Introduction
Nutrition and fitness are fundamental parameters of a healthy body. The health status of a body does not only depend on the intake of nutritious diet, but also on the assimilation and utilization of the nutrients. Since a healthy diet supplies the essential nutrients to the body, proper and optimum physical fitness is necessary to enhance their assimilation and utilization, hence preventing the accumulation of the excess nutrients into toxic levels. A healthy body requires constant supply of nutrients and steady assimilation and utilization of the same, for any deficiency or an excess of the nutrients in the body will result into nutritional disorders. In order to maintain a healthy body, nutrition and fitness are the two factors that require stringent regulation. This essay examines the effects of current nutritional and fitness habits in relation to the recommended healthy lifestyles.
Current Healthy Lifestyle
My current nutritional and fitness habits are very far from the recommendations of a healthy body because I do not take a balanced diet always nor do I engage in optimum physical exercises regularly. In terms of nutrition, I normally take refined foodstuffs like snacks and soft drinks as the main meal of the day because of their convenience rather than their nutritional value. Instead of drinking water during the day, I take soft drinks because they are sweet and appetizing. Furthermore, I do rarely add vegetables on my diet and occasionally take fruits, although they are the source of the essential vitamins for effective metabolism. In terms of physical fitness, I really hate fatigue associated with the strenuous exercises and so my fitness exercises involves occasional jogging in the field. These poor nutritional and fitness habits have resulted into my weight gain, which I am afraid it will lead into overweight and obesity.
Overweight and obesity pose great health risks to an individual. According to the Kamtsios (2008), “overweight and obesity increases the risks of developing cardiovascular disease, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, colon cancers and osteoporosis.” Cardiovascular disease is a fatal disease of the heart that affects effective pumping of the blood leading to hypertension and the associated complications that may lead to severe heart attack and eventually death. Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus is a type II diabetes in which the body tissues and cell becomes insensitive to the metabolic induction activity of the insulin, hence the blood sugar are poorly metabolized leading to hyperglycemia. Colonic cancers interfere with the digestion process while osteoporosis results into corrosion of the bones thus weakening the muscular-skeletal structure of the body.
New healthy Habits
To improve my health status through physical fitness, I want to incorporate daily jogging, weekly aerobics and playing football. The daily morning jog for about 30 minutes will help to burn down excess fats in the body and the removal of excess salts and urea through sweat will improve my healthy status. The morning also jog will improve the blood flow to the brain and the peripheral tissues thus allowing psychological and physical fitness. The jogging will help develop endurance and prevent morning fatigue, thus I will begin my day quite active. “Experts recommend that adults exercise a minimum of 30 minutes three times per week” (Guarino, 2007). The duration of the physical exercises varies depending on the health status of an individual and purpose of the exercise, as to cut weight requires more exercise than to maintain weight.
Weekly aerobics on Friday will reduce the fatigue due to the hectic activities of the week. According to the Kamtsios (2008), “aerobic fitness is a measure of the ability to sustain prolonged efforts and it determines the degree of the fatigue that almost everybody experiences in daily life: the higher your aerobic fitness, the less fatigue your experience.” The aerobic exercises help to develop endurance, to increase blood circulation, increase glucose utilization by the peripheral tissues and cells, enhance pumping mechanism of the heart and reduce glycerol levels in the blood. The weekly playing of football will have similar benefits as jogging and aerobics; additionally, it has fun that will help in reducing the psychological stress. The cheers and the yells that form part of the football are quite entertaining and exciting to the mind. All the physical exercises are important in reducing or maintaining weight, as there is constant metabolism of the excess nutrients in the body.
I can improve my health status through nutrition by drinking plenty of water, increasing the proportion of the vegetables and fruits in the diet, and reducing the intake of the refined foodstuffs and soft drinks. Water is an important metabolic medium in which all the chemical reactions take place, thus drinking plenty of water will ensure that cellular reactions take place at right osmotic environment. “Water is an all-purpose wonder substance; it is great for the skin, digestive system, circulatory system, aids in weight loss and cellulite reduction” (Guarino, 2007). Insufficient amount water in the body will result into muscle cramps and fatigue, because the body tissues and cells are dehydrated, and unable to carry their metabolic activities optimally. Hence, water is an important metabolic medium, which provides favorable environment for the cellular reactions and the transportation of the metabolic nutrients and waste in the body.
Increasing the proportion of the vegetables and the fruits will supply the essential vitamins, minerals and roughages. Vitamins and minerals are required in sufficient amounts in the body and their functions is to enhance metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins thus preventing metabolic disorders associated with the excesses or deficiencies of these bimolecular substances. Furthermore, vitamins and minerals are important co-factors in the synthesis of other essential substances in the body, so they greatly determine the health status of an individual. Roughages help in the churning, digestion and absorption of food in the stomach ensuring that all nutrients are absorbed into the blood.
Refined foodstuffs and soft drinks unnecessarily add excess sugar into the body. In the body, conversion of the excess sugars into glycogen, then into fats, is what causes obesity. Reduction of these types of food will result into a healthy body. Therefore, proper nutrition will guarantee optimum cellular and physiological processes hence there will be neither excesses nor deficiencies of the nutrients in the body. This state of balance will promote a healthy status of the body.
Conclusion
The health status of the body depends on the nutritional and physical fitness. Poor nutrition in terms of over or under nutrition will result into nutritional disorders. Over nutrition will result into the accumulation of the nutrients in the body up to toxic levels while on the other hand, under nutrition will result into the deficiency of the essential nutrients; in both cases, nutritional disorders ensue. To prevent nutritional disorders from occurring, sufficient nutrients and enough physical exercises are necessary.
References
Guarino, M. (2007). Healthy Nutrition and Fitness Habits for a Hectic Life. Health. Web.
Kamtsios, S. (2008). Physical Fitness and Nutritional Habits. South African Journal Of Sports Medicine. 20(1); 32-36.