Have you lately become more conscious about your health overall?
You’re not the only one.
It’s been a common conversation our personal trainers in Finchley have been having since Covid became part of our lives and has brought an awareness to most people on just how important looking after our health really is.
With that in mind, we bring you 4 main habits for long term health that we have discovered in our many years of training clients.
1. Managing Stress
Are you aware of how you are managing your stress levels on daily basis? If not, try increasing your awareness of when you feel stressed, and how you deal with it (do you drink or smoke to feel relaxed in the evenings?). Stress has a far bigger impact on health than most people pay enough attention to. It’s something we encounter daily so understanding your behaviours around stress are important.
There are many ways to handle stress, but first, become more aware of the situation. Not by being falsely positive but by rationalizing what is causing you to be stressed out. Immediately we usually have an emotional reaction before we see it from a logical point of view, which tends to increase our stress without any benefit at all.
Aside from this, we recommend our clients aim for at least 7 hours of quality sleep every night, along with natural daylight throughout the day. Making an effort to gaining a quality sleep cycle is a great way to improve function, improve your mood and therefore improve responsiveness to stressful situations.
2. Physical Exercise
Perhaps the most obvious one on the list. Physical activity is introduced to our lives at an early lives perhaps first at school and team sports, yet as we get older, regularity of exercise or sports get less and less for most.
The irony is that as we age, activity is probably more important to include in our lifestyle.
We’re not saying that everyone should have a gym membership, but having some sort of daily/ weekly activity included in our schedule will help prevent age-related health conditions such as sarcopenia, osteoporosis and reduced the risk of severe injury if suffering a fall.
Just as you would expect a dog to be exercised and walked regularly exercised, our biology is not dissimilar – we need that regular movement to remain fit and healthy. This could start with regular walking, or joining an activity club or sports club to get involved with.
3. Nutrition
There is no special formula on how to eat a healthy certain way. So instead, here’s what we know..
- Aim for a diet of mostly plant-based foods, with or without lean meats, oily fish and poultry.
- Limit refined sugars
- Limit processed foods
- Avoid trans fats.
A lot of our clients find success with nutrition – they don’t have to restrict or yo-yo between diets when they have the knowledge and confidence to eat what they choose to. Even if this means keeping some of their favourite foods – remember there are no unhealthy foods (within reason), only unhealthy diets.
4. Mental Health
Mental health has become more of a focus in recent years, which we think is positive. It is not something that should be downplayed as far as overall health is concerned.
Psychology is an intricate subject so we won’t dive into a rabbit hole with it all, but one of the most common things we talk to clients about is comparison.
It’s important to have goals, but make them relative to your best possible life, not other’s.
It’s easy to forget about this side of health, so aim to build the mindset as much as the body and focus on building lifetime habits.
Move regularly, keep stress low and don’t compare.
Do you need extra guidance to help you get to your health and fitness goals?
Why not consider a free consultation with one of our Lean Body Training team? Click Here to arrange a call today.
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