Many people tend to use their weekends to rest after a busy, long working days. Worse of it all, they even snub their daily healthy habits and engage in activities that can lead to worse sleep and weight gain.
Ii is therefore necessary to take your life seriously and do not engage in things that may distort your new year resolutions. Below are five proven ways to have a healthier weekend.
1) Engage in Exercise
If you are always too busy for exercise over the weekdays, there is a good news for you.
you can make up for it on weekends, and still gain health benefits similar to those of people who go to the gym every day, according to a recent study.
In the study, researchers examined so-called “weekend warriors,” who cram a week’s worth of exercise into just one or two sessions a week.
The researchers found that weekend warriors who met physical activity guidelines were 30 percent less likely to die from any cause during the nine-year study period, compared with people who didn’t get any exercise.
(Physical-activity guidelines recommend that people get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, per week.)
Even the people who didn’t meet physical-activity guidelines, but who did exercise one or two days a week, had a lower risk of early death than people who didn’t exercise.
2) Do Not Sleep In
You may prefer to spend a little more hours sleeping over the weekend but this may not be the solution for good sleep.
Sleeping in on the weekends can throw off your body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm, according to one research.
This could make it harder for you to fall asleep at your usual bedtime, and get up at your usual time once the workweek starts again. That’s why it’s best to keep your bedtime and wake-up time consistent, and to vary your sleep schedule by no more than an hour on weekends, the research says.
3) Socialize
Meeting your friends, family or relatives over the weekend may help you improve in your overall work performance, experts says.
Social activity engages you a lot but with use of little energy, thus keeping you fit and going even as you approach a new week.
It is advisable to engage yourself in different activities like entertainment, going to a stadium to watch a match with friends or even taking your family or partner for a outdoorsy trip.
4) Regulate Your Calories
Several studies have shown that people eat a lot during the weekend and this weekend indulgence leads to weight gain.
Be disciplined to your normal eating habit and avoid too much feasting or drinking as this may only bring negative effects on your body, which may also lead you to acquiring dangerous diseases as obesity and cancer.
5) Use Protection
Admittedly, people enjoy themselves during the weekends because they are free from work engagements.
Among the enjoyments include sexual relations, which many indulge into it without protection, risking the infection by the STIs
It is therefore wise to use protective mechanism to keep yourself safe from contracting diseases.