Written by Fabian Patterson
The second step you can take towards living a healthy life is adequate sleep. In today’s society sleep tends to take the back burner on our list of priorities. We live in a goal driven – get it done society, and rarely do you find people who still considers sleep a priority, but more so something that the body does. According to the Bureau of Labor 89% of Americans hold a full-time job, working roughly nine hours a day and another 31% percent work the weekends. The nine hours of work the average adult spends outside their homes does not include the other 4-6 hours they’ll spend attending to other household activities such as cooking, cleaning, attending to their children etc.
The only way to change this vicious cycle is to prioritize sleep, to schedule it as you would a doctor’s appointment, because adequate sleep is just like getting a check-up from your doctor. The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours of sleep for adults between the age of 26-64 years of age. Now, some of you might say you can’t spend that much time sleeping, because you won’t have enough time to get other things done that needs to be done. But, the truth is, if you continue to put off sleep you won’t be around to worry about your list of things to do. Sleep is vital, it is important because it enables your body to repair itself, it helps to prevent weight loss, heart disease and helps to strengthen your immune system which fights of common bacteria and viruses.
Last but not least, the next step you can take towards living a healthy life is implementing a regular fitness routine, one that consists of regular cardiovascular activities and some form of muscle resistant training. Understanding that both cardio and resistant training are important, as cardio improves the cardiovascular system, and resistant training strengthens the muscles around vital organs and the joints in the body. Why is it that you should know this?
Well, cardio increases the lung’s capacity, strengthens the heart muscles to reduces the risk of heart attacks, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some form of cancer. While cardio improves the cardiovascular system. resistant training strengthens the muscles surrounding vital organs and joints to improve posture, bone density, it maintains weight loss and helps to boosts your metabolism and these are just some of the benefits to having a regular fitness routine.
So, what have we learned today? Well, for one we’ve acknowledged that we live in a world of contradictions and if we aren’t careful we can get caught up in the confusion, leaving us paralyzed in not knowing what is best for our health. However, contrary to this statement this article explains what it means to live a healthy life, the importance of living a healthy life and the benefits that comes with it and it allows provides three simple steps for towards the start of living a healthy life.
Fabian Patterson is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist and owner of Change-iz Fitness a local personal training business located in the Kapolei area. For more information about this article, his business or anything fitness related please contact him via email changeizfitness@gmail.com or his website www.change-izfitness.com
Photos by Captured Imagery