Let’s face it: we now live in a society that has gone pretty much fitness-mad. You can barely walk down the street without seeing a billboard for the latest celebrity workout DVD or fitness supplement – and you can forget about avoiding it on social media! Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are full of fitness bloggers and personal trainers offering hints, tips, and advice on how exactly you can get a body like theirs. If you’re a natural gym bunny and a fitness fanatic, this kind of stuff is probably great for your motivation. But if fitness as a whole just doesn’t typically interest you, it can feel a little tiresome. People who aren’t into fitness as an all-encompassing lifestyle can often get left behind in the industry. So, is there a way to be dedicated to your health and fitness, without having it take over your life entirely? Here are a few handy lifestyle tips for people who hate being healthy, so you can (quite literally) have your cake and eat it!
Work fitness into your everyday routine
Setting aside specific time for exercise may not be something you want to do. You may want to spend your spare time hanging out with friends and family, or doing something fun and cultural like traveling or sightseeing. If you do want to keep tabs on your weight and health, however, you will need to make sure you are moving regularly – about thirty minutes of exercise a day is the recommended minimum for people wanting to maintain a healthy weight. Think about your current everyday routine and what you could do to make it a bit more active. For example, could you secure some cycle bike insurance and cycle to work every morning, rather than taking the subway or the bus? Or, if you end up waiting outside your child’s after-school class for fifteen minutes every day, could you use that time to walk around the car park a couple of times? It may sound silly, but these are easy ways to get your daily exercise with minimal effort. Make it fun for the whole family think about getting scooters or other wheeled products that can keep you active.
Don’t deny yourself of treats
One common mistake people make when they are trying to be healthier is going cold turkey. You may have come across ‘food propaganda’ that demonizes certain foods – but if you give them up altogether, you could end up binging when the cravings set in. A little bit of cake every so often is not going to have a huge effect on your overall weight or health, so if you’ve always included it in your diet, don’t throw it away entirely just because other people do.
Learn how to cook better meals
If your specialty dish is a creamy carbonara or a cheese-laden homemade pizza, you may be of the opinion that cooking healthy food is just not in your skill set. But healthy food isn’t that complex, any more than it is just made up of salads. There are plenty of light, but still filling pasta dishes, stir fries and curries that even the most novice of cooks can make. Consider expanding your palate and your skill set, and before you know it, you’ll be cooking up a storm in the kitchen.