Physical Health

This page was last edited on June 4, 2023

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Physical health is our body’s ability to perform daily activities without weariness or physical stress.

The human body is the most complex organism in the world. Therefore, you must watch what you put into your body to keep your body healthy.

Moreover, the amount of activity you do is also essential for keeping your body in proper shape. But that’s not all. Physical wellness also reduces stress and the risk of illness.

Want to know how to stay physically healthy? Learn all about physical health and physical activity that can keep you healthy.

What Is Physical Health?

Physical health is the overall state of your body. It includes both the absence of disease and your current fitness level.

Among the three pillars of health, physical wellness is critical for our overall well-being. Poor physical health can affect our mental health and social health.

However, it can also be affected by our lifestyle, physical activity, diet, and habits. Moreover, a person’s genetics and physiology impact their physical wellness. This is why some people are healthy no matter what they eat while others struggle to get fit.

What’s more, our environment plays a massive role in our physical well-being. For example, the amount of sunlight you get or the pollution in your area can affect your health.

That’s not all, good healthcare can help you maintain physical fitness by detecting and treating illnesses.

Tips for Improving Physical Health

Are you feeling physically unwell? Want to work on improving physical health?

Don’t worry. Follow these tips to attain and maintain better physical wellness:

Get Active

There’s no alternative to getting active if you want good physical health. However, desk jobs force us to spend all of our days sitting. Sedentary behavior is linked to numerous medical problems.

What’s more, medical experts recommend that adults get at least 20 minutes of physical activity each day. Believe it or not, every minute counts regarding physical movements.

Here’s how you can increase your activity:

Firstly, set an achievable goal for weekly physical activity.
Also, join a gym or an online exercise class.
Get a standing desk so you can work while standing.
In addition, place your treadmill in front of the TV for motivation.
Bring small changes like taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
You can also park your car far from your workplace, so you have to walk more.
Additionally, keep small weights in the office for arm exercises.
Furthermore, you can also take walks during lunch break for more movement.
Finally, set an alarm every hour to remind yourself to stand up and move around.

Eat Healthy

Physical health is highly dependent on what we eat. So, you can not stay healthy while consuming junk food every day of the month.

Moreover, a healthy diet can introduce us to various nutritious foods. Need help with which foods to add and which ones to cut out?

Dont, worry! Here are some tips for starting a healthy diet:

Bring Variety

People think healthy food means boring foods. But it’s completely false! You just have to bring variety into your diet. For example, you can eat fresh vegetables, fruits, beans, seeds, eggs, milk, fish, and lean meat.

So, get creative and prepare a meal plan including these nutritious foods.

Limit Foods with Low/Zero Nutritional Value

Many foods come with empty calories and no other nutritional elements. For instance, energy drinks, alcohol, coke, cakes, and other junk food lack minerals or vitamins.

What’s more, vegetables like potatoes, eggplants, iceberg lettuce, corn, and celery are also low in nutritional value. So, choose foods that bring you more vitamins, fiber, and minerals.

Try to Limit Your Sugar Intake

I get it, cutting sugar entirely out of your diet may seem like a tremendous task. But let’s not forget about the sugar cravings and withdrawals.

So, try to cut down on the sugar instead of cutting it out completely. For example, skip the ones with added sugar when buying packaged foods. Additionally, stop drinking packaged fruit juices, dried fruits, and energy drinks, as those are full of sugar.

Go for Unsaturated Fats

Saturated fats are bad for our physical health. But healthy fats are necessary for maintaining physical fitness.

Therefore, go for unsaturated fats like canola, rice bran, olive, or other vegetable oils. Also, stop using butter, meat fats, soybean oil, and shortening.

Include More Fiber

Fiber is essential for good gut health. Split peas, lentils, black beans, chia seeds, green peas, and raspberries are high in fiber. Therefore, include these more in your everyday diet.

Opt for Complex Carbs

Complex carbs come with more nutrients than simple carbs. What’s more, they are higher in fiber.

So, go for complex carb foods like whole grain bread, chickpeas, oats, brown rice, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash.

Avoid Foods High in Salt

Buy fresh fish, poultry, and lean meat because canned food is usually high in sodium. Moreover, when picking frozen food and vegetables, go for ones with no added salt.

Another thing to remember is choosing canned, packaged, or smoked food with less than 5% sodium per serving. Additionally, rinse canned food to reduce the amount of added salt.

Build and Maintain Muscle

Physical health can not be maintained without sound muscle health. Moreover, building muscle increases your overall strength. That’s not all, if you build strong muscles, you’ll be able to stay healthier even at an older age.

Strength training also improves bone health. Experts recommend adults train their muscles and bones at least twice a week.

But how to start muscle building and strength training? Check out these steps:

Start slow with small amounts of weight.
Also, focus on learning the proper form of each movement.
Next, pay attention to how your body reacts.
Sore joints and muscle pain means you are overdoing it.
Moreover, avoid jerking or thrusting weights.
Instead, use smooth and steady movements for weight lifting.
Additionally, increase the amount of weight with time.
Most importantly, don’t hold your breath during exercises.
In addition, join your local gym or hire a trainer to learn the proper forms.

Maintain a Healthy Weight

Being heavier weight can lead to many health issues, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, gallbladder issues, and more.

Therefore, identifying the ideal weight for yourself and trying to stay at or around that is necessary.

Also, being lower weight than your ideal weight can come with health issues. So, find your ideal weight and maintain that. Rapidly fluctuating weight is a sign of poor physical health.

Here are some tips for reaching your ideal weight:

First, visit a nutritionist and identify the ideal weight for your age, height, and health.
Be realistic about your weight goals.
Then, figure out how many calories you should eat daily to gain or lose weight.
Also, to stay on track, record daily food intake and exercise.
In addition, weigh yourself once every week or 15 days.
Don’t focus too much on the number on the scale.
Weight loss and weight gain take time, so be kind to yourself.
Moreover, eat healthy meals you actually enjoy.
Go for exercises you enjoy doing.
What’s more, get a friend or family involved in your weight journey.
Identify temptations and give yourself break days.
Most importantly, learn from your mistakes.
Don’t skip exercise or healthy food for more than one day.

Focus on Metabolism

While talking about physical health, metabolism often gets ignored. But all our internal physical mechanisms depend on our metabolism.

How many calories someone burns and how they digest food entirely depends on metabolism.

So, you have to focus on improving and maintaining good metabolic health.

Here are some ways you can combat age-related metabolic changes:

First, be consistent with a healthy diet.
Ensure proper hydration.
Cut out added sugar and salt.
Make daily physical activity a priority.
Get eight hours of sleep every night.
Limit or stop alcohol intake completely.
Stop smoking tobacco products.

Build Healthy Habits

You must build healthy habits to enjoy good physical health in the long run.

Otherwise, you’ll fall back into unhealthy habits and get physically unfit. Moreover, healthy choices make us feel better physically and mentally.

Doing all the things necessary for improving your physical health gets easier once you turn them into habits.

So, here are the habits you should build to sustain good physical health:

Observe and Plan

First of all, track down your daily activities for a week. This will help you to identify unhealthy patterns in your life. Also, you’ll be able to pinpoint the triggers that start those harmful habits.

Set Realistic Goals

Secondly, set goals that are suitable for your lifestyle.

Often we make goals to exercise seven times a week. But realistically, we don’t have the time or energy to do so. As a result, we fail to achieve that and give up altogether.

So, make goals that are actually achievable and sustainable instead of crash diets and two-week weight loss goals.

Change Your Surrounding

When your surroundings are right, it’s easier to make healthier choices. So, if you want to quit sugar, remove sugary food from your house.

Want to exercise every morning? Place your workout clothes and yoga mat by your bed.

So, set your environment in a way that encourages good habits and takes away the temptations.

Ask for Help

Sometimes it’s hard to stay on track. So, if you have the same issue, get an accountability partner.

Find family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers on the same journey.

Fill Your Free Time with Healthy Habits

After getting back from the office, try cooking a homemade meal. Then, go for a group exercise class, meditate, garden on your balcony, etc.

Filling your time with these healthy habits will refrain you from watching tv or scrolling social media mindlessly.

Track Progress

Tracking progress is a must. There are many apps for tracking your habit progress.

Use these or a journal to track how far along you’ve come. Additionally, these records will help you stay focused.

Reward Yourself

Celebrate every little milestone to motivate yourself. When you reward yourself for staying on track, your brain will encourage you to do more healthy activities.

Be Patient

There is no shortcut to good physical health. Likewise, habits take time to form.

So, give yourself time. Moreover, setbacks are bound to happen. So, forgive yourself for going off track but nudge yourself back on.

It’s important to remember while building habits, progress matters; perfection doesn’t.

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