In today’s busy times, we often don’t take the time to find balance between work, family, diet and exercise. Finding the proper balance is essential to live a long, healthy and happy life.

When you decide to exercise, you do so for one of three reasons: you want to lose weight, get in shape or just live a healthier life. Finding a balance between your diet and exercise can help you stay healthy and avoid health concerns that many others may suffer from.

Benefits of Regular Exercise

According to a Harvard Medical School study, there are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. The most popular and widely advertised to us as a nation are things like its ability to help reduce the odds of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, some of the biggest health concerns facing the nation today. Exercise helps to keep your muscles, bones and even your brain healthy.

“Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills and overall cognitive function.”

Depending on what your goals are, you may require a different balance between diet and exercise and it is important to understand that your body requires certain nutrients to work properly. You don’t want to start a diet that cuts out something your body needs and you don’t want to exercise so much that you burn yourself out or cause an injury. It is always recommended you consult a physician before starting a new exercise routine or diet.

For Weight Loss

Losing weight is probably the most common reason someone considers diet and exercise. To shed pounds, you need to find the right balance between a healthy diet and cardio exercise. Lifting weights constantly won’t help you as much as aerobic workouts like swimming, jogging, playing tennis, or anything else that gets your heart rate up.

A weight loss diet does not simply cut out carbohydrates or fat, because your body still needs these to function. You may want to cut back on them and avoid refined ingredients like high fructose corn syrup or refined flour, but you don’t want to cut these two items out completely. Make sure the diet you chose for losing weight is sensible and still allows your body to get all the nutrients and minerals it needs.

For Muscle Gain

Those trying to bulk up will need a different balance than someone trying to lose weight. You don’t want to use a weight loss diet if you want to gain muscle. Instead, you need a high protein diet with plenty of fat and good carbohydrates.

Avoiding refined flours and sugars is a good chose for any diet, but you don’t want to cut out carbs or fats when trying to build muscle. These help you gain muscle because as you exercise with a bodybuilding routine, you will burn the fat to feed your muscles. If you want to bulk up, you will need to increase your calorie intake and spend time working with heavy weights.

For a Healthy Life

If your only goal is to maintain your current weight and just continue to live a healthy life, then you just need to find a balanced diet and a normal exercise routine. Watching what you eat and keep the sweet, fatty and heavy foods to a minimum will help. You will also need to exercise three or four times a week.

Still not sure how much physical activity you need? The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers physical activity guidelines for all ages.

Benefits of Proper Diet

Eating well by consuming fruits, vegetables and lean meats gives your body the nutrients and the tools it needs to be healthy, strong, and to keep you feeling well. A proper diet helps give the body the fuel it needs to move, for the immune system to fight, and to be healthy from head to toe. A healthy diet can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, and can reduce the risk of illnesses such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease.

Foods that are rich in calcium, are needed for the body to build strong, healthy bones and can also help slow bone loss associated with aging. Foods free of added sugars, preservatives, BPA’s and other non-essential ingredients, help to give the body a source of natural energy, reduce anxiety and depression, improve self-esteem, and help you better manage stress.

There are many websites and cookbooks available with healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Check out a few of our favorites at Eating Well.

Chiropractic, Diet, and Exercise

To make significant changes and improvements in your overall health, you should maintain a schedule of regular chiropractic adjustments and therapeutic massages, along with a healthy diet and regular exercise. Keeping your body and mind operating at the highest levels will mean you are free to focus on life, without having to worry about pain, or trying to treat it over and over again.

At Lehane Chiropractic, we aim to treat the source of any pain or discomfort, while a healthy diet and exercise allows the body to be equipped with the right nutrients and tools to keep you in good working order. These three facets of health being used together reinforces health from the inside and the outside.

/MBKRISS

References

CDC . (2015, June 4). How much physical activity do you need? Retrieved from Centers for Disease COntrol & Preventions: https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/index....

Eating Well. (2017). Healthy Recipes. Retrieved from Eating Well: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/

Godman, H. (2016, November 29). Regular Exercise changes the brain to improve memory and thinking skills. Retrieved from Harvard Health Publications: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercis...

Natural Relaxation. (2012, June 14). The Importance of Balancing Diet and Exercise. Retrieved from Natural Relaxation : http://goodrelaxation.com/2012/06/the-importance-b...