep sleep That's a feeling you do not get if the only work done has been from a desk the whole day. Given how we sleep often affects how the rest of our day goes, we must get the best sleep we can.
Beyond exercise and sleep, we also have our diet to consider. With food delivery services on the rise, ordering in has never been easier. It’s definitely easier than cooking at home, and tastier too. However, food made by corporations is not healthy. They’re there to sell their product, and they do so by making it as delicious as they can make it. As a result, most of the food we order from restaurants is high in fats, salt and carbs and low in proteins and fibre. There is increasingly more awareness on nutrition that we need - but it is not enough.
We need a balanced diet – supplemented with the right amounts of vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and sufficient water. Interestingly, the traditional diets in most parts of the world are highly balanced. Taking inspiration from our mothers’ and grandmothers’ cooking, we should plan our meals to be as balanced as they can be. Our diet is essentially the fuel that keeps our body's engine running. We really should be careful about what we eat.
Last of all is a component that is often neglected when we speak of health – mental wellbeing. Common mental issues include depression, anxiety, panic attacks and schizophrenia.
They affect interactions, behaviour and even how someone perceives the world. These are real issues that see a growing number suffer from them.
It is essential to get help if one suffers from these issues. With medical advances, the treatment of mental illnesses is possible and affordable. Beyond medical treatment, alternative therapies such as yoga and meditation are also highly successful in helping people with mental illnesses recover. Health is simply not a physical phenomenon – it has a mental aspect too.