Being a fit individual doesn’t automatically make you a healthy individual, and the absence of disease is not a wholesome picture of complete health. There are many factors in everyday life that can impact health and fitness, but preserving complete health requires a conscious effort to practice a lifelong, daily commitment to maintaining a state of complete physical, mental/emotional and nutritional well-being. Being healthy means taking care of all sides of fitness, extending beyond a limited focus on weight loss and nutrition.
Physical Fitness
The physical is arguably the side of fitness that most people place greater emphasis. The goal of physical fitness is to you to have the ability to perform tasks with vigor and without undue burden or fatigue. Physical fitness should focus on muscle strength and endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, flexibility and body composition. While each attribute is relatively important to a specific performance or health goal, focusing on all the attributes is a recipe for total fitness and will result in optimal health. You want to keep your heart and lungs performing at a high level, keep your weight under control, improve muscle strength and endurance and increase joint flexibility. With physical fitness at optimal capacity, you can stay active and physically do the things that you enjoy with ease.
Mental/Emotional Fitness
Mental and emotional fitness go hand in hand because the brain has a huge role in influencing emotions. The mind-body connection is real and mental/emotional health gives individuals
a sense of control over their emotions and behaviour. Self-awareness is heightened and you have the ability to cope with your daily challenges and stressful situations, while expressing the appropriate emotional response. Mental/emotional fitness builds your resiliency, giving you the fortitude to bounce back quicker from disappointments. A calm mind will help you to relax, control your emotions and allow you to problem solve. Yoga, meditation and positive self-talk can help to improve mental/emotional health.
Nutritional Fitness
Complete health is difficult to achieve without nutritional fitness. How you fuel your body is essential to the maintenance of a healthy weight and minimizing the risk of chronic diseases and overall health. A well-balanced and nutritious diet is inclusive of macro-nutrients like protein, carbohydrates and essential fats, along with vitamins and minerals. Your nutritional plan could also include nutritional supplements, like pre workout from Complete Nutrition, that could amplify your workout capacity by stimulating endurance, energy and focus. Minimizing portions and intake of fats, sodium and sugars will aid in maintaining a higher level of fitness and keep cardiovascular disease, in particular, at bay.
Complete health is achievable, but you have to make a conscious decision to take the steps to elevate your level of physical, mental/emotional and nutritional fitness. Addressing all sides of fitness is essential to complete health. Being healthy involves keeping your heart health in check, along with muscle strength and endurance and joint flexibility, and also maintaining a healthy body weight and being mentally and emotionally tough to deal with unwanted challenges.
