Fitness - Do We Take It for Granted?

Taking care of our body so that it will function with energy and
alertness should be a priority. But is it? Feeding our body the right
foods so it will operate as it was meant to should be a daily task for
survival. But do we? Are we fit or do we just plow through our life
with an uncaring attitude that everything will be alright?Exercise
We
know we should be active and that a certain amount of exercise is a
must for the right functioning of this machine we call our body. The
activity does not have to be on a large scale, just a brisk evening
walk or thirty minutes of various activities at the gym. Anything is
better than the hours you put in as a couch potato. Regular exercise
and activity keeps our bodies conditioned and helps our mental
sharpness to work at top speed.The activity and exercise we choose
should be total body involvement for maintaining and improving our
level of fitness. Make it a social or family thing, go dancing,
skating or swimming.Nutrition
Examine your eating habits. Eating more
calories than your body needs? Are you taking regular supplement of
vitamins and minerals to be sure you are getting the recommended daily
allowances? If you are not making the most basic efforts to take care
of your nutritional needs, you are not a fit individual. There may be
no noticeable symptoms of ill-health, but you are not the fit and
toned person you could be.We need to educate ourselves on what is good
and bad food. We have accepted the fast food mentality and given into
the easy way of food preparation that many of us have forgotten what
really good food made from scratch tastes like. We forget about the
abundance of fresh and healthy vegetables, fruits and natural
ingredients are available to us. We should not eat
mindlessly.Stress
What about the stress levels in your life? Is your
working environment one of high levels of stress? How about your
personal life; stress levels going through the roof? With stress being
the number one contributor to heart attacks and strokes we should
train ourselves to use stress-relievers. Having quiet moments to
think; not scheduling every moment of our day and taking free time to
live rather than exist in the agony of a stressful day.One of the
smallest definitions of fitness refers to the body's ability to meet
physical stresses. This includes coping and getting from the beginning
of the day to the end, without being exhausted. Our body is a
wonderful mechanism as it finds ways to rid ourselves of built up
stress, the kind that begins to affect our muscles, muscle tone and
composition. Consider massages as an aid to ridding your body of
stress buildup, even with exercise regiments, a massage can relax our
body and give us overall fitness.We should stop our exhausting living
style and question our efforts at maintaining optimal health. It is
beneficial to our overall health, the quality and quantity of our
life, to make every effort to be fit and healthy individuals.Many of
us need help! We should become aware of what real fitness is.