Category: health & beauty

Finding time to invest in self-care can be challenging, especially when you live an extra busy life. When your days are spent bouncing between work, family and social commitments, there can be little time left to catch your breath let alone take time to care for your physical, mental and emotional health. If you are struggling to find time left for self-care, try these four tips to incorporate good self-care habits in your routine.
1. Establish a morning routine

Starting the day right is a good way to ensure your mental and physical health is maintained. This might include a healthy breakfast, daily exercise or meditation; figure out what works for you and implement it daily. Over time this will become a habit, helping you to take some time for self-care every day.

2. Schedule time off

It can be easy to find yourself in a cycle of continuous activity, moving from one activity to the next until it seems you are just going through the motions. Make sure you don’t get lost in the chaos by scheduling some time off. It might be an afternoon away from your normal routine, or something more extravagant like a weekend away or vacation. Whatever you choose, taking a break will allow you to relax and rejuvenate.

3. Get enough sleep
It can be easy to prioritise other commitments over sleep, but the importance of sleep should not be underrated. Getting good quality sleep allows your body to heal and re-energise, helping you to perform in all areas of your life. It can also be hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle without proper sleep as we tend to make bad diet choices and avoid exercise when we are sleep deprived. Sleep is critical for physical and mental health, which is why it should be made a priority regardless of how busy you are.

4. Set realistic goals
Manage your mental health by setting realistic goals. There’s no point committing to something that is unachievable or will put so much pressure on you that you feel like a failure. Spend some time considering your aspirations and make goals that are challenging, but possible for you to reach. You also need to set realistic goals when it comes to your self-care commitments. Add things to your routine that will work long term with your lifestyle.
With limited hours in the day, it can be nearly impossible to make time for self-care. These tips should help you incorporate self-care into your schedule so that you can live life to the fullest.

Our culture today is experiencing a lifestyle shift unlike any other change involving generations past. As modern technology continues to skyrocket toward the future, an almost perfect negative correlation can be found in the amount of physical activity the average individual performs.

While the perils of a sedentary lifestyle are somewhat common knowledge, this article will touch on a few of some of these detriments to specific anatomical systems.

Muscular System

 A common trend you will notice as we progress in this discussion is the body’s remarkable ability to allocate resources to specific locations it deems necessary. Muscles are a direct and literally observable example of this trend.

When the muscular system is not frequently exposed to outside stresses and resistances that require muscle tissue to contract and shorten, the body notices and begins to decrease the amount of nutrients and oxygen the muscle receives.

Naturally, this leads to a reduction in overall muscle size and strength. On the contrary, if the body realizes that a muscle or group of muscles is being asked to handle an increased workout on a consistent basis, these structures will receive a greater influx of nutrients, thereby increasing in both size and force output.

Skeletal System

 Our bones are specifically designed to provide an overall framework for the body, protect vital organs, store nutrients and specific types and cells and manage the perpetual effect of gravity. When an individual’s lifestyle is devoid of adequate physical activity, the skeletal system, as with most other body systems, begins to deteriorate due to a decrease in the nourishment it receives.

The overall strength of a bone is usually described in terms of bone mineral density (BMD). Processes such as prolonged periods of inactivity and aging are marked by an increase in this parameter. Quite obviously, decreased bone mineral density is highly correlated to increase breaks and fractures, as well as reduced overall functionality an individual maintains.

The Cardiovascular System

 Your heart really is the MVP when it comes to persistence. No matter how inactive you choose to be, this organ does not follow suit. Although your heart will continue to function despite an inadequate amount of movement, it is far from immune to it.

Just a few examples of how lack of movement negatively affects the heart are a weaker, less efficient contraction, decreased oxygen uptake and obstructed flow of blood the through body. These issues force the heart to work much harder to keep you alive, which inevitably decreased the lifespan of the heart itself.

Metabolism & Bodyweight

 Probably the most obvious consequence of not moving enough is an increase in bodyweight, often times leading to obesity. Your body has a specific amount of calories it requires to maintain vital structures such as the heart, brain and liver. Whatever caloric total remaining after these systems are accounted for is allocated to provide energy towards physical activity and movement.

In a movement deficit, these leftover calories are not burned as full and must be stored somewhere in the body for a later date. As you can probably guess, one of the main storage vessels is adipose tissue or body fat. Digressing back to the effects of inactivity of muscle tissue, specifically the reduction in muscle size due to non-use, metabolism is intricately involved in this process. Lean muscle mass actually has a high demand for calories even while at rest.

The more muscle present in the body, the higher the metabolic rate becomes. To put it simply, there will actually be less of those leftover calories we previously discussed, resulting in less potential for storage in the form of fat.