The holy health trinity

Sleep, eat, and get on yer feet!

Is someone who works out healthy? Not necessarily.

Being active throughout each day has a more positive impact on health, then lifting weights for one hour three x a week (and spending the rest of the time being inactive). That is not to say that lifting weights is not good – it is, it’s just that one of the most beneficial things you can do for yourself this year is to move more. There are, however, two other things that are equally important in the quest for good health and a sense of well-being. Sleep, sleep, sleep and what you eat.

Whether it be after Christmas or before a holiday we often suddenly start working out more and watching what they eat (although reducing calories and eating healthily are not necessarily the same thing), but where is sleep in this?

Some of us have the attitude, we will sleep when we are dead, but the reality is without your required sleep quota, some of life and vitality can be lost. Meaning you end up getting less out of life, and never achieve the holy grail of the feeling of well-being. Sleep has to become one of your priorities if you really want to feel the benefits of working out and good eating. Lack of sleep can hinder recovery, leave your immune system vulnerable, lead to less effort in a workout, cause more of the stress hormone cortisol that can lead to more weight around the waist, plus lead to poorer food choices the next day. So all in all not a pretty picture. For clarity of how all these lost zzzzz’s add up use the clever sleep deprivation calculator on www.hillarys.co.uk/lost-sleep-calculator

It is true, you cannot out train a bad diet, yet many of us try. From telling ourselves that we can have something ‘a little bit naughty’ as a reward for the going to the gym – ignoring the fact that we just spent half our time chatting to a friend, and the other half putting in less than 100% effort. So in other words, the treat plus exercise resulting instead in a greater calorie intake than doing neither. Plus unless you are one of the lucky 10% (the so-called ‘reactors’), exercise alone will not help you with significant weight loss. Food plays a huge part in how we look. Ranging from the obvious of our body weight, to muscle gain, recovery and even how our face looks. Toxins such as sugar can be aging and often leave us with a puffy looking face, or too much salt and possible bloating. But aesthetics aside, we really are what we eat. Putting no fuel or the wrong fuel in a car would both be detrimental, well it is the same with the body. Most people require around 800 calories for all the metabolic reactions within the body to have a hope of performing correctly, so you can only guess what a constant very low-calorie diet does to you holistically. For those on a calorie-restricted diet, good micro and macro nutrient choices to ensure plenty of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are even more important to provide soul food for the body and mind. Unfortunately processed food by some of the big weight loss companies does not fall into this, nor does not surviving on cabbage soup or maple syrup. Water too is vital in vitality.