Body health and fitness is the most essential thing in our lives. If you are sick, or unwell, it interferes with so many areas of your life either directly or indirectly, both physically, mentally and emotionally. When our bodies are sick, accomplishing regular tasks becomes a huge burden.
Tasks such as just taking a walk, or even sitting next to your laptop to work on an assigned project, become daunting tasks because of the pain your body is undergoing. When we do not take the necessary care, to ensure that we are fit and healthy, we put our bodies at risk of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions; such as diabetes, high blood pressure, gout, and even obesity.
Pharmaceuticals are experiencing a booming medicine market off of diseases, which you could have prevented if you took the right steps towards taking care of your health. The health of our bodies also determines our susceptibility to mental illnesses such as depression. It is therefore essential for you and me, to take care of our bodies’ health, from what we eat and even to the lifestyle we lead.
Here are ways and steps which we could follow to ensure that we remain healthy and fit.
1. Calculate your RDA
Professionals in medicine businesses will advise you to start off by calculating your RDA. Your RDA refers to your recommended dietary allowance, about protein, fat, and carbohydrates. You do this by first, finding out how many calories you require daily, according to your body.
The second thing after finding out the calories you need daily is to establish the carbohydrates, fat and protein need you as an individual requires as is recommended, for your body. The American Council on Exercise, recommends that our diet should consist of 55 percent of carbohydrates, 30 percent of fat and 15 percent of proteins every day, although these could be modified to suit your individual needs.
We calculate our RDA using the following steps:
- We modify the calories that our bodies require depending on certain factors which include; our age, our gender and the level of the activities that we undertake daily. Some apps help calculate these and, they gauge the calories required by people of different ages, gender and who take different activities. These needs vary because all these factors make our bodies and metabolism differ, hence different caloric requirements.
- The second step in calculating your RDA, is taking the amount of calories that you require daily, and multiplying that by the total amount of carbohydrates that have been recommended for us As we know that the recommended carbohydrates in our diet daily is 55 percent, you take this percentage, and multiply it by your total caloric needs for each day. For instance, if you need 2100 calories every day, you calculate 2100 X .55 = 1155. 1155 calories are therefore the calories from carbohydrates that you should eat daily.
- In the third step, you follow the procedure in the second step to calculate the daily calories from proteins that you require. Your diet is supposed to be composed of 15 percent of protein. Therefore, you will multiply the number of calories you require daily, by the percentage of proteins that are recommended for you to have daily. For instance, if you need 2100 calories daily, and the recommended protein amount is 15 percent, you calculate, 2100 X .15 = 315. You, therefore, require 315 of the calories in your diet to be proteins.
- The fourth step is a repeat both the second and the third step, but in this case, we calculate the calories from fats. Our diet is supposed to be composed of 30 percent fat. To get the total calories from fat that we need daily, we take this recommended amount and multiply it by the total amount of calories we require daily. This is calculated as follows; say you require 2100 calories daily, you calculate 2100 X.30 =630. Thus, 630 calories out of the total 2100 should be composed of fats.
- After finding out what you are recommended to have daily regarding your diet, the fifth and final step is to observe your intake of these nutrients. You should ensure that you stick to what you are recommended to have, for instance as per our calculations: 1155 calories from your carbs, 315 from your proteins, and 630 calories from your fat. This is to ensure that your body is meeting its daily needs of nutrients.
2. Sourcing your nutrients from the most healthy alternatives
It is much easier for you and I to reach out for that double-cheeseburger and loaded chips, rather than go for the chicken salad and the slow-cooked beef right? This is the reason why, the medicine market keeps growing, while on the other hand, we keep falling sick more frequently, becoming unhealthier and losing our coins more to the treatment of lifestyle illnesses.
We now know what our daily dietary needs are, from calculating our RDA, The next step from there should be looking for healthier alternatives and healthier sources of nutrients for our diet.
- Ensure that you source your carbs from very healthy sources of carbohydrates. These include whole grain rather than going for processed grain, fresh organic fruits, and fresh vegetables. You could even plant a few of them in your backyard or create a hanging garden.
- Go for healthier proteins that do not put you at cross-fire with lifestyle diseases. Opt for meat that is leaner and avoids overeating red meat. Instead go for white meat, chicken and fish are an excellent example of such. Choose dairy sources that are fat- free for your protein sources. You could even go for plant-based milk such as cashew milk, almond milk and coconut milk in the place of cow milk.
- Source your fat from healthy fats and fats that are not saturated, such as sunflower oil, in your diet.
- If your foods do not have all the necessary nutrients that you require, go for organic supplements to help supplement your dietary needs and ensure that you meet your daily target.
- There is so much useful information all over the internet from professionals, and even physical clinics and centers where there are registered dieticians, who are willing and ready, helping us in our journey of healthier eating and healthy living, Take advantage of this. Regularly keep in touch with your dietician, or with information on healthy diet and living that is made accessible to you.
- Avoid overindulging in alcohol, and habits such as smoking which; interfere with your body’s ability to synthesize nutrients, and also make you more likely to suffer from lifestyle diseases and other chronic illnesses like some forms of cancer.
3. Exercise
It is very important for all of us to pay attention to exercise as a way of keeping our bodies and minds fit and healthy.
- See exercise as a way to keep your body functioning well and in shape, rather than a way to get to your ideal body image. Exercising to achieve that body that you have always wanted is not a bad thing at all. However, it is important to focus on exercise more as a wellness program for your body and mind.
- Exercise regularly to ensure that you maintain your body fitness, and ensure that you keep following the recommended diet for your body together with exercising
- Be kind to yourself and don’t strain your body with too much workout routine, too many different types of exercise all at once, to a point where exercise becomes more detrimental than helpful.
As you become more healthy and fit, you will realize that the overall quality of your life will improve. You will no longer be a potential shareholder or major client, for the ever-growing medicine market, but a healthy citizen ready to accomplish your goals.
