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Health Habits

Physical Activity and Healthy Eating:

What's Good for Your Body is Good for Your Mind!
 

Physical Activity and Healthy Eating are important Health Habits to promote wellbeing.
These two lifestyle factors are critical to promote health, prevent chronic disease and improve wellbeing.

To learn more, click on the tabs for Physical Activity and Healthy Eating below.


 Why?

 

Staying physically active is one of the best things you can do for your brain and your body. Research shows that physical activity is a strong promoter of NEUROPLASTICITY - your brain's ability to grow and form new connections. We now know that brains continue to grow, develop, and make connections no matter what age we are. Exercise boosts your brain's resilience: the ability to cope with stress and challenges and bounce back from tough times.


Regular physical activity promotes:

Staying physically active is a key part of optimal aging. Ideally all adults would be physically active (getting our heart rate up or ever breaking a sweat) at least 30 minutes 5 times a week. But the good news is you just have to move, and any kind of activity will benefit your health! Here are some ideas to help you increase your physical activity level.

Just move: Many health problems are associated with sitting for long periods of time. By getting up and moving, you can improve your heart, bone and brain health and increase longevity.

 

 

 Why?

Healthy eating promotes wellness, and prevents disease. 85% of chronic diseases –like cancer, diabetes, stroke, pain, heart disease and dementia--  are caused by unhealthy lifestyles. To prevent or reverse lifestyle-related chronic disease, eat minimally processed food and plant-based foods: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.


What is good for your heart is also good for your head! Did You Know?


Healthy eating is not only about the foods you eat. It is also how you relate to your food.  

How slowly and how much do you eat? Do much do you enjoy your food? Do you eat with others? Do you have mostly homecooked meals?

Balancing food with your activity level is a simple way to improve healthy eating. Eat regular meals that balance calories in with calories out. Try to eat more during the day time when you are most active and less in the evening when you are less active. Going all day on a few calories makes it harder to stop eating in the evening. Your body is making up for having an empty tank in the day. Eating small portions more slowly and without distractions allows you to enjoy your meal more and stop eating before you become overfull. It can take 10 minutes after eating for your mind to realize you are full.

Being mindful of how, why, when and where you eat will improve how you relate to your food.

Notice thoughts, feelings and emotions you have when eating. Note smells and textures of food, and what you enjoy most. Brazil recently developed a guide to healthy eating that focuses on food behaviours. These recommendations are worth sharing:

 

10 Steps to a Healthy Diet:

When it comes to healthy eating, what works is what is doable for the you. 

You can start at any time to make one small change to create healthier food habits.

Ideas to Get Started!

Set a Valued Goal!

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Set a valued SMART positive thinking goal from the Ideas to get Started list, or choose one of your own. Remember the more specific, measurable and realistic your goal, the more likely you are to succeed!

Invitation: We invite you to try out The Wellness App(link is external) to track your goal over the next 4 weeks. No goal is too small and The Wellness App will encourage you along the way!

 

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