Get Fit Lab - For Your Health and Fitness

Everyday we subject our body to incredible maltreatment. From the obvious consumption of junk food, alcohol, drugs and nicotine. To the less obvious and indirect, such as, overloading our internal body systems with stressful lifestyles.

We live in centrally-heated rooms, cleanse our bodies externally and internally with chemically treated water and breathe air laden with petrol fumes, chimney grim and atomic spillage. How our bodies cope depends a lot on what we do minimize the harm we do.

What Difference Does it Make

How you look and feel is entirely down to the choices you make. Eat rubbish and you’ll pile on the weight and years. Yet simple changes every day to your diet, exercise and lifestyle will boost your energy levels and minimize many problems.

And it isn’t always about weight. What we do can help us achieve radiant-looking skin, glossy hair, strong teeth and healthy nails.

What Our Bodies Need

Our bodies’ needs can be grouped into four main categories: air, diet, sleep and exercise.

Air

We need air – ideally, fresh air – to breathe to keep our respiratory system functioning. Oxygen in the air is vital for our organs to survive and is sent to all parts of the body via the blood. The constant action of the heart pumps oxygen-rich blood and essential nutrients through our blood vessels.

Problems begin when obesity, alcohol, drugs, nicotine and lack of exercise thickens the walls of our blood vessels constricting the free flow.

Balanced Diet

Our diet has a direct impact on how we look and feel. A balanced diet full of the right foods in the right proportion can help us stay fit, healthy and full of energy. Depending on what age and stage of life you are in, you’ll need varying amounts from these essential groups:

• Carbohydrates – choose more complex carbohydrates with fibre and not simple ones such as sugar or chocolate.
• Fruits and vegetables – a variety of different colours will help you get a range of valuable vitamins and minerals. Eating a whole fruit with skin provides fibre and more sustained energy than a fruit juice.
• Protein – both vegetable and animal. And try to eat more fish.
• Milk and dairy
• Fatty acids (more during the growth phase of your life and less for maintenance) – poly-unsaturated rather than saturated fats.
• Minerals – especially vitamins, calcium and iron, and less salt. Most importantly vitamins C and B complex, which are soluble in water, and so, must be replenished daily.

If you’re unsure what a healthy plate looks like check the British Nutrition Foundation’s Eatwell Plate.

Sleep

Sleep restores the body. During this period of rest when the brain’s activities slow down, the body’s chemistry gets to work. It processes nutrients, and heals and repairs tired and damaged tissues.

Limbs and muscles relax and the skin smooths out, temporarily erasing wrinkles and worry lines. Cells can return to their restorative work because body energy is not diverted to anything else.

Caring for our body includes listening to the signals it sends to take a rest. A bath or shower before bed partly helps relax muscles and allows the skin pores to breathe. You will also benefit from a good night’s sleep. Some people need a little more and others a little less, but try to aim for eight hours.

Exercise

Regular exercise contributes to a general feeling of well-being. It is rarely successful as a slimming aid on its own but other advantages include:

• Improves circulation
• Speeds up digestion
• Keeps muscles and limbs supple
• Clears the mind

Exercise doesn’t have to be done in a gym. A brisk, thirty minute walk every day to work can often fit better into our busy schedules and is enjoyed more than sitting on a stationary, gym exercise bike.

Remember the saying – what you put into your body is what you’ll get out of it. Looking and feeling as fit and healthy in your 50s as you did in your 20s means simple changes now.