Regular physical activity can produce long-term health benefits. People of all ages, shapes, sizes, and abilities can benefit from being physically active. The more physical activity you do, the greater the health benefits.

Being physically active can help you:

• Increase your chances of living longer
• Feel better about yourself
• Decrease your chances of becoming depressed
• Sleep well at night
• Move around more easily
• Have stronger muscles and bones
• Stay at or get to a healthy weight
• Be with friends or meet new people
• Enjoy yourself and have fun

When you are not physically active, you are more likely to:

• Get heart disease
• Get type 2 diabetes
• Have high blood pressure
• Have high blood cholesterol
• Have a stroke

Physical activity and nutrition work together for better health. Being active increases the amount of calories burned. As people age their metabolism slows, so maintaining energy balance requires moving more and eating less.

Article from USDA Choose MyPlate.gov

Move Naturally

Many residents living in the original Blue Zones^® areas share nine healthy lifestyle habits that help them live longer, healthier, happier lives. One of these habits is to “Move Naturally”

“The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They live in places where they can walk to the store, to their friend’s house or places of worship. Their houses have stairs. They have gardens in their yards.

To start moving naturally, consider making things a little inconvenient. Take that extra trip up or down the stairs instead of loading things at the top or bottom to take up later. Walk to your airport gate instead of taking the moving walkway or park far from the entrance when you visit a store. Walk a dog, do your own yard and housework, and get rid of some the time saving electronics and power equipment that have “simplified” your life.”

BlueZones® Project by Healthways  – Discover the Power of 9

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