25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness
The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our health. You can have all the money in the world but if you go through your day feeling tired, fatigued or weak, you can’t be living your life to the fullest. Here are 25 quick tips to increase your health and fitness:
1. Diets are evil
Because of their temporary nature, diets don’t work. The people who do lose weight end up gaining it back again once they come off the diet. Instead of dieting, try to change your lifestyle. The changes you make to the way you eat should be sustainable for the rest of your life.
2. Get rid of the junk food
The easiest way to ensure that you don’t eat the food you shouldn’t is to make sure it isn’t available. Go through your fridge and toss out all the junk food. Next time you go grocery shopping, make sure that you don’t buy more.
3. Make use of healthy snacks
Having a snack between your meals is a good idea – as long as they’re healthy. Stock up on fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds. Have them readily available for whenever you might feel hungry. This means both at home and at the office.
4. All carbs are not created equal
While carbohydrates are a necessary part of your diet, there are some that do more damage than good. Avoid white carbs wherever possible and switch to the whole-grain alternatives.
5. Kill the caffeine addiction
Whether it’s coffee or soft drinks, caffeine is a drug. It’s a legal drug but a drug nonetheless. If you feel the need for a warm drink, choose an herbal tea instead.
6. Don’t forget the fat
Although trans-fats and the like should be avoided, you need to consume sufficient essential fatty acids. Make sure you are getting your omega-3 and omega-6 fats. These can be found in flax oil, nuts, and seeds.
7. Water is your friend
Your body is made up mostly of water. The problem is most people walk around dehydrated. If you are feeling thirsty, it’s too late: you are already dehydrated.
8. Breathe deeply
Oxygen is more important than water for your health. You can survive days without water but only minutes without oxygen. Most people today have very shallow breathing and are not getting enough air. Breathe deeply from your diaphragm to ensure your cells are well oxygenated.
9. Eat your veggies
Vegetables are rich in micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) that are essential to your health. Plus they have a cleansing effect on your body because of their alkaline pH.
10. Buy organic
Much of the commercial produce available today is devoid of nutritional value due to the depleted soil used in the industrial farming process. Organic produce also has the benefit of tasting a lot better. It might be more expensive but the benefit is well worth it.
11. Get friends that live healthy
The ongoing interaction with people who have the health you desire will be a positive influence on you. It is far easier to make the transition to healthy living when you have the social support.
12. Find healthy foods you enjoy
Just because you are eating healthy does not mean you need to suffer eating foods you hate. Look for healthy foods you enjoy and eat them more often. Find recipes online that are both healthy and enjoyable.
13. Take your lunch to work
Not only will brown bagging your lunch save you some money, it will help you avoid eating unhealthy foods for lunch. Take the extra time to make your lunch in the morning or make extra for dinner and eat the leftovers.
14. Eat out intelligently
For the restaurants that you visit frequently, find out the menu choices that are healthy options. This way, you can enjoy going out without jeopardizing your health.
15. Give yourself a cheat meal
Every now and then, it’s okay to indulge in something you know that it is not good for you but you enjoy. You shouldn’t deprive yourself. Just make sure that this only happens from time to time.
16. Sleep deeply
Get a good night’s rest every evening. Sleep in a quiet room that is dark for the appropriate amount of time for you. Most people have heard that you need 8 hours of sleep for proper health. In my experience, the amount of sleep I need varies with my eating habits and exercise. When I am living in a healthy manner, I find I feel fully energized with about 6 hours of sleep. Find the amount of sleep that is right for you.
17. Schedule exercise
Make your workout an important appointment for yourself. Schedule it at a specific time and place. Make it as important to you as a business meeting or doctor’s appointment.
18. Get a workout buddy
Sometimes your motivation to exercise wanes. When you have a partner that pushes you, it is far easier to take action. Working out with a friend also tends to make it a lot more fun.
19. Exercise aerobically
Cardiovascular exercise helps to burn fat and raises your metabolism. It also strengthens your heart and lungs. Do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week.
20. Don’t forget to stretch
Stretching is important for your flexibility and the recovery of your muscles. Don’t stretch a cold muscle – it’s a good way to injure yourself. If you stretch before your workout, only do so after warming up. It’s always a good idea to stretch after a workout where your muscles are already warm.
21. Train for strength
Building muscle not only increasing your strength but also increases your metabolism. Strength training also stimulates the release human growth hormone in your body which slows the aging process. It’s important to engage in strength training 2-4 times a week.
22. Make exercise a habit
The easiest way to follow through and make sure that you exercise is to make it automatic. Exercise at the same time every day if possible.
23. Get a trainer
Although a personal trainer is not necessary, having one while you start out exercising can be very helpful. They can show the proper form for exercises and help motivate you to really push yourself.
24. Make changes gradually
If you’ve been living an unhealthy lifestyle for a long time, the challenge of healthy living can seem daunting. Instead of trying to change everything at once and getting overwhelmed, make sustainable changes gradually.
25. Don’t give up
If you fall back into unhealthy patterns, there is no reason to beat yourself up about it. Identify why the lapse occurred and learn from your mistakes. Move forward with this knowledge and continue to move towards health.
This article was written by Anand Dhillon. Anand writes about personal development at www.AnandDhillon.com. For more from Anand, read his series, How to Master Money & Wealth.
Photo by Ernst Moeksis
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August 9th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
What a mega list of great fitness tips!
It’s hard to single any one out, but I found that No 1 worked brilliantly for me in the past when I wanted to lose 98 lbs in excess weight.
Instead of thinking of it as being a diet, I consciously approached it from the viewpoint that it was a lifestyle change to “healthy eating”.
This made such a difference because you can always be ‘off’ or ‘on’ a diet whereas with healthy eating it becomes a way of life. Subtle, but very effective for me.
I lost the weight and, better still, kept it off.
The rest of your tips are first class too.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Glad you like this article by Anand, Scott. And congrats on the healthy lifestyle change!
-Andrew
August 9th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
That is an amazing accomplishment, Scott. Congratulations!
Thanks for publishing my article, Andrew.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Sustainable living is the Answer to the new world. There may be those who like and thus choose death.. But we the living no longer have to follow a fool to run the guantlet anymore. Love is the key to bringing yourself home and honoring the only thing that is you.. The only that truly truly allows you to be.. that thing.. that is dying.. that thing that you have a choice to heal.. do you know what I mean=??? can you hear your heart sing.. The EARTH Can.. and she is under you feat breathe air into you.. giving you water to think and fire that’s passion. this Elemental… wonderment is LIFE. Unconditional.. Balance is your calling my friends. Be the example in your lives and never let go… Blessings.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Thanks for these tips, very useful. As a web designer I’ve found that I’m getting a little out of shape, so recently need taking some steps to exercise and eat healthier, so far so good, and these tips just really help point me in the right direction. Thanks!
August 10th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Great tips overall. Just to clarify on 20 though that stretching immediately after a hard exercise (such as a long run) can be a bad idea, as exhausted muscles can be easily injured.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Some very good advise in this article. I wish I could follow them all!
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
August 10th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Typo: “Just because you are heating healthy does not mean you need to suffer eating foods you hate.”
Heating should be “eating”.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Thanks Meredith, fixed it.
-Andrew
August 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
“5. Kill the caffeine addiction”, why is that really bad for fitness? What if it’s just coffee, and not a soda? (no cream, no sugar.)
August 10th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I’m sure a lot of it’s good enough advice, but other parts are just popular myths, like the drinking water thing and the organic food:
http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2003/jun/cheltenham
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/womenshealth/features/watermyth.htm
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20020711213420data_trunc_sys.shtml
August 11th, 2008 at 12:31 am
Most of these tips are useful, but a 200 lb person simply does not need to drink close to that amount of water. The constantly regurgitated “8 glasses of water” has no basis in science. The commonly held belief amongst scientists and informed nutritionists is that drinking when you are thirsty (no more, no less) is perfectly sufficient.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:40 am
From vBharat.com » 25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness…
Here are 25 quick tips to increase your health and fitness. You can have all the money in the world but if you go through your day feeling tired, fatigued or weak, you can’t be living your life to the fullest….
August 11th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Thanks,
With recent development of the supposed exercise in a pill…its refreshing to note that being healthy TAKES effort and no “shortcuts” work for a lifetime…
Thanks and keep up with the list…I digg this list
August 11th, 2008 at 2:55 am
This list has some good points, but it peppered with irrelevant idioms.
Drink lots of water? You’re kidding me. Our bodies have homeostatic mechanisms to ensure we have an optimum amount of water in us. Assuming that the reader isn’t living in a desert, this advice is a motherhood statement.
Kill the caffeine? Why? The author suggests that one should cut their caffeine habits solely because it’s a drug. Such reasoning plays on the reader’s fear that drugs are inheirently bad. What about some negative health effects of caffeine to substantiate this assertion?
Breathe deeply. Ok, thanks, I just remembered to breathe. I could have died. Thank you.
I liked the ‘diets are evil’ bit though.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:49 am
THis ia huge list. I wonder can any one follw all of them ?
August 11th, 2008 at 6:09 am
At least two items on this list are suspicious, if not entirely incorrect.
100 oz of water = about 3 litres (there’s 35 oz in a litre roughly), and that’s way too much for a 200 pound person to require in a day unless they’re under special circumstances like in a hot climate, sweating profusely, or not eating any foods that have high water content.
“Strength training also stimulates the release human growth hormone in your body which slows the aging process. ” - Please show proof where HGH is shown to ’slow the aging process’, whatever that means.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:29 am
“Much of the commercial produce available today is devoid of nutritional value due to the depleted soil used in the industrial farming process. Organic produce also has the benefit of tasting a lot better.”
This is simply not true. There is no scientific evidence for either claim. Pure conjecture.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:51 am
If it were simple, everyone would be slim and sexy.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:01 am
I found #5 to be a bit naive and possibly a bit misleading and counter-productive. For instance, it could lead people to rule-out the wonderful and supremely health-giving benefits of green tea (and other teas, such as white and oolong). Perhaps better advice would be to cut down on caffine, only drink it before mid-afternoon and swap caffine heavy coffee for healthy green/white tea.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Dang! I so gotta follow that list to keep me fit again.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:45 am
It’s unfortunate that this list got Digg’ed given the number of problems with it.
Overall the philosophy of it is sound, but it would have been a much better list if it limited itself to, say, top 15, and avoided the points that have any amount of conjecture or simply borrow “rumors” from faddish other websites and assemble them here (the “caffeine-is-bad” one is particularly rankling - many studies have shown moderate caffeine to be BENEFICIAL to one’s cardiovascular system).
Items like #12 are good, but items like #24 is just too broad a statement. It could have been made much more valuable by simply getting the reader to WRITE DOWN their goals and ensure they can be reached.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
[...] Read all 25 tips here: 25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness [...]
August 11th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Number 1 tells you not to diet.
But following that fact, almost every tip is pretty much a typical diet tip….So contradicting
August 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Some people (like economist-turned-fitness researcher Arthur De Vany) would say to avoid all carbs, and the reasoning on his blog and in his papers is very convincing.
August 13th, 2008 at 5:01 am
25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness | Lyved…
Physical activity may improve health and fitness. The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our health….
August 16th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
[...] 25 Tips for getting in shape by Anand Dhillon on Lyved. [...]
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Thanks for the great tips. this is a great site. wanted to know if anyone works with teens and has shared these tips with them. i read fitness magazine every month with my daughter and i love it because its normal. no superskinny models. no crazy diets.healthy lifestyle chagnes are great, although i don’t think i could ever give up coffee!!!!
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Glad you like these tips and this site! Not sure if anyone has shared theses tips with or works with any teens. Perhaps in the future Lyved will publish an article geared towards them.
-Andrew
August 26th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
we add some new tips in this great list:
>>Do not be afraid to say “no” in certain obligations
>>Eat Fish twice a week
>>Switch off your mobile phone 30 minutes per day!
September 8th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[...] 25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness | Lyved | [...]
September 8th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[...] 25 Simple Tips to Improve Your Health and Fitness | Lyved | [...]
October 20th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Not to change the diet but to change the life style…hum…sounds great but not that easy to do. I would like you to be more specific on how one can possibly do this. You offer a bunch of practical advice on how to care of one’s health and live a healthy life. They are rather realistic, but why don’t you suggest how to behave in case I fail to follow your guidelines. What if I cannot sleep enough or cannot afford a good trainer to help me? I believe that some alternative to the tips you recommend should also be available.
October 24th, 2008 at 3:56 am
This is one of the best and heathiest exercise list that I’ve found! You gathered it all in one! Nice post you got!
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:10 am
Omega-6 fatty acids are known as the fatty acids responsible for inflammation, while Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory.
Some medical research suggests that excessive levels of omega−6 fatty acids, relative to omega−3 fatty acids, may increase the probability of a number of diseases and depression.
Modern Western diets typically have ratios of omega−6 to omega−3 in excess of 10 to 1, some as high as 30 to 1. The optimal ratio is thought to be 4 to 1 or lower.