Healthy Lifestyle's Start With Respect

Obtaining a healthy lifestyle in the new year requires listening to, and respecting your body. Overworking yourself, especially when you feel that you should stop, can cause serious harm long-term. Wanting to get a certain amount of time in your workout or hit a certain goal shouldn’t come before your body’s health. Respecting your body’s needs is number one. To help figure out what is most important to keeping our bodies happy and healthy, here are a few topics to be aware of.

Eating Properly

Eating well and working out go hand-in-hand for a healthy lifestyle. Key components in eating properly include portion control, covering all your food groups, and making sure each meal or snack is balanced. A balanced meal contains a protein source, a grain or starchy vegetable, fresh vegetables, and healthy fat. Eating a variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, lean meats, fish, eggs, nuts, and seeds will also keep you full and on track for more healthy choices.

Hydration

Hydration is key to keeping your body healthy and functioning correctly. There are suggested guidelines to how much water someone should consume during the day and during a workout. General guidelines are to drink 17-20 ounces of water 2-3 hours before exercising, and another 8 ounces during the warm-up (about 30 minutes before the workout). Another 7-10 ounces should be consumed about every 10-20 minutes during the workout, and then 8 ounces more within 30 minutes after the workout is over. This ensures active people don’t get dehydrated, and stay healthy during intense workouts. On a typical day, an active person should drink anywhere from half a gallon of a full gallon of water depending on their activity level. You can read more about water recommendations here.

Mental Health

Keeping your mind healthy is just as important as keeping your body active. Conveniently, they tend to work hand-in-hand. A jog outside or on the treadmill will have a positive impact on your attitude and outlook throughout the week. The endorphins that your body releases during exercise produce a euphoric feeling which tends to keep clinical depression symptoms at bay. If you want to read more about exercise and mental health, check out this blog post for a deeper understanding of how it all works.

Hopefully this blog sheds some light on the importance of listening to your body and letting it set the tone for your workouts. If your New Year's resolution is to live a healthy lifestyle, check out this post for some resolution tips. Let us know if you have any other tips for keeping your body happy by posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Make sure you use #myzonemoves, #myzone or #effortrewarded so we can find you!