Recognizing the need for physical activity, healthy foods, and sleep.
Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults
- at least 150 minutes of moderate levels of physical activity such as cycling or fast walking every week. That equals 30 minutes of activity five days per week. and
- strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).
Start Today
Commit to just one easy, healthy action today. A few examples are:
Make time for a short walk.
Lace up your walking shoes and take a brisk stroll around the neighborhood where you live or work. A few blocks could mean more than 100 calories burned.
Walking is a great exercise—and convenient, too. Staying active helps keep muscles in shape, helps maintain a healthy weight, and reduces your risk of other health problems in the future.
Find out how to make walking more of a work out here! http://www.webmd.com/
Find out more about warm ups, cool downs, and how to pick ta proper walking show here! http://www.mayoclinic.org
Exercise for 30 minutes.
Pick an activity that makes you break a healthy sweat—dancing, brisk walking, jogging—and do it for 30 minutes today.
For most adults, 30 minutes of moderate physical activity is recommended five times a week. Start with one session and build your stamina, and you’ll see benefits right away: increased energy and better mood, plus reduced risk of heart attack and high blood pressure.
Take your meeting outside.
Walking meetings can provide many health and work related benefits. Whenever the opportunity arises, suggest taking a walk for your next meeting. It allows you to be more productive, more engaging and focused on your return, and it you get some of your exercise in for the day.
Partner with a friend for exercise.
Use Facebook, send an e-mail or text, or just ask someone to be your partner for 30 minutes of physical activity this week—a co-worker to walk with, a friend to meet you at the gym, or a family member to join you for a workout video at home.
Studies show that you’ll be far more likely to stick with regular physical activity if you have someone to share it with, and it’s more fun that way, too!
Add extra movement and activity into your day.
This one is a classic, and it’s super-simple: take the stairs whenever you can. You’ll burn calories both ways, get your heart pumping, and give your muscles a wake-up call. Want to go bigger? Skip a step as you climb up or down.
Regular exercise can be hard to fit into a busy routine, but opportunities to push our bodies are everywhere we look. Stairs are just one example of a built-in workout just waiting for your attention.
Muscle naturally diminishes as we age so making strength training a part of your regular exercise routine is important! The American College of Sports Medicine recommends incorporating 2 days of strength training each week. Always consider your options and start small to avoid injury!
To learn more about strength training benefits, visit http://www.mayoclinic.org
Nutrition
The USDA recommends eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables today.
Start Today
Commit to just one easy, healthy action today. A few examples are:
Notice what and when you eat.
Slow down and really pay attention to what you’re eating today and notice when you feel full. Take your meals sitting down, without a screen in front of you, for 20 minutes or longer.
Eating in a hurry or while doing other things (like watching television, surfing the Internet, etc.) can easily lead to eating too much without even knowing it.
Drink water throughout the day.
Fill up a reusable bottle with water and keep it with you all day—in the car, at work, and at home. Keep track of how often you refill it.
Keeping water handy not only encourages you to drink more, it also helps you avoid cravings for sugary drinks by keeping your thirst in check.
Replace sugary drinks with healthy options.
Those sodas, fancy coffees, energy drinks, and sports drinks contain a lot of sugar and a lot of empty calories. Adults and children in the United States get about 400 calories per day in beverages alone. Cutting down on sugary drinks will help you maintain a healthy weight and help prevent dangerous health problems like obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Increase your vegetable consumption by just one.
Add another serving of veggies to today’s menu. (Hint: a serving of vegetables is about the size of a baseball.) Five servings per day are recommended for most adults.
Dark green, red, and orange veggies are loaded with nutrients. Include more broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes, and other colorful veggies in your diet for a satisfying vitamin blast and a great way to replace some empty calories.
Organize your refrigerator and pantry so that healthier foods are in sight.
What you see, is what you’ll be more likely to eat! This video shows an example of a well-organized refrigerator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcbD35ivtoI