How to get fit and healthy

Do you know people who’ve suddenly had a brilliant brainwave and decided to go on a crash diet and survive on a little more than water? We all do, and honestly, it is anything but a brilliant brainwave. We humans beat ourselves at the kind of things we do. We create a problem, and then break our heads trying to solve it.

While the perfect model like figure for everyone has been widely criticised, it is a known fact that overweight is a bad thing, as is an unhealthy lifestyle. An unhealthy lifestyle would be something that is primarily sedentary, does not have the right food intake, no exercise, terrible sleep patterns, terrible eating patterns and all that.

Millions go to gym, visit various dieticians, and try all sorts of possible measures to shed some extra weight. We are not saying any of them is good or bad, we’re just saying an extreme of anything is never good. Losing weight requires a combination of changing food patterns to suit individual bodies and metabolism rates, and changing lifestyle a bit to include some activity or the other, once again differing from person to person.

Zone diet is s special kind of diet that focuses on weight reduction and a healthy food intake. It has been widely popularised by Dr. Barry Sears, a biochemist who has done an immense amount of study in this field. The zone diet promotes a fixed proportion of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in ever meal; the ratio being 40:30:30 respectively. Research has said that this proportion, if followed can produce satisfactory weight loss results without being too drastic. It does not allow fat to be stored, and instead uses up the stored fat for energy, resulting in reasonable weight loss.

Many celebrities are known to have followed the zone diet and found it successful. It is all about balancing your hormones, most importantly, insulin levels. It consists of, in the above mentioned proportions, low-fat proteins, low glycemic-load carbs, and heart healthy monosaturated fats.

For those who wish to try the zone diet, there have been many many successful cases of weight reduction, and the diet is fairly simple to follow once you set your mind to it. There are enough recipes that could be looked up to go about making the perfect zone diet meal.

Today, a whole load of people are affected by hypertension (high blood pressure). Hypertension is often called the silent killer because you have no early significant symptoms. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and renal failure.

What causes hypertension?

Heredity: If your parents have high blood pressure, you have a greater chance of inheriting it.

Age: The older we get, the greater the risk of developing high blood pressure.

Obesity: Overweight people are at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure.

Heavy alcohol consumption: Several studies have found that intake of excessive amounts of alcohol can raise your blood pressure. Keep in mind that heavy drinking and high blood pressure may damage the heart and can lead to heart attacks.

Diabetes: People with diabetes often have high blood pressure. Having both diabetes and hypertension will increase the risk of developing heart related problems.

Research has proven that an hour of exercise a week can reduce high blood pressure. With regular exercise, you can reduce the risk of developing hypertension by 19 to 30 percent. So there is that ray of hope for all those who have given up on it; it really is not very hard.

Regular exercise makes your heart strong. A strong heart can pump more blood with less effort. Therefore, the pressure on your arteries decreases, and lowers your blood pressure.

If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure at some point, engaging in regular exercise will help you maintain and achieve a healthy blood pressure level. You don’t need to spend hours in a gym every day. Simply adding moderate physical activities to your daily routine like walking, cycling, swimming etc will help you reduce hypertension and lead a healthy, happy life.

You can also do some Yoga for reducing hypertension; asanas such as, Surya Namaskar Asana, Santulam Asana, Pawanmukta Asana, Uttanpada Asana, and Shava Asana are immensely helpful.

It is however, best to check with your family doctor before you jump into an exercise program, especially if you’re unsure about your health, or feel any warning signs like chest pain, dizziness, shortness of breath, an irregular heartbeat etc.