Healthy Living

According to statistics, many people have a sedentary lifestyle nowadays. Modern technology has contributed to this ;

1. Instead of walking or riding bikes, we drive cars and instead of climbing up the stairs, we take the elevators. Remote controls have created the 'couch-potatoes' generation.

2. There are restaurants everywhere serving a wide range of food, many of which tend to behigh in fat, sugar and calories.

3. The amount of time spent for working has also left us with less time for exercise. All of the above problems have contributed to people becoming overweight with many health problems.

It's about time to CHANGE and LIVE A BETTER LIFE.

Here are the tips of living healthy and losing weight :
1. Healthy Eating.
To eat healthily is to have a VARIATION in food. We need to have variation in our food sothey can contibute all kinds of nutrient our body needs.Eating healthy means you have to :

1. Eat more : vegetables, dried peas, beans and lentils, fruits, cereals and wheat bread
2. Eat in Moderation : lean meat, eggs, fish, chicken, nuts, milk, yoghurt and cheese
3. Eat in Small Amount : butter, margarine, oil and sugar
4. Reduce Consumption : salt and alcohol

Eat in moderation
It is better to eat in small portion. Eat 5 times a day, 3 main meals and 2 snacks. Eating lots of vegetables can also makes yiou fuller. Remember that it takes 3 minutes for the brain to get the mesesage that you are full.It is best to try to at at roughly the same time everyday. It'll make all the enzymes in your body work systematically and therefore your body is programmed to be hungry only at certain time of the day. If you eat irregularly, whenever you see and smell food, you'll feel hungry.

Energy Balance
Energy balance is like a scale; when the calories consumed are higher than calories used, weight gain occurs. Your choice of food and physical activities can lead to Energy Balance.

* Calories consumed > Calories used ---> Weight Gain
* Calories consumed <> Weight Loss
* Calories consumed = Calories used ---> No Weight Change

Food Labels
It's important to read food labels for nutritional information. Some kinds of food that are low fat or fat free may contain more calories that the food containing fat. When trying to lose weight, it's important to check out the protein, fat, carbohydrate and energy contained in the food.

The Importance of Exercise
To achieve health benefits, exercise plays an important role. It doesn't have to be vigorous, but it must be done regularly. To maintain weight, a person should exercise 3 times a week and to lose weight, exercise 4 times or more in a week. There is no best time when it comes to exercise. You can do it at your most convenient time. However, to lose weight, it's better to exercise in the morning as it will make your metabolism work faster.

Dinner and Losing Weight
While some people believe that skipping dinner can help you lose weight, it is not entirely true. It depends on what time a person is most active. In the time when you are most active is the time where you should eat most as your body is burning the energy. You can eat dinner, but make sure that it is done at least 2 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body enough time to digest the food.

Age versus Losing Weight
The older you get, the more difficult it is to lose weight. It is because, at older age, your metabolism slows down, and older people tend to have problems with mobility.

Different types of Dieting
Nowadays, there are a number of different diets such as the blood type diet, low-carb diet, South Beach diet and many more. Young healthy adults can try all types of diets but make sure to do it for a short time period only (around 6 months). Yes, those diets do work, but there are side effects if a person follows a certain type of diet over a long period of time.