Health and Fitness Builds the Mind, through keeping your body in a healthy and fit state. You’re your body is physically feeling good, your mind and spirit, are as well. It gives your brain a break, it doesn’t have to deal with how to keep you functioning. Or deal with aches and pains or, an under achieving body. So just how in shape does one have to be to keep the mind sharp?

Physical and mental health go hand in hand. The physical side seems easier to achieve more so than the mental. However, you can start by keeping physically healthy through proper diet, exercise, keeping active. Also limiting, or eliminating alcohol, or any substances and also avoid stress as much as possible. May sound like “squaresville” to some, but as we get older, we think about how to stretch out the years. We realize that health and fitness builds the mind and keeps us sharp.

Your mental state can be kept healthier by keeping some type of social interaction with friends and family. A good diet is your best bet in keeping both the body and mind in shape. I think the best exercise for the mind is to keep using it, don’t get lazy and let it go soft. The mind, like the body, benefits from lower blood pressures, low cholesterol, healthier foods, a healthy weight, and physical activity.

Isn’t Fitness More For Looks These Days?

Fitness almost falls under cosmetics anymore. So many are going to a gym to get ripped and cut to look like movie stars, models or body builders. It’s obvious for many that it is about a look or status as so many have to take selfies or pictures of them working out. If you are in a gym trying to improve your health for yourself, you would be thinking about publication. Your main goal would be about your health and your own goals.

Fitness has become more about wanting to impress the opposite sex or a sexual partner. Think about it, workouts are more about having a six pack, pecks and buttocks. What would a girl, building up a big ole bubble butt, have to do with health or fitness? It wouldn’t, that is image to impress everyone with. Actually, adding more weight to one’s body like that isn’t going to be good for you down the road.

There is nothing wrong with working out to look better, but do it for the right reasons. The only person you should be trying to impress, is yourself. Too many try so hard to chisel their bodies, that they become unhealthy looking. Once you start down the road to change your body for the looks, you create stress. Then this becomes counterproductive. How can you build the mind with health and fitness, if you are adding stress to look like something you’re not?

Going Overboard

Many go overboard with trying to look good by taking pills with exercise. Not to mention all the protein product and programs that are really not natural or healthy. There are many that become obsessed with looking so great, that their whole life becomes a workout. Now imaging if you were a single full-time parent. Trying to balance a hardcore workout regimen, along with trying to raise a child. There is going to be a lot of stress in that kind of situation.

To keep the mind healthy, you can’t be adding more stress. The idea of building the mind through health and fitness is to get your mind and body balanced. One thing that hasn’t changed through the years, are people’s misconception of help. “If a little is good, then a lot has to be better.” This is how so many get sick on medicines or even overdose.

Working out and eating healthy doesn’t have to be the main goal in life. You just need to configure a plan to eat healthier and exercise daily without it becoming the only goal. Once you figure out how to work in healthier foods and some exercise, your mental state will start improving.

Pay Close Attention To Your Cholesterol

Keeping your blood pressure below 120/80 is considered healthy and helps reduce the risk of stroke. Higher blood pressures are tied to dementia including Alzheimer’s disease. High blood pressure damages blood vessels. This increases one’s risk of stroke, kidney failure, heart disease, and heart attack. Nearly two-thirds of adults over age 65 have high blood pressure, 140/90. Those with blood pressures between 120/80 and 139/89 are considered to have “prehypertension”. This means that the blood pressure is not too high currently. However, a higher blood pressure could likely develop it in the future. To reduce or keep your blood pressure at a healthy level. Keep your weight down, don’t smoke, exercise regularly, eat a healthier diet, and limit salt, alcohol and caffeine.

High cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease as well as dementia. The higher your cholesterol level, the greater your chance of disease and illness. An excess of cholesterol in your blood can build up a fat like substance on the walls of your arteries. This causes them to harden and narrow, which slows down and can block blood flow. A cholesterol level of less than 200 mg/dL is considered healthy. 200-239 mg/dL is borderline high, and 240 mg/dL and above is high. Heredity, age, and gender can affect cholesterol levels. Cholesterol rises with age, and women’s levels tend to rise beginning after menopause. Healthy changes to diet, weight, and physical activity can help improve cholesterol levels.

Here Are Some Tips To Keep Healthy

We have always heard from our mom’s, “Eat your vegetables.” You might want to heed that advice. A good balance of a veggie diet can help us stay strong and healthy. It also provides the nutrition necessary for a healthy brain. It starts with a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat dairy products. Vitamin B is found in foods such as spinach and asparagus which is necessary for the health of our cells. It can help to prevent anemia and changes to DNA that could lead to cancer.

Vitamin B is also necessary to maintain normal levels of amino acids in the blood. Good sources of Vitamin B include fortified breakfast cereals, dark-green leafy vegetables, asparagus, strawberries, beans, and beef liver. Vitamins E and C are important antioxidants. These are found in foods that help guard against cell damage and may reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. While there’s no conclusive evidence, vitamins E and C may help boost mental ability and prevent dementia. Check out my “Help Organizations” page for nutritional and mental resources.

Reduce Stress

There isn’t any real proven exercise or methods to keep the mind from ever deteriorating. However, the above mentioned is definitely a good direction to start and try. As you get your body in a healthy and fit shape, it builds confidence and that helps you manage life better. This in turn, helps tame the stress. We live in a stress filled era and many more people are dying from stress related situations every day.

When you get stressed out, this increases your adrenaline. That in turn elevates your heart rate, boost your energy. This will cause the stress hormone Cortisol, to increase sugars in the bloodstream. Now your brain is using more glucose. All of this alters your immune systems, suppresses the digestive system, the reproductive system. It also messes with your growth and communications with the brain that controls your mood, motivation and fear.

This can have serious repercussions, it can cause depression, anxiety, digestive issues, headaches, sleep problems, weight gain, memory lapses and impair concentration. All of these can lead to an early death. It has been said for all of our lives. “Laughter is the best medicine.” Granted, laughing isn’t a cure all, but can seriously counteract a lot of the negativity that causes the stress.

In Conclusion

Look into having positive and healthy friendships, stay away from people that are toxic. Keep a sense of humor. Do things that make you feel good about yourself. Be good to yourself by doing more things for yourself. Keep a healthy living and find your center through meditation or yoga. If you have a significant other, have more sex. Sex is very stress relieving, is great exercise and builds the immunities. Remove the stressful situations from your life, no job, friendship or relationship is worth your life.

Keep your body healthy and in shape. If your mind isn’t having to work in overtime to keep inefficient muscles going. Or deal with pains and being uncomfortable all the time. Then your mind is freer to do more positive things with. This is how health and fitness build the mind. It is much like getting situated to study for a test. Get plenty of rest and have a nice quite place that are free from interruptions to study. If your body is running at an optimal level, your mind is clear to think better. This is turn allow you to feel better about yourself. That allows your confidence levels rise because you are in better shape to deal with anything that comes your way.

Just Remember

Heath and fitness builds the mind but it starts with you. How much do you want a more easy going life? Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up every morning with a positive outlook on life. There are always going to be things to do, things that are broke, improvements and so on. As the old saying goes, “life is what you make it.” This is 100% true, you could face the day hating it or face it with a positive attitude. Just say to yourself that, “I’ll do my best.” and be happy with what you can do. Stop worry about what you can’t.