Health and Fitness Tips for Your Family

In this fast world, living a fast life, what gets left behind is your health. If you wish to live a happy life, you’ve to remain fit and healthy. Here are the basic health and fitness tips that you should know to bring happiness into your life and family. ~ Ed.

Have you ever wondered how healthy and fit is your family? Are you eating the right kind of food, exercising daily, and living a healthy lifestyle? Not everyone likes to maintain a health routine for themselves, let alone keeping one for the family!

Did you know in a given year, nearly 1.5 million people suffer from heart attack? That 13.5 million people have coronary heart disease, more than 60 million people are overweight, and 50 million people have high blood pressure.

With these alarming figures, you need to set aside your excuses for not getting into shape and start noting these health and fitness tips for your family, which would ensure an overall healthy and fit family.

4 Basic Health and Fitness Tips for You and Your Family

You do not have to do much to keep yourself and your family healthy and safe from all the lifestyle diseases. Just focus on these four aspects to remain fit and healthy.

Exercise Daily

Make it a habit to exercise daily, which you can enjoy doing with your family. Start with small brisk walks for 30-40 minutes, or you can take up cycling, swimming or playing other kind of active sports.

Children and young people need to exercise 60 minutes per day, while adults can keep 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, which should be done at least five days in a week. You can break up the 30 minutes into three 10 minute bursts of activity, all through the day, if you get tired doing it at one stretch.

As per the chief medical officer at the Department of Health’s, Professor Liam Donaldson, “Being active is no longer just an option. Exercise is essential if we are to live healthy and fulfilling lives into old age.”

Remain Active

As a healthy and fit family, you need to remain active, which can be achieved by doing anything you like, as long as it keeps you moving!

It can be done by taking the dog out for walks, walking to the shops, walking to your school if it’s nearby, helping in the household chores, taking the stairs instead of the lift, or cycling to nearby areas instead of taking the car. You can even pursue hobbies with your family like dancing, gardening, joining a gym, cooking-cleaning-washing at home, or playing any kind of sport.

Remember, even a little bit of activity can reduce the risk of developing major chronic diseases, like stroke, various cancers, type two diabetes, and coronary heart disease, by nearly 50%, and reduce the risk of untimely death by 20%-30%.

Drink Water

Ensure that everyone in your family drinks about six to eight glasses of water to prevent dehydration.

Read this post to know more about why we should drink water and its many benefits.

Eat Healthy Food

An average man needs 2,500 calories a day, while the average woman around 2,000 calories, so you need to maintain a balance between the energy you consume with the energy you use. For the perfect health of your family, ensure you are getting a balanced diet enriched with all the nutrients. You need to take note of the following-

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, where at least five portions of various kinds of fruits and vegetables a day are recommended.

Include starchy food like cereals, potatoes, rice, pasta, and bread, which should make up one third of the foods you eat, though choose wholegrain varieties whenever possible, as they contain more fiber that makes you feel full for a longer time.

Eat more fish as it contains many minerals, vitamins, proteins, and is high in omega-3 fats, which prevent heart diseases. Include lean meat, eggs, beans, and pulses in your diet as well.

Include milk and dairy products like yoghurt and cheese in your diet as they contain proteins and calcium, which keeps your bones strong and healthy.

Reduce your sugar intake in food and drinks, which are high in calories and lead to weight gain. Eat foods with natural sugar like fruits and milk, rather than cakes, biscuits, fizzy drinks that contain added sugar.

Lessen the amount of saturated fats found in sausages, butter, cream, hard cheese, lard, pies, as they increase the amount of cholesterol in the blood, thus increasing the risk of developing heart disease. Instead choose options like baking, boiling, steaming, and poaching as a medium of cooking healthy food.

Eat less salt, as three-quarters of the salt we eat is present in the food we buy like soups, breads, sauces, breakfast cereals. Eating salt in excess raises blood pressure, and can lead to heart disease or a stroke.

Wrapping Up

In today’s fast-paced modern world, your lifestyle does not allow much room for health and fitness. But you need to take the above mentioned health and fitness tips for your family to ensure that you live a much healthier, longer, and happier life.

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”  

~ Hippocrates

Over to you

What do you do to make sure you and your family remain fit and healthy? Share your health and fitness tips in the comments.