Healthy Forever Fitness Motivation

Stress, Mindfulness and Health Stress is the key to our own survival. But too much stress is damaging to our health. Emotional stress and mental stress that stay with us for weeks, months or even years, will weaken our immune system and cause health problems such as fatigue, depression, high blood pressure, anxiety and even heart health problems. Good Stress Stress can be beneficial believe it or not? Stress is a burst of energy guiding you to all that needs to be achieved.  For example without some form of stress we might not feel motivated enough to meet the goals we so desire, or to meet our daily life challenges. Stress also triggers our "flight or fight" responses, creating bodily functions such as increased heart rate and a laser-like focus. This helps us to respond quickly to dangerous situations, such as jumping away from a moving oncoming obstacle in our direct pathway. Too Much Stress So how can we tell if our stress levels are becoming harmful to our health

When and Why Should we Stretch Stretching keeps our muscles flexible and healthy . Stretching our muscles after exercise whether it's walking, fitness classes or jogging will help to maintain a good range of movement within our joints. Without any stretching our muscles become tight and shorten, they become weaker and will not be able to extend in any way. This will in turn put you at risk of joint pain, instability, strains and muscle damage. Why Should we Stretch - The Effects of a Regular Stretching Programme As with anything worth maintaining or improving, it will take time and consistency. Lower limb muscles such as calve or hamstring muscles (back of the thigh) may take some time to lengthen and regain flexibility.  Years of not stretching these muscles will not recoup flexibility after a couple of weeks, however stretching regularly will make a huge difference to regaining some sort of flexibility. For example, if you have a sedentary job where you are seated for most

Why Should we be Thinking about Balance Training One of the most overlooked and possibly the most important component of fitness is balance . When we talk about fitness and exercise, we automatically conjure up thoughts of treadmills, dumbbells, the latest trend of fitness classes or celebrity "keep fit" DVD's. Does anyone actually put aside time in their busy fitness regime to concentrate on the art of balance? No they don't.....at a push perhaps 5 minutes on the Bosu ball but that's it! The Importance of Balance Good balance is required for just about everything we do such as walking, standing still, getting out of a chair and bending over just to pick something up from the floor. Balance skills may not come naturally to some and this skill needs to be worked at with consistency. Balance training strengthens the muscles that keep us upright and stable. This includes our legs and core muscles and working on these will improve stability and prevent falls

Weight Loss and Maintenance Management The goal of weight management is to prevent the accumulation of excess fat or to reduce the level to avoid health issues and developing certain diseases.  There are other reasons that we as humans, would like to loose excess body fat. It may be to drop a dress size, fit into a certain outfit or for an up coming event such as a holiday. To achieve our goals we embark on certain food fads or calorie restricting diets looking for answers.  But lets try to break this cycle and look at the simple maths of maintaining or loosing weight and what is required for a lifetime of weight management. Weight Loss and Maintenance Management - The Simple Maths of Weight Loss Lets start with the basic facts of weight loss. Your body will loose excess fat if you consume less energy (food) than your body uses.  So if you eat 500 calories less per day than you need, that's 3,500 calories a week. This is equal to the calorific value of one pound of body fa

Food and Optimum Health - What You Really Need to Know What do we need to eat to be healthy? Which diet is the best to follow? What is classed as a balanced diet? What's a macro? Should we eat less carbs and more fat? How much protein do I need? What is a carb anyway? So many questions.....too much information..... where to start?  Poor nutritional choices, no matter how physically active you are, have a very negative impact on your overall health. Health......a word aired into just about everything we do.  Health by definition is "being of optimal bodily system function and an absence of disease" so ultimately this is all we need from the food we put into our bodies. The saying "we are what we eat" is in fact true. Nutrition effects us at a cellular level hence why bad food choices can lead to a wide range of avoidable illnesses such as obesity and type II diabetes Food and Optimum Health - Understanding Healthy Food Habits A good guideline to adop

Living a Healthy Life Style Why do we need to Exercise Exercise helps us to either loose or maintain a healthy weight and lower the risk of certain diseases. Exercising regularly lowers a person's risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure to name but a few. Exercise can help us age well too. Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance. Exercise delivers oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lung health improve, you have more energy to tackle daily chores. These are some of the benefits of regular exercise and having read the first two paragraphs you now feel motivated to start an exercise regime straight away right? Yes you do, you are really enthusiastic and ready to start!!!!!  However feeling motivated after reading the positives of exercise and actually starting that "plan of action" is not all that easy........