Health and Fitness and Time

Health and Fitness and Time

I find it hard to see that it is a week since the last blog post here!
Where has the time gone?!

Well it has disappeared and I just hope you have made good use of your time since the last post!

A point about this that springs to mind is that there are only 24 hours in every day and every moment of that is unique and special. Sometimes I do not appreciate that enough. Have you ever felt like I have at work, that I want to finish work and do something else? It is often just a small issue but if I did that often enough I would be in effect wishing my time away and so wishing my life away.

At times like that, it is better to think how you can reengage with your present work and try to do that and then before you realise it, time is over and you can go home and do whatever it was you wanted to do.

I hope anyway however, you have spent your time, that you have had as healthy and fit a week as possible. Personally I have managed to eat fairly healthily and exercise fairly regularly over this last week so I am content with that, while part of me says I can and must try to do better!

My next post (ie this post) was going to be on my daily health and fitness routine but I shall be doing that next post. For now, suffice to say I have been doing my daily exercises (including jogging and skipping and playing chess to extend my mind).

I also use a FitBit Charge (seen in the image above).

Unfortunately I have succumbed to a cold during the week, and I have tried to drink more water and orange juice and have taken Eccinachea tablets and some cold and flu medication. I have had the sore throat and runny nose and headaches with this, but I have tried to deal with it as described and keep going.
MAN FLU! I'll live :-)
Seriously I feel like I am getting better and I think the measures I have taken are helping me improve and get rid of this cold.

I am a firm believer that prevention is better than cure and it is definitely worthwhile to try to be fit and healthy in body and mind to prevent injury and illness.

So until next post, stay healthy and fit! :-)

The 4 pillars of fitness and health

There are 4 main pillars to fitness and health which are..Activity, Diet, Habits and Rest.
These are influenced by physical, mental and environmental issues.

 Key influences are a persons medical details including age, height and weight and also socioeconomic status and quality of lifestyle factors all affect fitness and health

These points will all be discussed in greater detail in my forthcoming posts. For now have a great day and stay or get fit and healthy! :-)

Digital danger to fitness and health..

I like my computer and I like to spend time using it to create digital product and content and to blog with and to take new courses to learn new things and also to keep in touch with friends and trying to check emails and make new virtual friends on and with social media. When I get time, I also play chess on the computer!

The trouble with this though, is that sitting for too long at the computer is bad for my physical health.
It can affect my eyes and my neck muscles get tired and all my muscles get little to no exercise.Often, my mind gets tired and I get slight headaches.

It is just too sedentary sitting for long periods working at a computer. I have to force myself to sit properly and not slouch and try to be productive and not be sidetracked (the internet is big, isn't it!).
I need to get up at regular intervals and do some stretches and walk a little way.

 

Often I stay up late at night at the computer and also drink too many cups of coffee, when I should drink water instead. Where does time go when I sit at the computer?

Well I need to figure out a way to work smarter at the computer. With that in mind, when the evenings get lighter and the weather better, I can do some gardening in the evenings and maybe go for a quick local walk with my wife and maybe even go out for a meal or to the cinema or theatre even! Anywhere a bit more active than spending hours at the computer!

I need to make sure the time I spend at the computer is balanced with active time, otherwise this gets unbalanced and that can lead to unfitness and ill health. I know prevention is better than cure, so I shall try and think what is a smarter way for me to  do my digital computing work that won't cause me to get unfit and unhealthy!

Is this an issue for you? How do you balance computer time and active time? Once I've recorded how long I spend at the computer on average per day I can start to decide ways to redress the balance back toward more activity. I will start by recording my daily active and inactive hours (that includes working on the computer).

Of course, rest is also important and it is a good idea not to work past midnight if possible!
As mentioned elsewhere, it is a good idea to go to bed earlier and to try getting up earlier and then doing some exercise before starting the working day.

Goodluck balancing your daily computer work and your daily exercise. Do let me know any special measures you take to ensure your digital work doesn't harm your fitness and health. I will post more on this after I have done more of my research :-)

Baseline measurements

Personal measurements

The basic measurements to start with are height and weight.
When you know your height and weight you can use them to calculate your Body Mass Index or BMI. The BMI will tell you if  you are the correct weight or over or under weight.

Get out a pen or paper or use your text editor (Notepad or Sublime or MS Word etc) and start your FITNESS and HEALTH LOG. Enter the date and your height and weight and calculate your BMI and write them down.


Here is a link to the NHS BMI calculator. Enter your details to calculate your BMI.

Once you have determined this for yourself you will know whether you need to change your weight (increase or decrease) to get to a normal and average BMI for your height and weight.

Now how are you doing with your exercising? Did you try the exercises from the first post? Write in your new FITNESS and HEALTH log what exercise you will do today.

The next issue to look at in the stages of getting our own better fitness and health will be considering what we eat and drink (our diet) and then consider our other habits (especially smoking and drinking alcohol).

If you get this result from the BMI calculator we can take steps to get our BMI back to normal healthy levels.

Being overweight is harmful to your health and the good news is, you can fix this easily and get back to good fitness and health levels, which will make your life MUCH BETTER! Keep following the regular blog posts here and sign up to the blog for regular blog posts for help and advise to become fitter and healthier.

My wife has been trying to lose weight over the last year and this morning she told me she was complimented yesterday by 2 people on how much weight she had lost!

Both of us will be following this blog's simple and effective long term plan to be fitter and healthier. So join me and my wife here. In your log write a brief note of what your fitness and health goals and let us know on Twitter and Facebook and I intend to make this journey with you as fun and as iinteractive as possible ...!
 :-)

Quick and easy workout challenge

Are you ready to take the exercise challenge?
Let's get fit and healthy by eating right, exercising right and sleeping right.

Watch the video below for a great speed exercise workout that you can do on your own or with a friend.

Remember to warmup before starting with stretches and jogging on the spot and  arm, trunk, leg and foot rotations and bends .Then do these exercises yourself on a regular daily basis and make this become a habit. Add a 5-10 minute jog afterwards and you have the perfect 20 minute exercise routine to get you in shape.

Take it easy to start with and then everyday push yourself a little more and you will soon feel the benefit of better movement, increased stamina and more vitality!

Go for it and goodluck!  :-)