The Benefits of Exercise
You may have heard the expression, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," and while this is true, there should also be a line that reads, "and so does exercise…". The benefits of exercise are numerous. It doesn't take a genius to take one look at Americans today to realize that there is an ever growing problem with obesity- especially among children! Some speculate that the obesity epidemic is due to the fact that so many people are working full time jobs that are stressful- so stressful that it leaves us little time to eat healthy because we have to grab food from the nearest fast food place and get back to work. In reality, no matter how hard-pressed we are for time, if you have the time to eat at all, then you have plenty of time to make healthy choices about what you are putting into your mouth. I digress.
When it comes to exercising, you cannot talk about exercise without talking about your diet. Despite the fact that there are more diets floating around out there than there are stars in the sky at times, it doesn't change the fact that we are expanding and becoming heavier. Perhaps the most common misconception about exercise is that as long as you exercise, you can eat whatever you want. This is completely FALSE. Contrary to what you may have heard and so desperately wanted to believe, if you go to the gym and complete a cardio exercise for 30 minutes and turn right around and eat a candy bar then you have defeated the entire purpose of exercising at all.
You cannot simply adopt the mindset that as long as you exercise a lot, you can eat a lot. On the contrary, a diet that is balanced and healthy combined with a moderate exercise routine will ultimately improve your overall physical as well as mental body image. There have been many studies which link exercising regularly to reducing the instances of bone density loss among women as they get older. In general, exercising regularly is great for both sexes in that it improves flexibility and strength. Things that constitute as exercise include: Pilates, running, Yoga, bicycling, stair climbing, the elliptical, weight training (anaerobic), boxing, horseback riding…The list could go on. Did you know that you even get something out of cleaning your house? That's right; depending on the size of your house as well as the intensity of the cleaning you have to do, you can burn a significant amount of calories.
The biggest problem that most of us face is the fact that there are so many people who have jobs that require or involve them sitting for long periods of time. For example, it is not unusual for us to sit for hours on end staring into a computer screen, hunched over and typing. Let's look at how this can spark the following chain of events: You're hunched over at your desk at work with a huge deadline that has to be met. You've already been typing for hours on end without a break. The nearest food item to you is a candy bar or a bag of potato chips that you scarf down in a hurry. When you do get up, your back hurts because of how long you were in the same position. As a result of your back hurting, you don't feel like working out..or doing much of anything else for that matter. When you get out of work, you head for the nearest fast food restaurant because your brain is fried, you're tired, cranky and crampy.
Now, let's look at how you could improve the aforementioned situation. The night before work, you get a full eight hours of sleep. Because you are well rested, you are able to think more clearly while at work, which allows you to work quickly and efficiently to get your project done ahead of time. Also, because you've gotten plenty of sleep, you were able to get up in the morning prior to work and prepare a healthy lunch/meal choice. Because you know that you won't really feel like working out after work, you've already done your workout in the morning, which promotes a greater awareness of your body and helps to dictate your eating habits for the rest of the day.
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