Wellness - Page 3

Incorporating Fitness into Your Everyday Schedule

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Incorporating Fitness

One common excuse you’ll hear people make for not exercising is that it simply doesn’t fit into their schedule. The fact of the matter is that this is exactly what it sounds like – and excuse. The reality is that you can always find time to exercise, but you have to be able to incorporate it into your schedule.

It’s possible to be fit at all times while still having a busy day, and just because you’re always busy doesn’t mean you’re being fit. Not eating and sitting at a desk all day won’t make you lose weight, and it certainly won’t make you healthier. The trick to being healthy and working is moving and eating right.

The following are quick ways to incorporate fitness into your everyday life while you’re at work, at home or anywhere in between.

  1. In general, move more. If you don’t want to concern yourself with actual legitimate exercises, you’ll have to find ways to be more active without them. Walk the long way around the office, job home instead of driving, or do leg exercises while you’re sitting. If you can find a way to be more mobile, go for it.
  1. Start planning a regular mobile activity. This can be 30 minutes of walking or 15 minutes of cardio. No matter what kind of activity it is, you can easily squeeze it into your schedule.
  1. If you don’t want to give up Netflix night so you can commit to your exercise evening, combine the two projects. You can easily do yoga and watch the latest episode of Narcos. Find exercise methods that still allow you to watch TV or enjoy your other hobbies you’d miss out on otherwise.
  1. Don’t commit to exercises you don’t like. If you hate burpees, don’t do them. There are tons of exercises out there that work every part of your body – enough to substitute one for the other. If you don’t enjoy an exercise, you’re likely to fall off the wagon with committing to it.
  1. If you’re looking to exercise more to lose weight, that’s a noble cause – but your main focus should be on being healthy. When it comes to your schedule, you shouldn’t focus your routine around a certain number of days or sessions in order to lose 10 pounds. You have to make working out and being mobile a commitment that’s long term in your appointment book.
  1. You have to focus on more than one area of exercise. For one day, schedule cardio. For another, strength training. Space these days out and schedule them so that you can have rest days for easier movement in between your harder days.
  1. Always try to get involved with fitness groups. Usually fitness classes have a set time that they occur, and this can make scheduling in a workout easier and more of a commitment than just picking a random time to do some sit-ups in the kitchen.
  1. Choose a time of day to work out and stick to it. Whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, keep your schedule routine so you’re more likely to work out when you say you will.

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How Positive Emotions Impact Our Health

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Facts about positivity

Have you ever considered the role of positivity in your life? In fact, think about this question for a moment: how positive are you?

If you immediately answered with a “very” or “yeah, I’m positive,” then stop and rethink your answer. Give yourself five minutes. Positive people exude their positivity in everything they do. They may not be eternally smiling, stereotypical balls of sunshine, but they do have a “can do, will do, will succeed” attitude that helps them get through the day.

But is there a purpose behind all of this positivity? It makes sense that being positive can increase your productivity and lift your mood some, that’s for sure. There’s also that other quip that people like to throw around that you should think about: “being more positive is healthy for you!”

Is this actually true though? Is there any direct correlation between being positive and being healthy?

In reality, there have actually been quite a few studies done on the subject. Many scientists and researchers wanted to officially find out how positivity affects a person’s health.

For instance, a 2015 study shows that what you say on Twitter could actually be directly correlated to a person’s heart health.

Based on the data found, users that used more optimistic language presented a lower risk for their mortality in terms of heart disease. This means that users that used words in their tweets like “stronger” and “faith” were healthier than those who used more negative language or who had indiscernible leanings.

Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley conducted a study based on the emotion of awe. Awe, amazement and wonderment are all positive emotions that can positively affect your health, based on the research that discovered the emotions have natural, anti-inflammatory properties.

The Berkeley study involves researches looking at subjects that had recently experienced awe versus those who had not. Those who had experienced awe were found to have lower levels of cytokines, inflammatory markers that may cause autoimmune diseases, depression, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.

One of the study’s authors spoke to news website The Huffington Post about her thoughts on the study and subject.

“Rather than seeing a walk through the park or a trip to the museum as an indulgence, we hope people will view these kind of experiences as important ways to promote a healthy body in addition to a healthy mind…”

Another study conducted on positive emotions was spearheaded by positive psychologist Barbara Frederickson. Her research focused on the effects of loving-kindness meditation (known as LKM) which is a traditional Buddhist practice that combines meditation with compassion and collective love within a group.

She found that the boosted feelings of compassion led to improvement in resting vagal tone. The vagus nerve has to do with a person’s overall physical health as well as their feelings of connection and love.

Frederickson had this to say about her findings:

“In a way, our bodies are designed for love, because the more we love, the more healthy we become.”

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