Fitness Tips for Independence Day

Dinesh Shetty is a Serial Entrepreneur, Winner of Ultimate Warrior 2022 which is airing on Discovery plus and a Fitness Enthusiastic. He is the Founder of Production Crew, Riding School and Good Life Café. The fitness tip shared by him are mentioned below in this article.

The two years of the pandemic had been very challenging for all of us. Back then watching long hours of Netflix/ TV and mindless scrolling on Instagram and eating comfort foods seemed like a stress-buster. Was it really so?

Well, most of us got back to our routine post lockdown. But some are still continuing with their sedentary lifestyle which is also accompanied by binge eating and no physical movements at all turning themselves into couch potato.

One has to understand that we humans are biologically made to move. Sitting all day and leading a sedentary lifestyle has harmful effects on our health!

We can shape our bodies and health with our healthy or unhealthy lifestyles. Exercise, diet, yoga, walking, and other physical activities are in our control to lead a healthy lifestyle which also includes ood habits and consumption.

Health is wealth and hence it should be our priority. Being distracted from health goals is easy and comfortable. It is you who needs to examine and change your health needs with your lifestyle. It is never too late to evaluate and refresh your lifestyle from top to bottom.

Many health goals don’t reach their expected results because they’re too broad and unexamined. For instance, making a New Year's resolution to “lose weight, make better lifestyle choices, and stay fit” is well-intended, but it’s too wishful and unplanned to make a lasting impact in your life.

On the other hand, if one takes small steps toward health goals like exercising, cycling, doing yoga, or changing diet in a measurable format, one can achieve the goals and gain confidence to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

If your goal is to build the best version of yourself, it's not too late to get started with these few achievable steps — today as given below:

• Take small steps: As mentioned earlier, make small weekly goals. For example; for 1st week, just focus to make healthy food choices. Next week onward, you can add to sleeping at a scheduled time and wake up on time. This way, there is a high probability you will stick with the plan. Also achieving weekly goals is easier and helps you to stay motivated throughout!

• Commit to a daily 30-minute workout: Committing 30 minutes every day to exercise is a great way to build a healthier lifestyle. Whether you’re brisk walking, jogging, doing yoga or zumba, or hitting the gym, simply taking the time to work out and sweat for half an hour each day can have a marvelous impact on constructively shaping your physical and mental health.

  Incorporating variety into your workouts, such as alternating strength training with cardio, can help build strength, endurance, and stamina.

• If you are someone, who doesn’t like doing the activity by yourself, then join a sport which you have always liked as a kid. You may not be a pro in it, but it will give you the much-needed motivation to begin with.

• Upgrade your food choices: “A healthy outside starts from the inside”. What you eat reflects on your body and on your inner well-being! Hence, it’s of utmost importance that we look out for what we are eating. Start with taking small steps.

  For example; Clear your fridge and cupboards of unwanted junk & aerated beverages (cola). Instead, stock it up with fresh fruits, dry fruits, and healthy snacks like Makhana, khakhra, roasted Chana, and kurmura. Well, when you have healthy food around, you ought to reach out to one of them!

  Try to eat a balanced meal for all your mains, which includes a combination of carbs, protein, fat, and fiber. Have 1-2 fruits in a day!

  After all, “Every time you eat is an opportunity to nourish your body”.

• Start the day with a healthy breakfast: Eating a healthy breakfast positively impacts your day. A healthy and rich breakfast prepares your body for the day by:

  1. Kick-starting your metabolism.

  2. Keeping you focused

  3. Energizing you

• Eat Small Frequent Meals: Don’t skip your meals. In fact, try to eat frequently, like every 2-3 hours, so that you don’t feel very hungry at any given point of time, which easily helps us to avoid over-eating and binging. You can have small meals in between your mains like a fruit/ handful of dry fruits/ Makhana/ coconut water/ roasted Chana, etc.

• Stay hydrated: Hydration is the foundation of great health. Drinking water is essential for basic body functions and will help empower your body throughout the day.

  Fatigue, overeating, mood swings, and serious health issues can occur due to a lack of hydration. On the other hand, drinking water regularly helps in:

  1. Improving brain function.

  2. Strengthening your muscles.

  3. Keeping the skin youthful organically.

  4. Boosting metabolism.

  Staying hydrated is one of the easiest healthy habits to adopt; drinking about 8-10 glasses a day is an achievable goal you can start today!

• Travelling tip: Always carry your mid-meal options along with you for avoiding long gaps between meals. You can always pop in a few dry fruits/ Makhana on the go and avoid eating junk or staying hungry while commuting.

• Sleeping schedule: Sleep is an often-overlooked factor of a healthy lifestyle is getting enough sleep. As an adult, your body and mind need 7 or 8 hours of rest each night.

  Turn off the television and stop scrolling about 30 minutes before you go to bed so that you wake up feeling refreshed & recovered and are ready to take on the next day.

When you commit and achieve smaller health goals you subconsciously get confident and energized to achieve the larger health goals. Small lifestyle changes can be building blocks for more ambitious fitness goals and in no time, you will change your course of life from a couch potato to a super fit human.