Regular physical activity leads to good health
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EmailImportant health benefits can be achieved when daily physical activity is part of a wellness routine.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could store-up the benefits of being physically active? Just think if you could exercise for an hour on Monday and reap the health benefits all month from just that one session. Unfortunately that is not how your body works. Frequency is the key. Your body gains important health benefits from daily physical activity.
Physical activity and food choices go hand-in-hand. The foods that you eat are offer fuel for your body to use. Your food choices provide the critical calories or energy your body needs to function well. Healthy, low-fat and low-sodium food and beverages provide premium fuel for your body. There is a delicate balance between calories consumed and calories burned. It is important to understand the connection between food, physical activity, and your metabolism.
If you eat more calories than you burn you will gain weight. Your body uses some calories each day to fuel its metabolic processes necessary for life, such as digestion and respiration. This occurs naturally without you even realizing it. But there are additional calories from the food you eat that need to be used, and that is why being active every day is so important. Very few calories are burned when you are sedentary because your body does not require much energy to sit. When you are active and exercise each day you burn more calories. This helps maintain a healthy weight which is a terrific benefit to your health.
Living an active lifestyle also has a long list of other health benefits besides managing one’s weight. Being active helps to tone muscles, improve strength, increase heart and lung capacity, improve brain function, and relieve stress. The 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults ages 18 to 64 get a minimum of two hours and 30 minutes of moderate physical activity each week. Healthy eating and being physically active are critical for one’s health. It is faulty thinking to believe you can exercise occasionally and store-up long-term health benefits. A sedentary lifestyle negatively impacts the critical balance between calories consumed and calories expended. Being active each day is worth every step to achieve you wellness goals.
