Center your healthy lifestyle on the latest and most sound fitness and nutrition tips. It’s easy to get sidetracked or lose motivation by all the conflicting and spurious health-related “news” and trends circulating around. So, it’s time to simplify and ground your health and wellness journey with proven fitness and nutrition tips and facts about weight loss, healthy food, and the right workout.
Here are some basic, essential fitness and nutrition tips to help you refine your approach to healthy living.
Nutrition Tips: All About The Food You Eat
Whether it’s figuring out the right food to eat to maximize weight loss or learning about the power of protein, here are some nutrition tips that can’t be missed.
Start Calorie Counting (And Cutting) The Right Way
Counting calories has long been a favorite fitness fad-turned-solid habit. There’s science behind it — experts say you have to create a calorie deficit of 500-1,000 calories from your daily required calorie count in order to lose weight safely and consistently.1
There are a number of ways to track your calorie consumption. You can keep a food journal listing everything you’ve eaten (with corresponding calorie counts). Or you could rely on apps and special trackers to do the work for you. But as it turns out, there may be a more beneficial way to count calories effectively.
Instead of playing the numbers game, shift your focus to the quality of the calories you’re consuming. Calories from fat are more than double the calories you get from protein and carbohydrates. By choosing a diet rich in lean protein and healthy carbohydrates (think whole grains and other complex carbohydrate foods), you may find yourself cutting calories and meeting your calorie limit much easier (and with more nutrition, to boot).2
Complex carbohydrates are worth every calorie. Here are some common complex carbs you can include into your calorie-controlled diet:
- Vegetables high in fiber, like broccoli and carrots
- Nuts and beans
- Oats
- Grains like rice, quinoa, and barley
Simplify Healthy Eating: Stop Eating Heavily Processed Food
Processed food refers to foods that are not natural or have been altered to prolong shelf life or improve flavor. A lot of nutrition is lost along the way, and what’s added to it — often preservatives, sodium, and a lot of sugar — doesn’t do your body much good, either.3
Food that contains these extraneous additives pose quite a number of health implications. Heavily processed foods with high amounts of sugar may impact your blood sugar levels negatively. This may affect your moods, quality of sleep, and amount of body fat. A diet high in processed food may increase your risk for certain potentially lifelong health conditions, too.4
It’s important to limit your consumption of heavily processed food and start getting the nutrition you need from whole food.
Get The Protein You Need (And Explore Alternative Sources)
Protein is an essential component to the growth, development, and continued health of the human body. Your body needs the amino acids in protein to grow and maintain healthy cells, and to support an efficient digestive system and boost immune function.5
It’s a fact that the body alone can’t produce all the protein it needs to thrive. Your diet plays an integral part in ensuring your access to protein.6 While most diets make room for traditional sources of protein from animals — think lean cuts of beef, chicken, and fish, plus dairy — plant-based protein is also making a splash in the health-food scene.
Plant sources of protein contain the essential amino acids needed by the human body. Consider adding more alternative sources of protein to expand your dietary choices — try soy and soybeans, lentils, chickpeas (and other beans and legumes), spirulina, and so-called ancient grains, such as quinoa and amaranth. These sources also contain a good amount of fiber and essential healthy fat.7
Fitness Tips: All About Exercise
A sedentary lifestyle doesn’t lend itself to health and wellness.8 But before you incorporate more daily exercise or try a new workout, make sure you get clearance from your doctor. Here are some fitness tips to help you take your health and well-being to the next level.
Increase Physical Activity: Get Into Exercise That You Enjoy
While it’s best to ease into exercise or a new workout slowly, that doesn’t mean it has to be a boring activity you have to force yourself to get through. Luckily, there are a lot of exercises and workout ideas that classify as physical activity, and you’re sure to find one that piques your interest.
Love the outdoors? Get into hiking or marathon running. More of a homebody? Even gardening can be a workout if you do it consistently. Studies show that no matter how simple or high-intensity a workout is, if you genuinely enjoy what you’re doing, you’re more likely to stick to it — and reap good results.9
Some more ideas to give a whirl:
- Grab a friend and join a dance class if you love moving to the beat.
- Join a basic self-defense or martial arts class.
- Re-learn a sport you used to love by joining your community’s team or league.
- Setting up a weekly workout for the community at your local park or gym.
Grab A Buddy For A Partner Workout
Statistics show that doing a workout with a partner or with a group of like-minded people really helps you do it consistently. Social support does play an important role in sticking to a workout routine, especially if you’re not naturally into exercise or being active. Not only that, it helps you have a sense of accountability.10
Love Data? Invest In Fitness Tech
If you love tinkering with new tech and enjoy gadgets that help make your life easier, it may be a good idea to incorporate tech gear that can help you take your fitness routine up a notch. Special watches and pedometers now measure data that can help you chart your workout and results. You can also download special apps that guide you through workouts, plus keep you accountable and engaged.
It’s Never Too Late To Take Fitness And Nutrition Seriously
These tips shouldn’t be too tough to try, especially if you’re committed to really seeing and feeling results. Once you’ve been cleared by your doctor, consider tweaking your diet choices and fitness routines with these simple tips that can help simplify your health and wellness journey.
Learn More:
Do Cheat Days Work To Help Achieve Your Fitness Goals?
Tips, Tricks, And Definitive Steps To Eating Healthy This Year: Eat The Right Foods In Your Diet
Try This BPM Playlist to Get Moving With Your Workout
Sources
1 https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/calorie-counting-made-easy
2 https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/calorie-counting-made-easy
3 https://www.active.com/nutrition/articles/10-Reasons-Why-Processed-Foods-Are-So-Bad-for-You/
4 https://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/may-2019/the-many-health-risks-of-processed-foods/
5 https://www.eufic.org/en/whats-in-food/article/what-are-proteins-and-what-is-their-function-in-the-body
6 https://www.eufic.org/en/whats-in-food/article/what-are-proteins-and-what-is-their-function-in-the-body
7 https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/protein-for-vegans-vegetarians
8 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2996155/
9 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4129110/
10 https://health.gov/news-archive/blog-bayw/2018/01/5-factors-help-people-stick-new-exercise-habit/index.html
