How healthy are you? Do you have a healthy diet? Do you exercise regularly? Do you drink at least 8 glasses of water a day? Do you get enough sleep every day?
Our body is our temple, and we need to take care of it to have a healthy life. Do you know that globally a shocking 55% of people are over weaight. Think of your body as your physical shell to take you through life. If you repeatedly abuse it with unhealthy food, your shell will wear out quickly. While you may look okay on the outside, on the inside, your arteries are getting clogged up with cholesterol and arterial plaque. That’s not a pretty sight!
Life is beautiful and you don’t want to bog yourself down with unnecessary health problems. Today, your vital organs (kidney, heart, lungs, gall bladder, liver, stomach, intestines, etc) may be working well, but they may not be tomorrow. Don’t take your good health today for granted. Take proper care of your body.
Life is beautiful and you don’t want to bog yourself down with unnecessary health problems. Today, your vital organs (kidney, heart, lungs, gall bladder, liver, stomach, intestines, etc) may be working well, but they may not be tomorrow. Don’t take your good health today for granted. Take proper care of your body.
Good health isn’t just about healthy eating and exercise – it also includes having a positive mental health, healthy self-image and a healthy lifestyle. In this article, I’ll share with you 45 tips to live a healthier life. Bookmark this article and save the tips, because they are going to be vital in living a healthier life.
1.Drink more water. Most of us actually don’t drink enough water every day. Water is essential for our body to function – Do you know over 60% of our body is made up of water? Water is needed to carry out our body functions, remove waste and carry nutrients and oxygen around our body. Since we lose water every day through urine, bowel movements, perspiration and breathing, we need to replenish our water intake.
2.Get enough sleep. When you don’t rest well, you compensate by eating more. Usually it’s junk food. Get enough rest and you don’t need to snack to stay awake. Also, lack of sleep causes premature aging, and you wouldn’t want that.
3.Meditate. Meditation quietens your mind and calms your soul. If you don’t know how to meditate, don’t worry – learn how to meditate in 5 simple steps.
4.Exercise. Not just a few times a week, but every day. Movement is life. Research has shown that exercising daily brings tremendous benefits to our health, including increase of life span, lowering of risk of diseases, higher bone density and weight loss. Increase activity in your life. Choose walking over transport for close distances. Climb the stairs instead of taking the lift. Join some aerobics classes. Take up a sport of your liking .
5.Eat more fruits. Fruits are a plethora of vitamins and minerals. Do you know that oranges offer more health benefits than Vitamin C pills? Taking in synthetic supplements are not the same as consuming the foods direct from nature. Fill your palate with these 10 most nutritious fruits: Watermelon, Apricots, Avocado, Apple, Cantaloupe, Grapefruit, Kiwi, Guava, Papaya, Strawberries.
6.Eat more vegetables. Like fruits, vegetables are important for the well being of our health. Experts suggest that we should have 5-9 servings of fruits/vegetables, and unfortunately most people don’t even have at least 5 servings! Some of my favorite vegetables include: Kidney beans, black beans, asparagus, long beans, french beans, sprouts, button mushrooms and carrots. What are your favorite vegetables and how can you include more of them in your diet today?
8.Pick bright colored foods. Fruits and vegetables with bright colors are usually high in anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are good for health because they remove free radicals in our body that damage our cells. So get your fill of fruits/vegetables of different colors: White (Bananas, Mushroom), Yellow (Pineapples, Mango), Orange (Orange, Papaya), Red (Apple, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Watermelon), Green (Guava, Avocados, Cucumber, Lettuce, Celery), Purple/Blue (Blackberries, Eggplant, Prunes).
9.Cut down on processed food. Processed foods are not good because (1) most nutritional value is lost (2) the preservatives added are bad for our health. Many processed foods contain a high amount of salt content, which leads to higher blood pressure and heart disease. Processed foods are anything that are not in their raw form. In general, most of the food in supermarket are processed – the more the ingredients on the label (especially the ones ending with ‘ite’ or ‘ate’), the more processed they are. Watch out for those with salt/sugar as the first 5 ingredients and go for natural foods as much as possible.
10.Love yourself. How much do you love yourself on a scale of 1-10? Why? How can you love yourself more starting today? Follow our page to find out more over the coming weeks.
11.Purge negativity from yourself. You don’t need negativity from yourself either. Listen in on the thoughts that come up in your mind and get rid of the negative thoughts you hear. A lot of eating happens because one feels unhappy, so by staying in a positive, up state by yourself, you cut out that unhealthy dependence on food to be happy.
12.Journal out unhappy thoughts. One great way to purge negativity from within is to do brain dumping exercises whenever you feel frustrated. This is something I do with my 1-1 clients as well, where I ask them to journal out their deepest thoughts so we can address them. Don’t keep these thoughts pent up inside of you – it’s not healthy.
13.Avoid trigger foods. Trigger foods are the foods that make you go berserk and binge like crazy after you eat them. Everyone’s trigger foods are different (mine are donuts, pastries, pasta and chips), but generally trigger foods are candy bars, chocolate, confectionery, chips, cookies, or anything with high level of refined sugar, salt, fat or flour. These foods cause ablood sugar imbalance, hence triggering one to eat more. What are your trigger foods? Identify them and remove them from your diet.
14. Breathe. Deeply. Oxygen is a vital source of life. You may know how to breathe, but are you breathing properly? Most of us don’t breathe properly – we take only shallow breathes and breathe to 1/3 of our lung capacity. Athletes are coached proper breathing techniques to get their best performance. A full breathis one where your lungs are completely filled, your abdomen expands and there’s minimum movement in your shoulders.
15. Learn to say no. Don’t feel like you’ve to eat just because you’re out with your friends, or because other people offer you food. Simply say no and say you’re not hungry if you don’t feel like eating. Read: How To Say No To Others