By : Richie Hedderman
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle often falls prey to the necessities of work and other obligations. While juggling between healthy living and thriving in your career undoubtedly requires additional effort, making it work is well worth it due to the multitude of resulting benefits. People are under the assumption that physical degeneration is more of an inevitability than science has shown it to be.
People that reason they simply “don’t have the time” to be healthy are doing themselves a disservice since your physical well-being impacts the ability to perform anything. Proper nutrition is needed for all kinds of brain functioning, which means resorting to an unhealthy diet is setting yourself up for suboptimal mental performance.
There are many habits you can adopt that will ensure that you are moving forward professionally without sacrificing your health. Like anything worth having, it takes diligence at times, but once the habits are ingrained head they will become progressively easier. Below, this article will explore tips to manage health with a busy life.
Make The World Your Treadmill
Getting into the habit of walking places instead of driving is a great way to add some cardiovascular exercise into your daily routine. Cardiorespiratory fitness has been shown to be a strong predictor of all-cause mortality and disease risk, so you have all the reason in the world to walk from place to place when you can. Many people get into the habit of simply driving everywhere without realizing how feasible substituting a walk would be.
It does not take a ton of cardio to see the benefits start to kick in, either. Don’t let the fact that you aren’t an Olympic athlete shame you out of beginning a cardio routine. As little as 30 minutes of walking or jogging is enough for you to start deriving benefits. Start with something that is low-stress, like a brisk walk, and then work your way up as your body gets acclimated.
Get Some Sunshine When You Can
The benefit of going for your daily run or stroll is compounded if the sun is out. While excessive sun exposure is a concern for many, it’s also important to absorb some rays for optimal health. Vitamin D deficiency is a widespread phenomenon, partially because most people are cooped up all day for work, and partially because people errantly regard the skin cancer risk as more important than the benefits of healthy vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D affects the proper expression of many genes that play roles in maintenance and function. The importance of this important vitamin remains unknown to a large part of the population, but the informed person can benefit from an unlimited and free natural source.
Don’t Give In To Sugar
Sugar is used in large amounts in manufactured food and drinks in western society. While we are evolutionary wired to enjoy the taste of sugar, it’s important to know just how damaging it is to our health in unnaturally large amounts. Some experts argue that the dangers sugar poses are enough to warrant its control in a way akin to alcohol.
Sugar is often used as an additive for the sake of profit at the costs of nearly all else. It is added in large quantities to things like juice, soda, cereal,“healthy” breakfast bars, and even things you may not expect, like bread, salad dressing, or granola.
The unfortunate consequence is that many people unknowingly develop a bad sugar habit and end up with diseases like diabetes. If this is the case, blood sugar levels must be watched closely and controlled with antidiabetic medication.
Don’t Give In To Convenience
Fast food chains predicate their business on immediate gratification and convenience. With food and in life, this is generally not the way to go. There will obviously be times of incredible temptation when you leave a long day of work with a growling stomach, but you are better off not establishing a fast food habit, and should strongly consider breaking it if you already have one.
Fast food is akin to the “impulse buy” section by the cash register at the grocery store: tabloid magazines and candy may appeal to your most primal urges on a surface level, but they are devoid of any substance. Likewise, fast food is generally devoid of substantial nutrient content but loaded with sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt, which satiate momentary craving.
Fast
It comes as a shock to many that the conventions of breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day are arbitrary and culturally dictated. A three-meal-a-day schedule has become normalized but has no real biological basis. On the contrary, fasting and caloric restriction has been shown to impart numerous benefits. This suggests that our bodies are geared toward periods of scarcity to maintain healthy metabolic function.
Skipping meals at first may feel dreadful, especially if your body has been trained to run primarily on sugar and carbs, but as your body acclimates, the uneasiness of skipping a big dinner before bed will dissipate.
