The Role of Emotional Well-Being in Fitness

AIM-HI defines fitness as a combination of physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being. These three components of fitness are interconnected. For example, people who aren't active or who aren't consuming nutritious meals often lack energy and feel "down." Similarly, those who are dealing with stress, anxiety or depression often don't have the motivation to improve their diet and physical activity level, yet doing so may help them feel better.

When you have discussions with patients about conditions negatively affected by weight, be sure to consider whether negative emotions contributed to the development of the problem. If emotional well-being issues persist, they may present a barrier to lifestyle changes that can improve health. You and your patients may want to set emotional well-being goals as a first step toward better fitness.

In addition to appropriate counseling and/or pharmacotherapy, offer these AIM-HI reproducible patient education materials to your patients who need help caring for their emotional health:

You can also direct them to familydoctor.org for more information.