Festival season, weekend parties, best friend/family wedding! Whatever the occasion, we all have those days when we consume way more calories than we should be eating. Many of us think that if we are eating more today, let’s compensate with a workout tomorrow. And when we want to make up for all those extra calories, the first thing that comes to mind is CARDIO!
While any form of exercise is great, to do cardio because you ate too much is like punishing yourself.
Exercise keeps you fit and toned and is also a great stress buster. It should be something that you look forward to. It not only helps you remain healthy and fit, but it can also help you concentrate better. However, to treat it as compensation for unhealthy eating is neither good for your physical health nor good for you mentally.
Physically, it will take you prolonged cardio sessions to adjust for the extra calories. Suppose you ate a cheat meal worth 1100 calories (Burger and fries, anyone?). Even if you do steady-state cardio for 2 hours, you’d probably burn around 600-1000 calories depending on your body weight and intensity.
Doing 2 hours of cardio is no joke! It will leave you drained so much that you may not want to train the day after. Moreover, if you adapt to this mindset, this turns into a vicious cycle of overeating and overexerting and will eventually spoil your health. This way, you will not be able to reach your fitness goals.
Another big mistake that many people make is going on a detox diet after binging on junk food a day before. Again, starving your body the next day (as a punishment for eating) is a really bad solution. This won’t help you lose all those extra calories you had eaten a day before. Moreover, such detox diets often lead to a loss in energy, headaches, and lethargy.
So, what is a better solution?
Avoid the following associations:
- Cheat meal = Reward
- Intense workout = Punishment
Instead, follow:
Consistent Training + Mindful Eating = Healthy Lifestyle
Yes. That’s the perfect mantra!
The best way to maintain a healthy lifestyle is to follow a lifestyle that fits in both exercise and healthy eating.
Exercise is definitely necessary for maintaining a healthy body. Moreover, exercise has many other benefits. It boosts your mood and decreases stress. It also helps in building bone density during young age and it increases the energy level of the body.
According to a study,
There is also evidence to support the notion that individuals who are less physically active are more likely to gain weight over time than those who exercise between 150 and 300 minutes/week.
This shows how a regular dose of exercise can have wonderful effects on the whole body.
Remember, exercise doesn’t mean torturing your body for hours in the gym. Whether it is cardio or strength training, each has its own benefits and helps you in achieving the goal of a healthy lifestyle. So, don’t overdo any format of the exercise.
Now you may be thinking, how much exercise is enough?
A research study shows that most health and fitness organizations and professionals advocate a minimum volume of exercise that expends 1000 kcal (4200 kJ) per week and acknowledge the added benefits of higher energy expenditures.
If you are just starting out, start with a small amount of exercise per week. We recommend you to join our Basic Course in Nutrition and Fitness. This basic course by INFS is aimed at imparting the knowledge of introductory principles of nutrition and fitness. The concepts have been explained at a practical level through activity-based tasks that will help you improve your health and quality of life. The course is divided into 3 modules – Basics of Food and Nutrition, Introduction to Exercise Science, and Introduction to Resistance Training. You will be able to create your own meal plan along with an activity plan as per your lifestyle to meet your health and fitness goals.
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When it comes to eating healthy, the most important thing to keep in mind is not to follow mindless diets that promise you an unachievable amount of weight loss in a short span of time. Even if you are able to lose weight with the help of such diets, you won’t be able to sustain it in the long run. Also, it has often been seen that the lost weight quickly bounces back once such diets have been removed from the system.
Dietary intervention plays a primary role in weight reduction, whereas sustained physical activity prevents regain.
When it comes to eating healthy, always follow a balanced diet. A balanced diet includes all the essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals, carbohydrates, healthy fats, and protein. To sustain a healthy lifestyle, make sure you include foods from different groups like fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains, etc.
Each category of food is essential for the sustainable development and maintenance of the body.
There’s a famous Ayurveda proverb that goes by the lines of,
“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use. When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.”
How true is that!
Start following a pattern of mindful eating and consistent exercise, and you will be on the path to a healthy lifestyle. A lifestyle that doesn’t change with the introduction of some new fad diet or a new form of exercise. Last but not least principle of a healthy lifestyle is to remain happy. We all know the benefits of leading a happy, stress-free life. Almost all of us have studied the positive effects of happiness. It is time we actually start applying this principle in our lives!
Author: Saakshi, A psychologist by education and a fitness enthusiast by choice, she dreams of combining these worlds. Content writing and social media management is a passion that keeps her in the constant learner mode.
