You’ve been sick for weeks now. You don’t want to go to the doctor?
How long will you suffer that congestion? Wish you had health insurance?
How often do you avoid going to the doctor because you know you can’t afford it without coverage?
It’s a scary feeling – knowing you have to suffer or go further into debt.
If you are one of the almost 50 million Americans (up from 49 million in 2009) who don’t have health insurance, it’s likely that you’ve been there, too, under the pressing weight of healthcare costs. The painful fact is: A positive change isn’t on the horizon and it’s not going to get any better.
The costs of healthcare are increasing yearly. And it’s not just insurance that’s going up, but office visits, hospital visits, ER visits, prescriptions, lab work, and more. With the new Affordable Care Act, it’s hard to even see where costs will go next.
But the truth is, if you were healthier, you may be able to find a more affordable policy. Consumers who have a BMI of 30 are considered obese. And that’s not hard to reach. You can feel very healthy – yet you don’t qualify for a “healthy” persons policy if your BMI is too high.
How Did We Get Like This?
Once upon a time, cavemen had to hunt and gather their food. Exercise was a part of their lives and food was scarce. Now, we have to hunt and gather our exercise because food is plentiful and fitness has become scarce.
Sitting all day at our desks rots our muscles, our hearts, and our brains. Studies have proven that metabolically, our bodies nearly shut down with long periods of sitting. But what’s worse, the results have even shown that 30 minutes a day at the gym isn’t enough to counteract the damage done by long periods of sitting.
The large muscles groups that once facilitated fat burning are now going into shut down and not burning efficiently. So we have to find ways to move every day, through out the day, that is going to rebuild those atrophied tissues and keep us alive and healthy.
But exercise is such as harsh word. And the thought of “working out” makes you want to cry.
Think if is as Proactive Living. And investing in your proactive lifestyle is going to save you loads when it comes to medical care now and later.
The more you move, the healthier you’ll be.
What Can You Do?
The answer is simple. Find movements you love and do them – to your maximum effort – for 15 minutes everyday.
There are literally myriads of exercises and movements out there, but if you’re just starting out (or just starting all over again), you’ll be more successful if you stick to exercises that make you feel good from the inside out and that are simple to keep track of.
Dancing
Dancing is often one of the most common exercises simply because doing it makes people happy. And thanks to classes like Zumba, belly dancing (and even pole dancing!), it’s a more acceptable form of exercise than ever.
Alternatives
Treadmills are great if the weather isn’t. But, if the weather permits, skip the machine and walk around the block. The fresh air helps your lungs, the steady surface (as opposed to the movement of the treadmill) is more of a challenge and the change of scenery is a great mental boost. Again, you can turn up the caloric heat by alternating a little jogging or running with your walking. Here, also, you can increase the calorie burn by adding weights or time to the routine to get the most out of it.
But for people who don’t have a treadmill or a nice place to walk outside, there are videos and video games that will get you moving indoors. The great thing about the games and DVDs is that you can keep track of your numbers. And create a game out of it with yourself or a friend to motivate yourself to keep you pushing for maximum calories burned.
But this isn’t about numbers, is it?
This is about learning to love a new lifestyle. It’s about becoming comfortable with becoming healthy. It’s about giving up your chair in exchange for a better mood, a happier outlook and a lower health insurance bill!
Maximum Effort
If you love a great challenge, there are workouts that can help you reach your fit goal faster.
They are called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). While the name is scary, it is something that you can do without any experience and without being a fitness star.
The only requirement in HIITs is to push to your maximum effort for a short period of time (20s-3mins) and then rest for an even shorter period of time (10s – 1min) before doing it again.
If you want to make the absolute most of your 15 minute investment, then you’ll need to push hard and sweat. There’s no getting around it.
But, you don’t have to be Schwartzenagger to make HIIT work for you.
A few ideas:
HIITs can be as easy or as difficult as you want. Starting out, you’ll be more likely to stick to it if you make it a hill that you can conquer easily rather than a mountain that you have to climb to the top of.
As long as you perform the exercises back-to-back with a short rest in between “rounds”, you can turn any set of exercises into a set of HIITs that will be torch sessions for your calories. The more calories you burn, the better you can manage your weight, the more you strengthen your heart and stay healthier for those better health insurance rates.
What exercise movements do you love enough to do every day so you can grab those lower health insurance rates?
