How to improve your physical health and wellness with the 3 M’s
Poor physical health and wellness will severely impact your mental health and in extension every aspect of your life. Following the 3 M’s: Meal, Muscle and Metabolism, you will have a framework to significantly improve your physical fitness. You will be able to reap the benefits in all parts of your life as you start feeling stronger, healthier and full of energy.
Meal
Your body needs fuel just like any machine. And the human body is one of the most complex machines out there! If you use low quality fuel you will not have a smoothly running machine. It will have hick-ups, breakdowns and need a lot more maintenance on an ongoing basis.
If you have ever tried to lose weight using a calorie-counting fitness app you have most likely have it told you that you should be eating 1200 kcal. As if this is some magic number for physical fitness.
Most of us cannot run well on only 1200 kcal a day!
We need to eat good quality food that can fuel us for everything we want to achieve during a day. Regularly eating poor quality food like processed foods, diet versions of real food or deep fried and charred food will not set you up for the next stages in improving your physical health. And neither will eating too little, leaving us without the energy we need for everything we want to do.
Also remember that there is no magic super-food that will give you everything you need. Focusing on real food and variety, however, will give you everything you need.
Make fuelling your day with high quality food and drinks in appropriate amounts your first step toward improving your physical health and wellness – you will need the energy for the next step!
Read more: How to eat healthy without feeling deprived
Muscle
Especially for women, exercising is often cardio related. We take up running, Zumba, spinning or walking. Improving your cardiovascular health is great but if we don’t have the muscle strength to support these activities we often incur injuries or stagnate in our development.
Increasing your strength will:
· Let you perform more movements and activities without getting tired
· Help you maintain your bodyweight
· Boost your mood and energy levels
· Promote healthy sleep
· Build strong, healthier muscles and bones
· Reduce your likelihood for injuries
Read more: Increasing muscle mass to improve metabolism (Adipocyte)
As we age, we start losing muscle mass so working to improve or maintain our muscle strength becomes even more critical for overall physical health.
How to increase your strength
Start small. If you are not used to strength training, take care to build up slowly to avoid injuries. Focus on full body exercises using your body weight.
You can off course join a gym or get a personal trainer but it’s not at all necessary. You can easily find the support and instructions you need online and do this at home by setting aside 20 minutes 2-3 times a week.
Disclaimer: If you have any concerns with your health, consult with your physician before starting any new exercise program
There are a number of full body strength training videos and YouTube. Look around to find one that suits you! The important thing to look out for is that:
· It’s not longer than 20 minutes. You don’t need more, and you don’t want to overdo it
· It’s not focusing on separate muscle groups but includes full body exercises such as:
o Squats
o Pull ups
o Plank
o Push-up
If this sounds a bit too much and too scary, try yoga!
I personally use and recommend yoga with Adrienne as she is great at working with people on all different levels and focus on building strength as well as listening to your body.
Visit: Yoga with Adrienne (YouTube)
Read more: How to make a new habit
Metabolism
Metabolism is the process of our body breaking down food and turning it into energy or to store it.
We usually talk about having a good metabolism in terms of weight management but the benefits of a healthy metabolism go a lot further. The energy we gain through metabolism is used for everything from blood circulation and breathing to maintaining a healthy hormone balance and repairing any damaged cells.
We need this energy to function and feel great!
As we have implemented the first 2 M’s: Meal and Muscle, we have already started improving our metabolism as a good amount of real food is critical for any energy to be generated. Increasing our muscle mass improves our metabolism and makes it easier and quicker for the body to break down food to energy.
Other ways to improve your metabolism are:
Sleep
If you are not sleeping well it will impact everything from your hormones to your metabolism and energy levels. Make a good night sleep one of your highest priorities to take your physical fitness to the next level!
Read more: Sleep and Metabolism: An overview (International Journal of Endocrinology)
Stress
We may all recognise that when we are stressed, especially over long periods of time, it’s difficult to maintain healthy habits. This is not the only way we are affected by stress however. When we are stressed, we produce the hormone cortisol:
Cortisol impacts the body in several ways and is involved both in metabolism and in insulin regulation, which in turn can cause cravings for sweet, high-fat and salty foods.
Cortisol also reduces the amount of testosterone the body produces (also in women!) which will make it more difficult to build and maintain muscles.
So, if you are constantly stressed, you will actually need to do more strength training to gain the same benefit!
Find ways to decrease your stress levels to be able to have better eating habits (Meal) and to get more out of your strength training (Muscle).
Like with muscle mass, metabolism slows with age so managing meals, muscle, sleep and stress become more important the older we get, and we can no longer get away with what we could in our 20s!
Read more: Can stress make you fat (Medicinenet)
How to improve your physical health and wellness with the 3 M’s
Using the 3 Ms: Meal, Muscle and Metabolism as your guiding lights they will reinforce each-other and get you on a positive spiral toward physical fitness. This will in turn will give you more energy which you can use to improve any aspect of your life – or for just having some fun!
Read more:
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