Five Tips to Stay Fit & Healthy
Are you looking to tone up, slim down or just maintain a generally healthy lifestyle? There’s a lot of conflicting health and fitness information out there, but you don’t have to let it all overwhelm you. There are a few universal tips that can help you meet your goals no matter where you are on your health journey.
Follow This One Critical Diet Tip
This one is important: Not every dietary approach is right for every person. You have to find the one that works for you.
Maybe you’ve tried numerous fad diets and nutritional approaches but are still struggling to meet your goals. We can weigh the pros and cons of each nutritional approach, and while some regimens are certainly better than others, the most important thing is that you choose a dietary lifestyle that works for you — and that you can stick with.
For instance, if you have hypertension, you might benefit from the DASH diet or a low-salt Mediterranean diet. If you have a strict workout regimen or want to lose weight, you might find a lower-carb approach to be helpful. People have had success with keto diets, vegan diets, macrobiotic diets and countless others. If you want to know whether a dietary approach is good for you, ask yourself the following questions:
Can I stick with it for the long term? (This is key!)
Is it a good fit given my general health and medical history (For instance, if you have heart disease, you’ll want to stick with diets that stress heart-healthy nutrients)
Does the dietary approach emphasize common-sense nutritional guidelines (e.g. Minimizing sugar and processed foods — our apologies to the Twinkie Diet)
When taking on any nutritional approach, it’s also important to see your doctor regularly. If your diet has a negative impact on your bloodwork results, you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
Avoid Overdoing It at the Gym
We’re not going to preach about how to exercise. You’ve heard all of that, and as we’ve said before, the best type of exercise is the one that you will do. The key, once again, is to just do it — routinely!
What we will emphasize, though, is that you must avoid the all-too-common mistake of over-exertion. For instance, if you choose weight training as part of your fitness regimen, avoid working the same muscle groups on multiple consecutive days. If you hit the gym for cardio every day, make sure to take at least two to three days off to rest.
Over-exertion can lead to both short- and long-term injuries and hinder your long-term fitness results. Taking breaks is just as important as hitting the weights (or the elliptical). You can also take additional steps like wearing a heart rate monitor. And as a pro tip, you can even reduce muscle soreness and fatigue by wearing compression garments when you work out.
Most importantly, listen to your body. If you feel unnaturally sore or fatigued, take a break.
See Your Doctor at Least Once a Year
If you want to stay fit and healthy, you can’t just rely on how you feel. You need to keep tabs on your BMI, HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, triglycerides, blood pressure and other health factors. Some experts recommend seeing a doctor at least once a year. If you have a health issue, are over 50 or are trying out a new nutritional approach, you may want to visit your doctor more than once a year. For many of us, the first step might be finding a new healthcare provider.
Some routine doctors’ appointments can be done online via telemedicine, but you’ll still want to see your doctor in-person at least once a year. You’ll also want to be sure to follow all of your doctors’ recommendations and take all prescribed medications.
Focus on Lifestyle Habits, Not Short-Term Goals
The word “diet” has become passé for good reason. Once the diet is over, we tend to resort to old habits and gradually undo all of the benefits we worked so hard to achieve. The same is true for fitness goals.
If you want to see consistent results that last, you have to stop thinking in terms of goals and resolutions. Instead, foster healthy lifestyle habits that will get you where you want to go, and solidify those habits for the long term.
Give Yourself a Break
Finally — and this one is important — stop beating yourself up when you overindulge on sweets, miss a couple of Pilates classes or fall short of where you expected to be with your fitness. Negative thoughts lead to self-sabotage, and no journey is perfect. Just keep moving forward with your head held high. You’ve got this!
Tess DiNapoli is an artist, freelance writer, and content strategist. She has a passion for yoga and often writes about health and wellness, but also enjoys covering the fashion industry and the world of fitness.
