How to be Healthy

          Beauty has always been an important factor in our society. Girls want to look thin, guys want to look buff, elderly people want to look young, and so on. I cannot say I support changing one’s life style in order to fit these flawed desires (I believe the concept of “beauty” is flawed due to our culture). However, I completely support changing one’s style in order to be healthy and live longer. That being said, you can do so in just two easy steps – diet and exercise.

Cardio Vs. Muscular Exercise

          According to a lot of professionals, going to the gym and running on the treadmill for an hour is considered sufficient exercise. It’s nice that these people are physically active, but just running is not exercise. Besides the fact that stomping on the treadmill is horrible for your knees, it also contributes to a concept called “skinny fat”.

          During a muscular workout (lifting weights), your body strains and literally tears its muscles apart. Afterward, your muscles reconstruct themselves to become stronger, similar to how a broken bone heals itself. The reconstruction creates that burning feeling you get at the end of a workout and for the next couple of days (that's why the second day hurts the most). During those couple of days of reconstruction, your body is still burning calories to build muscle, even while you sleep!
     Building muscle not only burns unwanted calories, but uses those calories to grow. This allows you to eat more food without getting fat because the additional calories you consume are going to your muscles (where they are needed) instead of being stored as useless fat.

          Cardiovascular workouts, on the other hand, like running, only burn fat; they DO NOT build muscle. So technically speaking, you are able to eat a dozen cookies each day and still feel good because you ran for an hour afterwards. But once you miss one day of running, those calories for that day are going to build up in your body immediately. This is because the additional calories consumed are not going to your muscles (because they do not need them). Instead they go to your hips, thighs and all the other places you don’t want them to. Which is why it is called “skinny fat,” you’re skinny for a week and then fat the next day.

          Therefore when you exercise, make sure you are performing a muscular work and not just a cardiovascular workout. This does not just mean lifting weights. Crunches, Push-ups, and squats are all examples of muscular workouts that don’t need weights. More of these workouts can be easily found on any fitness website. Just make sure you do some background research on the website supplying the workout. You don’t want to blindly follow a workout then find out you've been slowly killing your back the whole time.

Exercise in the Morning

            Whatever type of exercise you do, whether it be 10 min of palates or an hour at the gym, try to do it as early in the day as possible. Doing so can increase you metabolism and give you more energy for the rest of the day.

Again and Again and Again

     If you plan on staying fit, it is crucial that you exercise at least 2 -3 times a week. This ensures that your body maintains the physical form you are striving for. Exercising only once week is ineffective. Your body may be healthy for a couple of days, but for the rest of the week your body is going to store all your intake as fat (not muscle). This will make it harder and harder for you each week to work out. If you workout one day a week, you will be trying to burn seven days worth of fat. If you workout 2-3 days a week, you are burning only about 3-4 days of fat. I’m sure you can imagine which of the two is easier.

Never Give Up

Never give up! Keep pushing yourself. Remember, if Batman can do it then so can you!

Diet (Properly)

     Your body has a set number of calories it is use to taking in each day. Changing this number drastically can cause noticeable changes. So when you stop eating three meals a day and just two, you’re going to get skinny very fast. However, eventually you’re body is going to adjust to two meals a day. So once you move back to three meals, your body is going to register the third meal as extra food. Just as quickly as you lost weigh, you’re going to gain weight and maybe even quicker.

    The best way to diet is not by starving yourself but by simply eating healthier foods. Lay off the greasy chicken nuggets and fries. Instead eat healthier alternative like a club sandwich with an apple. This will give your body a healthy tone. And the best part is, you won’t be hungry while doing it.

     When making healthy choices, make sure you are reading the back of boxes and not just the front. Don’t be a child who get’s super excited by big and colorful words. Know what you are eating. On the nutrition facts, the ingredients that are most used are listed first. Therefore it is important to make sure healthy foods such as fruit or vegetables are at the top of the list. If you have something like high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient, it’s not healthy - no matter what the front of the box says. A good rule of thumb to go by is if you can’t pronounce it, it’s not good for you.

Conclusion

     That’s all you need to do to be healthy! No pills, no surgery, no starvation. Simply (proper) diet and exercise. Doing so will not only make you look better but also feel better about yourself.

*As a declaimer I am not a trained professional. These are suggestion given by a student athlete who has a passion and hobby for staying fit. Further research can support my claims, but I personally cannot.