Ones nutrition is of benefit since they are born. In many medical institutions world nutrition is one of the most important features that mothers are taught. Mothers are generally who check the nutrition of any individual since they are born. When a man and a woman plan to conceive they are educated on how to feed well in order to be able to conceive a healthy baby. Healthy eating definition is feeding in a manner that the body is able to support life and involves ingesting of a balanced diet. Balanced diet includes all groups of food and has the ability to meet the basal metabolic rates and generally other body needs. It includes three main groups of foods, which are proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins (Carpenter, 2005).
Examples of foods in the protein group are all kinds of meats (beef, mutton, poultry, and seafoods), eggs, milk. These are the animal proteins. Plant proteins include legumes (all bean kinds, peas, green grams). These are the body building foods and they help to replace tissues in the body. Carbohydrates on the other hand are the energy givers. These foods provide the body with the energy required to carry out the daily activities. Examples of foods in the group are the bread, foods with sugars, millet, cassavas, and arrowroots. Vitamins are the protective foods. They help in boosting body’s immunity (Carpenter, 2005). They include the fruits groups and the vegetables. Fats are considered as energy givers but they should be taken in minimal amount. Too much fat results to body complications and obesity.
Healthy eating generally entails a lot of discipline. Individuals have to restrict themselves from eating some of their favorite foods for them to be having a healthy diet. They should limit their intake of junk foods. Junk foods nowadays are easily and readily available. They also come at affordable prices and purchased by many people at very large amounts. These foods have high amount of refined sugars and fats. This makes them unhealthy when ingested in large numbers causing deposition of the excess kilocalories consumed as fats in the body. Excess fats results to obesity and overweight are associated with a lot of lifestyle diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This puts an individual’s health at great risk. Due to availability of a lot of food types, in healthy eating people are advised to try variety of foods for the same purpose. Alternate the amount of carbohydrates, proteins with the ones that are available to one (Carpenter, 2005).
Nutrition
Numerous nutrition definitions exist depending on scholars’ point of view. Optimally, nutrition is defined as a process whereby a person/ individual obtain food with the knowledge that the food ingested will result into growth or sustenance of one’s health (Insel, 2004). Through feeding well (good nutrition) the body is able to get the energy required for daily activities, grow and also obtain the vitamins and minerals required for body’s proper functioning and being healthy.
Nutrition and healthy eating are mostly separated but they almost refer to similar things. However, in nutrition, the food components are subdivided scientifically. Macronutrients include the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats (Insel, 2004). Carbohydrates just like fuel provide energy to the body. Thus, carbohydrates are the main form of energy in human body. Carbohydrates digestion takes the shortest time possible. Like before, carbohydrates include sugars and starchy foods. They are generally broken down into individual glucose, galactose and fructose units. Too much carbohydrate is generally stored in the body as fats. In times when an individual does not ingest enough carbohydrates, proteins and fats are used in digestion.
The other group is the micronutrients. Micronutrients include the vitamins and minerals. These are also an important component of the body (Insel, 2004). The body in small amount needs them. They also act as co enzymes helping the body in speeding up chemical reactions. This is illustrated by how the B vitamins help in conversion of vitamin A, which helps in vision. Minerals are also not to be left out. Examples of minerals include calcium, potassium, sodium and many more. Eating a diet with all these components is referred to as healthy eating while healthy eating is further described to good nutrition. Thus, healthy eating and good nutrition are generally interrelated.
Exercise plan
Healthy living does not only entail healthy eating and good nutrition, it also entails a good and planned exercise plan. Different individuals do exercises for different purposes. For example, an individual who wants to lose weight will have a different exercise plan with a body builder. Other individuals do exercise just to ensure that they remain fit for long. Sports personalities like footballers and athletes also do different exercises.
An exercise plan is a program that entails a schedule of how one is going to exercise fully and ensure a healthy body. When formulating exercise plans nutritionists should always be consulted for information on how to eat well and ensure that the exercise plan serves its purpose.
A good exercise plan should involve aerobic exercises, which entails use of large groups of muscles (Bailey, 1996). The activities of entailed in aerobic exercises include, walking, swimming, cycling, and jogging. In a well-planned exercise plan, an individual is advised to always warm up when doing the exercises. They should also cool down. These exercises are done in duration of from twenty to sixty minutes.
Resistance training is also a component of an exercise plan. It helps in building the muscular strength of individual while at the same time helping in maintaining of strong bones and improving the individuals’ endurance (Bailey, 1996). The exercise is done in a frequency of two to three times in a week. One day of rest between the workouts is always advisable. In resistance training, an individual should always get a trainer for lifting of the appropriate weights.
Flexibility is also a component of a good exercise plan. This helps in improvement of the range at which ones joints and muscles move. It involves all the types of stretching. The flexibility exercises are to be done at a frequency of two to five days in a week. Gentle movements are always advisable and the learners are advised against bouncing and jerking. Excessive stretching results into injury. This can be avoided by knowing the limits at which ones muscles stretch and ensure no exceeding of these extents. The flexibility exercises are not very demanding and should take about five minutes of an individual time daily with stretching that lasts for about ten seconds per stretch (Bailey, 1996).
Incorporating a well-planned exercise plan with healthy eating and good nutrition will most definitely ensure that a client is healthy for many years. This helps one to maintain fitness even during his/her old age. Although it sounds simple, many people lack the discipline to maintain the three disciplines that incorporate healthy living.
References
Insel, P. M., Turner, R. E., & Ross, D. (2004). Nutrition. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Carpenter, R. A., & Finley, C. E. (2005). Healthy eating every day. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Bailey, C. (1996). Smart exercise: Burning fat, getting fit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
