Keeping active

WHY KEEP ACTIVE ?

Keeping Active is an essential part of managing health conditions. It is vital to preventing long term diabetes complications and maintaining a healthy lifestyle generally..

WHAT IS KEEPING ACTIVE ?

Keeping Active simply means MOVING MORE: making little changes or adjustments to your daily routines . Being more on the move rather than being sedentary ..

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF INCREASING YOUR ACTIVITY LEVEL ?

Being more active helps bring about both mental and physical benefits that tend to increase health, wellbeing and longevity.

Some of the benefits include:

Loosing weight and maintaining a healthier body weight and muscle mass. It is vital for increased metabolism and burning of calories
Exercise helps reduce stress and improve mental strength and stability.
It is important for the maintenance of healthy bones and muscles.
Helps increase your energy level
It reduces the risk of chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke etc
Exercise is known to improve blood flow which protects your skin.
Increases blood flow to the brain therefore increasing brain health and memory functions.
Helps improve relaxation and sleep quality.

WHAT activities can you get involved with and how?

It is very important to make living a more active life your Lifestyle.

This can be achieve by practically building in exercises into your daily routines. For example :

walking to your grocery shop rather than driving to the shop;
walking your children to school,
talking a bus or driving half way your journey and walking the rest of it and then back to where your car is packed;
using the stairs instead of the lift or escalator.
Intermittently walking around the office after sitting for a while is a helpful practice
household jobs
having fun with the kids( children or grand children)
Actives :
- brisk walk
- jogging
- Long distance run
- Gym membership
- Aerobics
- swimming
- Dance classes
- cycling
- hiking
- other non competitive sports ( some people go as far as joining competitive sports, in that case, please do seek your doctors advice on that)
It is important to get into those activities you naturally enjoy.

For me, I love dancing as well as walking so I make walking part of my daily routine.

WHAT can stop you from being more active ?

Having known the numerous benefits of living an active life, what are the drawbacks you may be facing and how do you overcome them?

Cost and expenses:
- Becoming more active does not always involve expenses. You can spend little or nothing depending on the actives you might want to be involved in.
Who to go with:
- Some people have self motivation when comes to going out to get some exercise while some are not.
You can search for walking or running groups around your community and join them. Most of them are free or will only cost you a little. You make friends quickly within such groups and socialize while gaining your days exercise. I belong to a walking group around where I live and the benefits are great.
Also encourage your friends to join you on your personal walks, initially you might struggle but soon after you start enjoying your walks and then it becomes part of your lifestyle.
Lack of energy: You may be feeling tired , once you increase your activity level, one of the early benefits is that you feel energized. Just take that first and brave step.
No walking path around where I live
- It is vital that you keep safe from traffic and harm while you exercise.
- You could take a bus to a park or safe area and take your walk and return with a bus.
I have pain on my knee/ ankle/ waist/ back or any other part of your body: seek medical attention and do not forget to mention to your doctor that you intend to increase your activity level. Discuss the different activities you intend to involve in with your Doctor.

tips for being more active

Depending on your lifestyle, activities could be spread out through the day

Be involved in an activity or activities you enjoy, you will be more likley to keep up with it for longer

Activities built into your daily routine are more likely to be maintained

You can vary your activities to avoid boredom and discouragement

Start small and build up depending on your strength and ability

Set yourself practicable and achievable daily , weekly and monthly goals

Try to involve your friends or join existing walking groups

Log how many steps you take

a pedometer is very useful in counting your steps.

It is recommended that one takes at least 10,000 steps a day

Invest in comfortable and sensible footwear to protect you feet from any form of injury and alteration.

Every type of physical activity is beneficial for your overall health so let's go....
MOVE MORE.
LIVE HEALTHIER

KEEPING ACTIVE