Healthy Lifestyle

The new year is quickly approaching, and with it follows your usual list of resolutions that probably includes starting a workout routine. You may have attempted (perhaps unsuccessfully) to keep a health-focused resolution in the past in order to lose weight, feel great and have more energy. However, for one reason or another, your plans fell through and you ended up falling back into your old, comfortable routine. RELATED: Yes, you can actually enjoy the holidays without gaining lbs. Here’s how If you wonder why keeping a New Year's resolution to work out never seems to work out, you're not alone. In fact, it's estimated that 80 percent of people give up their New Year's resolutions by February. Don't let this statistic include you. To really let this be the year you finally take control of your health and fitness, it's important to change the way you're approaching your goals. Before you get started, shift your mindset with these tips to help...

Rachael James is TT’s very own super woman. Born with Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome (MVPS, a heart condition) and emphysema (a progressive lung disease), Rachael has defied the odds. A fitness instructor at a corporate firm, she has found heart and strength through a life of health and fitness. Her first experience with her MVPS occurred in her early 20s, when she had severe heart palpitations, which often led to blackouts brought on by stress and anxiety. “I’ve also endured episodes of my heart rate dropping to a mere 32 beats per minute during my sleep causing loss of oxygen throughout my body, and waking up out of breath and traumatised,” she shares. Her symptoms ranged from blurred vision, chest pains, headaches, and nausea. “When I was first diagnosed with emphysema, my lungs were as aged as an 84-year-olds,” she adds. She says it is her positive mindset and determination despite these health challenges that has given her the strength to live a healthy lifestyle, as w...

End of Dubai Fitness Challenge heralds a new beginning / People exercise on the last day of the Dubai Fitness Challenge, at Festival City. - KT photo by Dhes Handumon Sheikh Hamdan wishes to see Dubai become the most physically active place in the world Let's not stop here but keep the momentum going on: This is the resolution thousands of residents, who turned up for the closing ceremony of the 30x30 Dubai Fitness Challenge, now keep so dear to their heart. When Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, made a challenge before the residents (who were considered not-so-enthusiastic about a routine workout) very few expected it will galvanise the Dubai residents at this proportion. For 30 days, residents have sweated it out for 30 minutes every day, not as a challenge the Dubai Crown Prince has thrown to them, but their duty to adopt fitness as a lifestyle. The Crown Prince's challenge ended on Saturday, but the jour...

5 things that may surprisingly keep you from reaching fitness goal There’s nothing quite as disappointing as putting time and effort into a goal only to find out your effort was wasted. This is one of the reasons why so many people give up on their health and fitness goals, especially weight loss. If you put in hours at the gym only to see the needle on the scale refuse to budge, it’s easy to get frustrated. “How much harder do I have to work?” you might think. “How much more time do I have to put into this.” But the problem often isn’t time or effort; it’s the details. You’re working hard at what you’re doing, but you’re doing the wrong things. Here are five things that you might think are helping with your fitness goals, but really aren’t: 1. Spending too much time on your abs. If you have a big belly that you’re trying to shrink, it might seem logical to think that spending hours on sit-ups and other ab exercises would be the best way to use your time at the gym B...

Fitness: Does school keep our kids slimmer and healthier Research suggests that without scheduled activity like recess and gym class, children are more likely to develop unhealthy habits. Dario Ayala / Montreal Gazette files As much as children enjoy the carefree months of summer, those lazy, hazy days often mean less sleep, fewer fruits and veggies and more time spent in front of a screen. And while parents have also been known to rejoice in the annual break from the routine that dictates much of family life during the school year, several studies note that children have a tendency to return to the classroom in poorer physical condition and with accelerated weight gain compared to the months spent in school. This trend is especially pronounced among children who are already overweight and/or who come from lower-income families. Interventions in public schools, through meal programs and increased bouts of structured physical activit...