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The Big Picture

By: Maurice Harris, Contributing Writer

When you think of health problems, you wouldn’t consider yourself having those issues. Could it be because you are young and full of life, or the fear of the unknowing is what keep you from being proactive about your health. Health and fitness is a way of life. It is the fuel in our bodies that keeps us moving. Many of us share similar family issues like high blood pressure, diabets, high cholesterol and heart disease. Africian Americans lead in all four of those categories. You don’t have to go through the hard time of health problems like your ancestry. When does the generational curse stop? Well, it starts with you. You and only you can make that change. Just because your grandmother and grandfather suffers with diabetes does not mean you will.

One out of three African Americans suffer with some type of health related issues. What are some of the things you can do to avoid becoming a part of your family’s health issues? There are three simple steps you should follow. One, make better choices with the foods that you eat. Instead of eating fried food, try eating grilled foods. Grilling is better for your heart. For example, frying your food in trans fat which are bad for your cholesterol and even worst for your heart. Grilling will avoid that exposure. Grilled foods lower your transit fat intake by 60 - 80%.

Two, get up and get moving. Walk around your neighborhood or go to a nearby park to take a casual walk, this also helps relieve stress that builds up over time. Just doing some type of activity will help you burn those extra stored calories in your body.

Three, get plenty of rest; this is what many of us can’t get enough of. Nearly 60% of people do not get proper of rest at night. Instead of staying up late watching that movie, DVR it and go to bed. You will notice a big difference in your energy level when you get an extra hour of sleep.

These three steps can lower your risk of becoming part of your family past health issues. Proper diet and exercise is given to people everyday by their doctors as an order to improve their health. I know sometimes that being a teenager you may feel invincible, but what you do now is laying down the tracks to your future. If you create good healthy habits as a teenager it will carry over to your adult years, then the cycle of unhealthiness is broken. With your life changes, your kids become healthy and that positive cycle has started.

 

**Maurice Harris is a Certified Personal Tranier, Sport Specific
Specialist and a member of the IDEA Fitness and American Senior
Fitness Association.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.