1) Save Money: Choosing to cycle to work is pretty much guaranteed to save you money, and who isn’t looking to save money in these difficult times? Firstly, you don’t have to pay for a car in the first place. Secondly, you don’t have to pay any tax for your car. Thirdly, you don’t have to pay for fuel and, well, you get the picture.
If you’re using any kind of transport other than your own two feet to get to work every day, then you’ll almost certainly save money by going on a bicycle instead.
2) Improve Your Health: With many of us doing little more than sitting at a computer all day while at work, exercise is becoming more and more important to living well. It’s your body that keeps you going day in and day out, so it’s important to keep it in decent shape.
Cycling to work is a fantastic way to help keep your body healthy. By cycling, you’ll also eliminate the need to spend so many hours in the gym before and after work, saving you money and also time.
3) Clear Your Mind: Those who exercise regularly know how good it can feel for the body, but they also know it feels good for the mind. Exercise can help clear your mind, distracting you from your worries and concerns. It’s also a known fact that cardiovascular exercise can help with mental health, reducing both anxiety and depression.
4) Help The Environment: Global warming scientists suggest that we could have a big problem on our hands if we don’t start to take action right now, and the best place to start is with your carbon emissions. One of the biggest sources of these emissions is car travel. By using your car less, you can directly contribute to reduced carbon emissions.
5) Save Time: Although cycling isn’t usually thought of as the fastest way to travel, it clearly beats walking. However, on commutes where there’s a lot of traffic, cycling can also be quicker than travel by bus or car if you don't live too far away. Even if it’s slower than your car journey, you’ll still get to work pretty quickly, and can enjoy the many other benefits listed above by doing so.
healthy breakfast tips
If you want to lose weight, or you just want to get healthy, then breakfast should be number one on your list. Even if you're exercising every day, you could be sabotaging your plans by skipping breakfast! And, if you do eat breakfast every day, you may be choosing the wrong foods. Here are 5 healthy breakfast tips to make that first meal of the day a healthy one.
1) Never Skip Breakfast: This is number one on the list of healthy breakfast tips for a very good reason! You may think you're shaving calories off your day by missing breakfast, but it just leaves you more likely to snack on unhealthy foods throughout the morning. Above this, breakfast kickstarts your metabolism, making your body work harder to burn off calories from the meals you eat through the rest of the day.
2) Avoid Sugar: Many of us wrongly assume that all breakfast cereals are healthy. This is far from the truth: many of them are overloaded with sugar. This can lead to weight gain and energy spikes that will leave you feeling sleepy by lunch time.
3) Don't Drink Too Much Juice: Although fruit juice is good for you, this doesn't mean that it's free from calories. The sugar in fruit juice can cause an energy spike, so stick to a small glass and drink water to hydrate you for the day. Drinking more water has the added benefit of helping you to feel fuller and avoid snacking.
4) Start As You Mean To Go On: Think of breakfast as a kick-start for your day, and start with healthy foods that'll give your body the energy you need. This means avoiding fast food and fried breakfasts that'll leave you feeling sluggish at work.
5) Include A Few Superfoods: Superfoods are ingredients known to greatly decrease your risk of developing a range of diseases. Thankfully, many of these are perfect for breakfast. Here are a few top ingredients to get you going: oats, tea, yoghurt (low fat), berries, nuts and seeds. Even if you only have a handful of these ingredients, it's a good way to make sure you get something healthy into every day.
If all these healthy breakfast tips seem a little complicated for you when you frequently find yourself rushing around in the mornings, remember to plan ahead. If necessary, prepare your breakfast the night before to make it as easy as possible for you to stick to a healthy diet.
benefits of exercising
The Benefits Of Exercising: 10 Reasons Why You Should Make Fitness Your New Year’s Resolution
We all know about certain benefits of exercising – above all, that it’s good for us. But this isn’t always enough to get us motivated into actually doing it. If you’re looking for a little inspiration to get started on your new year’s resolution then here are 10 reasons why exercise can improve your life.1) More Energy: Although exercise in itself may be tiring, one of the major benefits of exercising is the fact that it’ll ultimately leave you feeling more energized. Studies have shown that regular exercise helps to reduce fatigue.
2) Increase Your Mood: Every time you exercise your body will release endorphins that help to make you feel good. Exercise really will give you a natural high!
3) Improve Your Health: There are so many health benefits of losing weight that it’s impossible to list them all here! By getting fit you’ll reduce the risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and much more.
4) Improve Your Appearance: If being overweight or not being toned leaves you feeling unhappy about yourself then losing weight can help you to look and feel better.
5) Play With Your Kids: It takes a lot of energy to keep up with your kids. By losing weight and getting fit, you’ll be able to run around with them without constantly getting out of breath. This can be one of the most rewarding benefits of exercising: it helps you to enjoy life more.
6) Sleep Better: When you exercise more you’ll start to find it easier to get a good night’s rest. This adds to the energy boost that you’ll get from exercise in the long term.
7) Increase Your Strength and Stamina: Do you find it hard to go on long walks, even though you want to? Or maybe even carrying shopping bags up the stairs is a struggle? Exercise more and you’ll eventually be able to handle these activities with ease.8) Reduce Stress: Exercise can hugely reduce stress levels. If you regularly suffer from stress – or even mental heath issues such as depression and anxiety – regular exercise can help to reduce your symptoms.
9) A Sense Of Achievement: When you start to exercise and see the improvements you’re making week on week, you’ll really get the feeling that you’ve achieved something worthwhile!
10) Keep Your Independence Later In Life: The more you can exercise now, while you’re still able, the more you can reduce the impact of certain health problems later in life. In short, keeping fit and healthy will help you to keep your independence as late into life as possible.
So how much will you need to work out to feel these benefits of exercising? That all depends on your current fitness levels. The good news is that just 30 minutes of exercise a day is enough to improve your health drastically. So what are you waiting for?!
A Guide To The Mental Benefits Of Running
Exercise, in general, can have many emotional benefits, but running has the most powerful impact on your mental state. If you are a runner, you know the feeling – before your run you may have felt tired or stressed about certain life events, then after your run you feel fantastic!
Our minds are very powerful. Our minds control our thoughts and actions, which can often influence our physical health. Of course running is a great exercise for losing weight and building your cardiovascular health, but it also has benefits to the inner essence of our being. Here’s how:
1) Decreases Stress
Stress is a mental state of mind. No matter how you may hate to admit it or believe it, you do cause your own stress. When you allow the situations in life to affect you internally, you have given power to that particular situation by feeling stress.Running allows you to focus more on your breathing and the scenery around you. The deep breathing soothes the feelings of fear and/or anxiety that are associated with stress. Running is like a release button to the stress that accumulates in your body.
2) Increases Self-Esteem
When you are running on a regular basis, your self-esteem slowly starts to increase. You start to feel good about yourself, whether it is the weight loss, weight maintenance, or the health benefits that you receive.
As you have the energy and endurance to run, it gives you a sense of needing to take care of your body, so you are less likely to eat foods that are not good for you, or partake in any unhealthy behavior. You see the benefits that running gives you, and you have a sense of pride and respect for your body.
3) Increases Feeling of Freedom
Running is a great way to feel free – free from all the challenges and obstacles that life sometimes delivers. When you are running, there is a sense of freedom. You can go where you want at the speed you want, and no one and no thoughts can hinder this freedom.
You automatically feel a sense of release from the demanding boss, nagging children, or pushy creditors. Even if for only a moment, you are free and in your own place of silence and calmness that is soothing to both your body and mind. Sometimes it takes physical activity to really quiet our minds – something that is not easy to achieve in modern society.
4) Decreases Depression
When you are running, your brain automatically releases beta endorphins. Beta endorphins are neurotransmitters in the brain that are affected during depression. In depression, the neurotransmitters are not firing properly, and a feeling of overall wellness is decreased.
This is the reason why many feel a “runners’ high” after a run. It is a complete feeling of peacefulness and happiness, as if all the problems of the day have actually disappeared.
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