exercise and eat your way to healthier body and happier life

We all need to keep ourselves active in order to maintain our health and strength and one of the biggest myths in our society today is that exercise is only necessary if you need to lose weight. We all need to exercise no matter how much we weigh!

There are many different ways to exercise from simply taking a daily walk or jog to playing sport regularly two or three times a week. In recent years however one of the most popular ways to exercise has been by joining a local gym.

In general people work out at a gym for one of three reasons. The first is quite simply to lose weight which is why, if your local area is anything like mine, gym memberships always go up in January when most people resolve to lose some weight and get fit. The second is actually to add a little weight and build up some muscle for those people who are underweight. The third main reason for joining a gym is because it is a fun way to keep in shape.

Using a gym for exercise is actually a very good idea because you need a combination of both cardiovascular exercise, which you can get through such things as jogging and cycling, and weight training. The combination allows you to burn calories and build muscle and this increases your metabolism so that you can gain or lose weight as necessary.

Regular exercise brings many benefits along with it including maintain or improving your general health to help you fight off disease. It also makes you feel happier and gives you considerable self-esteem, which is why people who exercise regularly are less prone to anxiety, stress and depression. As if this were not enough, people who are fit and healthy live longer.

If you have not been particularly active for any length of time then you need to start working out slowly and it is a good idea to call in at your doctor's office for a checkup before embarking on any workout program.

One very important part of any exercise program is your diet and you need to look at this carefully when you start a new exercise program. By diet I do not mean that you are necessarily trying to eat less to lose weight, but simply use the word diet in its more general sense to mean 'what you eat'.

A good diet is essentially a balanced diet which contains a variety of different foods from the two main food categories - carbohydrates and fats.

Carbohydrates include such things as potatoes, rice, cereals, vegetables and fruits. A good balance of these will provide you with the vitamins, minerals and fiber which your body needs, as well as many essential enzymes and micronutrients.

Surprisingly perhaps fats are also essential to a balance diet but the secret here is to select the right kinds of fat. Animal fats for example are not very good for you, despite the fact that they usually taste good, and you should be including only foods which contain mono and polyunsaturated fats such as fish, nuts and seeds. This means switching to margarine instead of butter and low-fat instead of full-fat milk.

Finally, no exercise program is going to do you much good if alongside a good program and diet you are also drinking a lot of alcohol and smoking. Alcohol is fine occasionally and in moderation but smoking is simply self-defeating. So, if you are a smoker, then giving up at the same time as starting a new exercise program is probably the best gift you can give your body.

JumpingRopeFitness.com tells you everything you could possibly wish to know about jumping rope from putting together a jump rope routine to selecting the right jump rope music for your exercise session.

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