A diet comprising proteins, carbohydrates, fats and vitamins and minerals ensures your body receives the nutrition it needs for a healthy and active life. Maintaining the proper body weight is achieved by keeping a balance between your food intake and energy (calories) used. Being either overweight or underweight is unhealthy and makes it difficult to achieve an appropriate level of fitness. Being overweight places extra strain on body processes and on the joints. Many serious diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and back and joint problems are associated with being overweight or obese. On the other hand, lack of energy, fatigue and loss of muscle tone are characteristics of an underweight person.

Exercise

Frequently undertaken with the aim of weight loss, exercise should be viewed as an all-round health and fitness enhancer. Your level of fitness is reflected by your heart and lung functioning, muscle strength, flexibility, and body structure. Lack of physical activity and a sedentary lifestyle, usually lead to weight gain. They are also associated with an increased risk of serious diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and diabetes, which may be prevented by taking regular exercise. Moreover, problems with muscles and joints that are part of the natural ageing process, such as arthritis, osteoporosis (loss of bone) and muscle wasting, can be delayed by strengthening exercises.

Physical exercise works the muscles to help us attain a healthy body shape and improve our physical performance. Importantly, exercise strengthens the heart muscle, enabling it to pump blood more efficiently. While exercise may be difficult at first, causing breathlessness, aches and fatigue, your body soon gets used to it. Both exercising and daily activities become easier as your physical health and fitness improve. The benefits of exercise are reflected not only in your physique but in your mental functioning. Physical activity stimulates chemicals in the brain, which ‘lift’ the mood and reduce stress levels and, in turn, may work to increase your ability and motivation to do more exercise.

What should I do?

The key to good health and fitness is to maintain a healthy weight. A healthy diet is achieved through eating sensibly; it does not necessarily have to exclude those ‘guilty’ foods, provided they are eaten in moderation and you are taking regular exercise. Physical activity should be part of your lifestyle whatever your age, and is easily incorporated into a daily routine (e.g. taking the stairs not the lift; getting off the bus a stop earlier, etc.) or as part of your social life (e.g. walking with a friend, going to a gym).

Before embarking on a health and fitness programme or dieting, it is advisable to consult your doctor particularly if you have any illnesses or problems with your health. Your doctor will be able to advise you on the best course of action. If you cannot get to see your own doctor then there are doctors online. we recommend The Online Clinic in the UK as they have a great reputation and they are properly licensed so you know that they are to be trusted. Here is their weight loss programme page - http://www.theonlineclinic.co.uk/weight-loss-program.asp

• Proteins: to help our bodies repair and grow tissues
• Carbohydrates: the main source of energy
• Vitamins: to help the body function at its fullest capacity
• We also need fats, occasionally, for energy and for protection and safety of the body.

Any weight-loss diet should include all of these, if the diet wants to be a long-term, healthy commitment rather than a sharp, short-term weight-loss method.

Keeping the balance right is very important. There are many diets and each different diet has slightly different ratios between the foods. One diet worth considering (and eventually tweaking) is the Mediterranean diet. The pyramid shows the ratios that this diet suggests. Feel free to read more information on the Mediterranean diet if you are interested or you want to try it out.

The Mediterranean diet is a great strong base for a healthy diet: however, it is important to keep in mind two main things.

1. That exercise is of the utmost importance when following any type of diet
2. That carbohydrates can and should be reduced if you want to lose weight and your exercise is low to moderate.

Having considered these two elements then, it is recommended to change the ratio of carbs and veggies to 1:1. Otherwise, veggies might also be the primary component of the diet and carbs could be cut down a bit.

To finish off with carbs: it is important to consider which type of carbs you are consuming. In fact, grains and wholemeal bread is much healthier than white bread and if you are thinking of losing weight safely, you might want to consider these as alternatives to your normal loaf of white bread (either permanently or temporarily).

Do not forget to write down what you eat, especially when beginning a new diet: you might think you are having crisps rarely but maybe you are actually consuming a packet every other day. Crisps are a particularly easy food to pack and have without being fully conscious. Try to substitute them with carrots, or any other veggies. You might struggle at first, but in a few days you might notice the difference already.

Finally, remember: it is important to keep in mind that change does not happen overnight. If you keep on changing a small thing regarding your diet every week, you will gradually get in the habit of eating healthily. Balance is everything: if you have a bigger meal than normal one day, don’t despair and try to make up for it by cutting down the next day. Oh, and most importantly: don’t forget to drink water. Drinking loads is essential to keep your metabolism going!

But what is a health and fitness plan?

Anything that improves your physical and mental health can be considered to be part of a health and fitness plan. From exercising to eating properly to sleeping enough hours, many things in your daily life can contribute to making you feel better, as these things affect your overall health.

There is nothing wrong with browsing through general health and fitness tips to get inspired or get some advice: however, you should ultimately create a personalised plan. There are certain elements and factors that you might want to consider when you create such plan, tailored to your needs and wants. Here we consider some of them:

• Age: A younger individual (i.e. children and teenagers) should move much more than adults or an elderly person. It is known that a person’s fitness declines with age, especially once reaching the age of 45. Hence, age is an important factor to consider when planning on creating a personalised fitness plan.

• Time: How much free time do you have? This is an important point that will help you establish whether you are really going to be able to do the workout routine you saw in the magazine just the other day. If the routine is 45 minutes, but you do not feel like you can take the time off all at once, then consider a few shorter routine, or break the one you found into pieces. Note: be careful before you break your routine into pieces, as it might be a 45-minute workout for a reason. For example, it might be a routine aimed at increasing resistance, and it would obviously not achieve the goal if you break it into parts.

• Physical condition: If you are not feeling well for the moment or have a temporary or permanent physical condition, you should tailor your fitness routine accordingly. The problems you might experience can be ranging from having the cold to having a back problem. If you want to start a fitness and health routine properly, you have to take into account the limits that your body can reach. If you are not sure about what those are, ask your doctor.

• Mental condition: Again, whether your state of mind is stress-related or you have a diagnosed mental condition, you should take that into account when creating your perfect health and fitness routine. Self-help books, taking a few days off work or seeing an old friend can all affect positively your overall health and you should give these factors some consideration.

Have we forgotten anything? Remember your own health and fitness plan will not be perfect straight after you create it. Tailoring it to your needs is an on-going process and when you change lifestyle, you might have to tweak it again. The important thing is that you give yourself time to plan it because, if you do, you’ll benefit from taking care of your own health.