Why Health And Wellness Should Be Lifelong Pursuits

Health And Wellness Should Be Lifelong Pursuits, Here's Why | NordicTrack Blog

Taking those first steps toward better health and wellness—such as buying the right NordicTrack fitness equipment—can be exciting and empowering. After the initial excitement and the thrill of your first few workouts wear off, it can be tough to stick to your healthy routine.

From that point, some people may point to different reasons why they can’t keep up with their healthy lifestyle, from age to being too busy. But there are so many benefits to pursuing better health and wellness that you don’t want to miss out on.

To help you feel motivated to keep pursuing lifelong fitness, below are some of the top benefits of regular exercise and healthy dietary habits.

Reduce Chronic Disease Risk Factors

Exercise does so much more for your health than just help you manage your weight. In fact, exercise is only really a supplement to a weight loss plan, not the solution itself. When it comes to losing weight, making dietary changes is far more important. However, that doesn’t mean regular exercise has no place in a healthy lifestyle.

Researchers agree that exercising on a regular basis can significantly reduce chronic disease factors. In some cases, consistent exercise can help prevent you from developing some diseases.

If you aren’t sure how much exercise is enough to count as being regular, you can follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and shoot for 150 minutes of a moderate aerobic activity routine and 2 days muscle-strengthening per week.

Increase Bone Density With Resistance Exercises

Loss of bone density is a serious concern as we age as the loss leaves you vulnerable to developing fractures and broken bones. For older adults, breaking a bone can become a critical medical issue.

To help prevent bone density loss, researchers have found that resistance exercises—like lifting weights—can be highly beneficial in preserving and developing further bone density, as well as muscle mass.

You don’t have to give up your other workout activities in favor of weightlifting or bodyweight training. However, adding in a couple of days where you cross-train by doing resistance exercises can be a way to protect your bone health for life.

Improve Mental Health By Engaging In Routine Exercise

Your mental health is an essential part of your overall wellness. While there are options to address mental health issues, exercising can also help with the prevention and treatment of mental health disorders, such as anxiety and depression.

However, the particular study linked above does caution against excessive exercise. Striking the right balance of regular exercise without pushing yourself too hard is important in maintaining lifelong health and wellness.

Ways To Implement Lifelong Health And Wellness

Even knowing the benefits of pursuing health and wellness lifelong, it can be tough to implement effective healthy habits. To help you start moving toward a healthier lifestyle, here are some helpful tips:

Find Exercises You Love

Sometimes people push themselves to do exercises they hate because of the exercise benefits. But if you want to make your workout routine less of something you dread, find exercises you love and enjoy doing.

For instance, maybe stationary bikes aren’t for you, but you love barre and running. In that case, having a treadmill and iFit makes more sense. Try a barre class and even a treadmill workout on iFit to see what kind of workouts entice you.

Create Reasonable Goals

When you are excited about working towards building up a healthier lifestyle, it can be tempting to set lofty goals that may be too difficult, near impossible, to meet. When you make your targeted goals outlandishly hard to reach within a short amount of time, it can be very discouraging.

Instead, take a realistic look at your goals, then make short-term milestones that will work towards your ultimate goal. This will help you track your progress and help keep your motivation high.

Be Kind To Yourself

Some people are very unkind to themselves while working on their health and wellness. And we can all agree that nothing good or useful comes from tearing yourself down for eating a treat or skipping a workout.

Instead, practice compassion for yourself, and remember that not all is lost because you wanted to eat a cookie.

Transition Your Diet Slowly

Speaking of cookies, it is best if you don’t engage in extreme dieting. Deciding to cut out all carbs, starting out and eating completely vegan, or some other drastic change can be difficult to stick with it the long term.

Rather than swing from dietary extremes, work slowly to change your diet––making small adjustments to change your eating habits and reducing smaller amounts of processed foods each week.

Most importantly, lifelong health and wellness is a journey––not a race to the finish line. By slowly adding in healthy habits and being consistent with your exercise, you can make health and wellness a sustainable lifestyle that can help you in the years to come.