Why health and fitness is important?

Importance of keeping fit

Society's attitude towards health and fitness has changed over the past few years and we are all much more aware of the need to be positive about our health and recognize the importance of physical fitness then ever before. We are encouraged to adopt a 'positive attitude' to our health by taking better care of both our bodies and our minds - but what does positive health and keeping fit really mean?
Positive health is about maintaining a minimum level of health and fitness to keep your body looking and feeling good, but also maintaining a level of physical fitness which will enable you to manage and enjoy your daily lifestyle.
Health and fitness is determined by what we eat, how we live our lives, our choice of leisure pursuits and what we do to keep ourselves physically fit.
Keeping fit is about how we as individuals choose to live our lives and the levels of fitness we aspire to. We all need a certain amount of the right type of exercise to keep us healthy, regardless of our lifestyle, age or physical ability.
Remaining physically fit is important for the following reasons:

• Maintaining a good level of physical fitness will give you a feeling of better health through increased energy and vitality, making you feel better about yourself and about your life.
• Being fit helps the activities in your life easier to manage; it keeps your body in shape and keeps you looking good, which in turn provides 'the feel good factor' making you work more efficiently and effectively.
• Keeping fit can help improve your quality of life and help maintain a good standard of health, preventing or delaying heart related diseases.

Other benefits of keeping physically fit through exercise:

• Exercise helps reduce stress & improves personal performance.
• Exercise helps you control your weight and body shape.
• Team sports such as football or rugby can improve your social life

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Top Five Changes for a Healthy Life

A Healthy Life Can Be Yours!

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide

Updated October 08, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

In the spirit of developing New Year’s Goals, rather than resolutions, here are some goals that can make a real difference in the level of stress you experience, and the quality of life you enjoy:

Maintain An Organized Living Space:

A cluttered environment can literally drain your energy and cause additional stress! Conversely, a beautifully decorated, soothing environment can be a haven where you can escape from the stressors in your life. Working on de-cluttering your home, getting organized about cleaning, or even practicing Feng Shui are all ways you can work toward the goal of having a beautiful and organized living space.

Learn to Organize Your Time:

By keeping a schedule, learning to say no to excessive demands on your time, and utilizing shortcuts in your life, you’ll be less frantic, and have more time to do the things that energize and de-stress you. You’ll also have more time to do things that you enjoy in life.

Cultivate A Supportive Social Circle:

Those with a supportive social circle, or even just one close friend or partner to talk to and lean on in times of crisis, enjoy healthier, less stressful lives. (And they have more fun!) If you make the commitment to meet more people, and better develop the relationships you have, you’ll find that the payoff is more than worth the effort.

Take Care of Your Body:

If your body is healthy and in good repair, you’re better able to handle stressors in your life. However, an unhealthy body can cause great amounts of additional stress. Eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, getting massages and pampering yourself are all good ways to take care of your body and make stress management easier.

Renew Your Spirit:

We carry stress in our bodies, and hold it in our minds, so a stressful experience can stay with and keep affecting us after the actual experience has ended. Managing stress in your daily life can be much easier on your mental, physical and emotional state if you take regular breaks from it. There are many great stress-relieving exercises that can help you release both the tension from your body, and the stressful thoughts from your mind, making you more at peace and able to handle the stress that comes in each new day.
As you develop these stress-relieving practices in your daily life, you should experience less stress, and be better able to handle the stress you do experience, leading to a happier, more healthy life.


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Maintaining Healthy Habits-In Five Simple Steps

By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide

Updated January 02, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Step One: Choose Wisely

Choosing the right activity for you is very important!

Many people have excess stress that affects their health, happiness, and other areas of their lives. (In fact, it’s been estimated that more than 90% of health problems that bring people into the doctor’s office are stress-related!) But while virtually all of us could benefit from adding healthy habits to our lifestyle, it’s harder to begin a new habit than it seems, especially when you’re already overscheduled and overstressed! The following steps can help you navigate a clear path from your good intentions to the reality of a healthier, happier lifestyle that includes less stress. Ready? Here we go!


Step One: Choose Your Activity Wisely:
The first step in creating a healthy new habit that will be a long-term staple in your lifestyle is to choose an activity that fits well with who you are and how you live. If you don’t, you may find that you’re working against personality and lifestyle factors that are two ingrained to change, and your new healthy habit never quite takes root. When choosing a new practice, keep in mind factors like your strengths, your schedule and lifestyle, and the complexity of the new habit, as well as your current stress level and time available, and find an activity that fits well with all of these variables. For a more in-depth look at these factors, take The Stress Reliever Personality Test, which will assess which stress relievers would work best for your lifestyle and personality, and provide you with a list.

Step Two: Build The New Habit into Your Schedule

Putting your plans in writing can help cement them.

If you don’t have a specific plan for sticking with a new habit, it’s all too easy to find that your already-packed schedule won’t allow you the ‘spare time’ necessary to do anything new very often. You’ll be too busy, too tired, or will easily find another excuse to let inertia snuff out your best intentions. That’s why a crucial next step is for you to find a specific time in your schedule that’s allotted just for your new stress management activity. Whether it’s ‘every morning before my shower’, 'during my lunch break', or ‘weeknights at 8’, you need to have a time that you know is set aside for your chosen activity so that you won’t need to continually find a reason to practice your stress relief program.

Step Three: Enlist Support

Having help from others can help you in many ways.

You’ll find much more success if you have others who are helping you along the way. Not only will they give you support when you need it, but you’ll also have them to answer to if you feel like skipping your new stress management practice, and this will make it harder for you to make excuses and quit. One way to get support that is growing in popularity is to hire a personal coach. However, you can also get support by having a buddy start with you, or joining a class where they practice your chosen activity (like a yoga class, for example, or a meditation class). If you’d rather do it alone, you can always ask a friend to keep you accountable for the first few weeks, or keep a journal where you record your activity and success every day or at the end of each week. Whatever route you choose, it helps to have someone to keep you accountable, at least in the beginning.

Some great healthy habits that go great with a friend include:

• Walking With a Buddy
• Taking an E-Course Together
• Adopting Healthy Eating Habits Together
• Yoga Classes
• Most Forms of Exercise
• Talking About Your Feelings

Step Four: Use Goals and Rewards

Little gifts to yourself along the way can add the extra momentum you need!

Although the great feelings you get from stress management can be their own reward, in starting any new habit, it helps to also have some more tangible rewards. (Think of how teachers use stars and other tokens to encourage good behavior, or how you can train pets to do just about anything with a few small treats; none of us is above the power of a few good rewards, either.) The trick is to reward yourself for your first few steps until your new healthy habit becomes ingrained into your way of life. (The first month or so is especially important, as that’s the approximate time it takes for a new behavior to become a habit.) The rewards you give yourself are a personal choice, and you probably know what would be the best incentive for your own success, but I recommend something small and enjoyable. For example, when I first started going to the gym, I would reward every five gym visits with a new piece of workout clothing—that way I’d feel like I ‘earned’ the new outfits, and I’d also get the payoff of looking better in the dressing room each time I found myself there. Others I know have given themselves pedometers (to reward regular walking), soothing music (to reward and use with yoga practice) or beautiful new pens (to reward journal writing). For additional ideas, I suggest the following:

• Top 10 Stress Relief Gifts for Every Budget
• Self Care Products to Make You Feel Great
• Things That Can Bring a Better Night's Sleep

Step Five: Check In With Yourself to Be Sure You're On The Right Track

Be sure to look inward and re-examine your choices regularly, and make changes as needed.

As you go, pay special attention to how you feel. Does your new practice seem to fit with your lifestyle? Is it easy to maintain your new habit, or do you think you may need to try something new? If you find that you haven’t kept up with your new plans as you’ve hoped, rather than beating yourself up over it, congratulate yourself for noticing that you need a change of plans—it’s the first step in building a new plan that will better serve you! And, if you’re trudging along with it, but have decided that you really may need to try something else instead, at least you know what doesn’t work for you as well, and now you can try something else that you may end up loving. All in all, it’s best to learn several new stress relievers and stress management techniques anyway, to have a few options available for reducing stress in your body and mind. (For ideas on what to try, visit this article on how to choose a stress management habit you can stick with.) Good luck, and have fun!

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