The payoff of exercise and eating right is good health! We spend many hours walking, lifting weights, stretching etc. to keep the excess weight off and muscles strong. Along with that is a healthy diet. The saying you can’t out exercise a poor diet is very true! Especially the older we get, it becomes more important to watch what we eat for many reasons.
What we eat will fuel the workout. Pay attention next time you exercise as to how you feel. Then go back to your food diary and see what you ate prior to that workout. I can almost guarantee that on the days you feel good, your eating habits were solid and when you weren’t as energized, you ate poorly.
More importantly, a healthy diet will give our bodies what they need to fight off disease. We get all these nutrients from whole foods, not processed. So many packaged foods make the claim that they add in antioxidants or enhance with vitamins. All of these are found naturally in whole food!
The problem with eating healthy and exercising is that we can get lulled into thinking we will never get sick. There are no guarantees that this will be true and we see examples all the time. There are many factors that can lead to illness and disease, some of which are genetic. What exercise and a healthy diet will do for you is put you in the best position to fight off that disease. Eating the right foods will power your immune system and that is the best disease fighter you have! And, it is proven that medications can be more effective when coupled with a healthy lifestyle. Having surgery? Your recovery time can be shortened dramatically if you go into surgery with a healthy body.
Don’t think you are guaranteed a disease free life with a healthy lifestyle. What you can guarantee is a much better quality of life!
Until next time…
