Physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get min 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, in addition to muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.
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An NCHS report, which drew on 5 yrs of data from the National Health Interview Survey found only 23% of adults ages 18 to 64 are hitting both of those marks.
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If you consistently make exercise a priority including strength training you are among a small percentage of the population that make health a priority.
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Looking at social media may lead to a different perception. Seems like everyone is working out, fit and enjoying the results they want.
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We shouldn’t let someone’s curated highlight reel be our measure of success. People can do all kinds of things to achieve an aesthetic but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
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If you exercise daily chances are when you walk into a public space you are the fittest person in the room.
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Studies indicate that children’s physical activity levels correlate with those of their parents.
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If you track your food you are automatically more knowledgeable about what your body needs to operate than 88.9% of the population.
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If you know sleep impacts your appetite you have a massive advantage over those who don’t.
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Fat and muscle are completely different types of tissue. Muscle cannot turn into fat. Your “goal weight” is probably different from your image of the body you want. The body you want is likely heavier.
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Losing weight alone is a different strategy than building a healthy strong shape.
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There are side effects to transforming a body into something that requires intense intervention for aesthetic results. I’ve interviewed more than one fitness competitor who required family intervention because their regiments had gotten dangerously out of control.
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Instead of beating ourselves up because we feel like we need to compete with a result that may not even be healthy we should ask ourselves why we feel the need for that aesthetic?
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Health is separate from achieving a look. Health enables us to do the things we love and nothing looks better than that.