How to start living a healthier lifestyle Tips for a healthy life

we'd all like to live a healthier lifestyle right whether that means

getting more exercise are taking a nasty habit or losing weight but how do you

get started me you know what you do we're back here which is a calvo

executive editor of shape magazine with some more helpful hints high how r u

that wealth so you have a half plate will can you tell me that with that is

yes i think for help her weight loss.

one of the most important things you can do is

half of your plate with fruits or vegetables and every male what that does

is it helps keep your calories under control and it also insures that you're

getting

plenty of fiber phyto-chemicals vitamins and minerals in your diet which help

control

all your risk factors for diseases like heart disease

cancer

and it can even keep your skin looking wrinkle free and smooth and

healthy and glowing

so what about the network is a lot of people don't to go to doctor now for a

picnic point nsw break it what what you think about that i think that

you'd be pick a day

you know whether it's your birthday

and i think that that's a great day for people to to sort of take stock of their

health care and other you're older and think that what you can do is you can

sit down and you can say okay

this week i'm going to make all of my doctors appointment so i'm going to

schedule a screening with the dermatologist for my skin cancer track

i'm going to get a mammogram at some of them and i'm going to schedule my

gynecology appointment so i can get my pap smear and my checkup i'm going to

schedule my physical now you obviously don't have to go to the doctor on that

week that if you take an hour one day and you just sit down and you may call

it the appointments over the next couple of months you'll have it in your

calendar and you will make sure that you were getting the preventative care that

you need to catch a problem before it becomes or be a problem

and outlast thinking about

downtime and really all that such busy lifestyles it's so hard to find out

rehearsal busy and stressed

increasingly research has shown that stress has become factor in a lot of

diseases everything from from catching a cold

to developing cancer to developing heart disease even depression

so it's very important to take time for yourself during the day and it can be

just anything that you enjoy

we know it doesn't have to be like boeing need to get a massage need to

officially relax it can just be you know i love my job and their content play

with my dog for ten minutes i'm just going make that my coming home ritual

or isle of

asia historical fiction i'm just going to carve out fifteen minutes a day to

read something that i really really enjoy i'd personally i am not happy if

i'm not reading a novel that i'm really in grossman and i just make sure that i

have one in my bag at all times and whenever i have a couple of minutes i'd

just pull it open and it it makes me happy and it believes the straps and i

think that everybody has something special like that's what the law and

it's nice to think of it in small increments doesn't we get overwhelmed

yet looking at the whole picture and they're just small things you can do

throughout the so what about exercises that is leanings

is one of the best exercises and you can do it anywhere and its kisi to do and it

doesn't you don't have to be a super athlete to be able to do it

ten minutes to save time very intense home forty five-pound woman if she's

walking briskly about a hundred mesangial so you really eat at kicking up a little bit to burn that many but an brisk walking is great for your heart even slow walking is good for you it's

good for your health it's good for your weight control

you know the bodies of the more you can walk take the stairs instead of the

elevator walk two appointments

you know park your car a little bit further away from the entrance to your

office in the mall

and walk.

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Part 3 - Applying Physical & Health Literacy

So, I'm sure you understand that it's important to be physically active and healthy. It's

a pretty obvious thing to say, isn't it? Like saying you'd rather live on land than underwater.

Or you'd rather call your friends than fax them.

But just how important is being active and healthy? Well, let’s look. In the entire

world, physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for mortality behind high blood

pressure, tobacco use and high blood sugar. Physical inactivity is the main cause for

about ¼ of all deaths caused by breast and colon cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

Now, people aged 5 – 17 should accumulate 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical

activity in a day. But currently, only 7% of youth are getting the recommended amount

of physical activity.

We have a similar problem when we examine healthy living. Less than half of children

and youth are getting the recommended number of servings or fruit and vegetable daily.

Without change, these children will have lifespans that are three to four years shorter than

today's adults, due to obesity.

So, it's clearly very important to be physically active, and healthy. And to work towards getting

better at it.

But here's the problem. Before you can make changes and get to a position where you're

physically active and making healthy decisions you've got to learn something called health

and physical literacy.

What's that you ask?...Ahem…Health literacy is the ability to develop critical thinking

skills to make good decisions about your health. Physical literacy is the ability to move with

competence and confidence in a wide variety of physical activities.

It's like this: say you want to drive a car. You don't just hop in the seat, and start

zipping around. You've got some basic skills to learn first. Steering, stopping, parallel

parking. OK, maybe you still can't parallel park.

The point is, you have to learn the basic skills and strategies before you can drive.

Your health is the same way.

Let’s take physical literacy. To feel comfortable and confident being physically active, and

therefore more likely to be regularly active, you need to learn fundamental movement skills

like how to dodge, hop, skip, jump, kick and overhand throw.

Once you’re comfortable and confident with these skills, you can start to apply various

strategies in physical activities. For example, when playing sledge hockey, you may be playing

defense so learning to ‘defend a space’ will be a very useful strategy. This applies

to hockey and basketball too! When you play bocce or wheelchair curling, ‘avoiding obstacles’

will help you to score points and learning 'aim and accuracy' helps with jai alai and

squash.

It's the same if you want to be healthy. To be health literate, you have to learn basic

critical and creative thinking skills like planning, processing, drawing conclusions

and reflecting. Through these, you develop the ability to make healthy choices like eating

well, avoiding smoking and making good decisions about your emotional well being.

Making good choices isn't like flipping on a switch. We learn how to do it.

Health and physical literacy get you to a place where you're competent and confident

in physical activities and making healthy smart choices about your life. This will help

you get better grades, make friends and just generally make you a happier, healthier person.

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Part 2 - Exploring Physical & Health Literacy

Let’s look at these two people here. We'll call this guy Marco, and this girl Kim. They're
just random teenagers. Nothing too crazy. Although, really, these are drawings so why
be boring, right? There you go, Marco. Have some 'spring-feet'.They look great.

Now, the big difference between Kim and Marco is that Kim leads a healthy, physically active life. She plays soccer, break-dances, eats well and generally takes good care of herself.

Marco, unfortunately, doesn’t make the healthiest choices. He doesn't really get much exercise either, which is kind of a waste if you think about it, because he's got spring-feet now. Anyway, this is a problem, because making healthy choices and being physically active
is really important at their age. It can help you make friends, do well at school, and feel
good about yourself.

So, it's pretty important! But to be able to make healthy choices, and to become active,
you have to learn health and physical literacy.
Look at it this way – if you want to be good at rocket science, you don't just go
ahead and start building a rocket. That … could be a problem.
If you want to make a rocket properly, you have some basic skills to learn first. Things
like math, physics and engineering. And then you use those skills to actually design and
build the rocket.
Well, it's the same with being physically active and making healthy choices. You have
to learn and practice some basic skills.

So, let’s look at physical literacy. To feel comfortable and confident when you're
being active, it helps to learn things like how to dodge, hop, skip, jump, kick, overhand
throw, catch and run.

On the other hand, if you're really, really good at them – you can compete in the ultimate
physical activity: soccer-basket-rugby-bowling ball!

(Clears Throat) Okay we're still working on trying to come up with the rules for that

one.

If you don't feel comfortable with these fundamental skills, you might not choose to participate
in a bunch of fun activities and sports.

The same is true if you want to be healthy. To be health literate, you have to learn basic
thinking skills like communicating, and knowing what you're feeling. Through these, you develop
the ability to make healthy choices, like eating well, not smoking and making good decisions
about your emotional wellbeing.

So, for example, if Marco were health literate, he'd know that a well-balanced dinner is better
than, let’s say… a bucket of Martian food.
Um, I don't think so, Marco.

So, let’s have Marco learn the skills of health and physical literacy. Then he can
confidently pursue the activities he likes, have a strong sense of wellbeing, and hopefully
just become generally happier and healthier, and not just for today, but for the rest of
his life.

Plus, we're going to let him keep the spring-feet, because they're just awesome.
I see good things in your future Marco.

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