Guest Post: How to Stay Healthy and Fit in a Snap of Your Day

It is with great pleasure to give you a guest post by Gera of Sweet Foods, I can't resist asking folks to do guest blogs for Chow and Chatter as they are always so good:

I'm Gera (short name of Gerardo) a foodie and food blogger. As food enthusiast, the extra kcals are burned by running, mountain bike, swimming, kayaking, adventure races.

My food blog is about all kind of foods - sweets gifts including thoughts, reviews, culinary travels, healthy eating plans - habits, fitness, beverages and so on.

Rebecca of Chow and Chatter has invited me to do a guest post. I'm so flattered about it! Theme: how to get time to stay fit, what a big challenge!

On these times when you're frenetic, finding time to do some type of exercises to stay healthy is complicated.

You've zero time for everything, right? Really?? You spend hours watching TV or a movie, surfing on the net hours & hours,  reading a book and I can continue …but if we take a bite of some minutes of the day to improve your health and to stay fit?

Healthy eating (without crash diets more the unpleasant yo-yo effect), combined with some easy workouts can avoid back pains and other type of injuries. Try not having overweight watching what you eat and achieve to lose weight and keep it off.

All these measures are good to begin!

Raise your hand, how many of you haven't had a problem with your wrist, ankle, knee, or lumbar?

They're sensible points that every now and then can be harmed.

The better way is to have them flexible (no hard) so if you've an unfortunate twist or a bad support, you wouldn’t damage it.

In a storm the flexible tree that follows the wind doesn't break. The same with your body!

How many times I've put my feet in a hole, bending my ankle while I was walking /running. After a while I continue like nothing has happened. This is because I've this zone rather flexible. Before trained them, I've had problems many times, finger crossed! now are almost minimum.

The most important about the next simple exercises is that they require no-time and you can do them when you're in a queue of some type of boring-paperwork, or while seeing your favorite TV series.

These types of exercises have reminiscences of tai-chi and they're very used by physiatrists.

Here they're for your prevention to diminish possible injuries.

10 Tips Can Help You: They are Very Easy & Useful

1. Wrist

Pick up your wrist with your other hand and turn the hand slowly 10-15 times for one side and for other side.

Lean your hand softly and slowly against a table/wall in every form that you can occur (with the palm of your hand, with the opposite face, of side…)

Now switch to the other hand.

2. Ankle

Keep your leg stretched out and turn your foot slowly 10-15 times for one side and for other side. (The same theme like you've done with your wrist. Please slowly ;)

Try to lean your foot in irregular surfaces. They can be over a floor with little stones or small differences in level in every position that you can occur.

3. Knee

The big thing of the runners! The muscle that holds the knee is called the quadriceps (the stronger & flexible the muscle is, then your knee will be in a better state)

Stand up straight and without incline your chest & head, kick with one leg very slowly 10-15 degrees and return to normal position. Repeat 15-20 times and switch to the other leg.

This type of exercise supply extra-blood-nutrients to the quadriceps improving your state and is very common to use to recover from knee problems. You can do it every time, everywhere and takes only few minutes!

4. Lumbar

Check out the post about 20 body tips and fitness to prevent back injury. This will help you with this zone of your body.

Now a little harder!

A coach I've had for long distance running always said that your body muscles must be accustomed to unexpected situations.

Expect the unexpected (the same leitmotiv found in martial arts). The idea is that if you're walking-running and you must evade a no anticipated obstacle, the muscle involved won't suffer for this quick and sudden change.

You can do the following exercises when you're in a plane path & without people crossing in front of you.

5. Walk backward some distance and return to a normal walking.

6. Walk of side switching from one side to another side.

7. Walk with the eyes closed and "feel" your movement and respiration for some minutes.

8. While walking stop breathing for 20-30 seconds (in that way you accustom your muscles to work without oxygen in a small anaerobic zone)

Go to harder workouts?

9. Repeat the points (5 to 8) but while you're going up a small slope. On the top, rest for 1 or 2 minutes. Go down slowly normally, is your rest and repeat several times according to your physical state. You know that if you're sedentary, you'd visit a doctor before doing some type of workouts (especially with the small slopes exercises)

10. This point corresponds to you! There're tons of simple and elaborated exercises to begin and to stay in fit. Which ones do you do normally?

Hope this article is useful for you!