Stay Healthy and Enjoy More of Your Life!

Stay Healthy and Enjoy More of Your Life!

If you want to stay healthy, you must live the lifestyle. Poor health is not something that just happens to you overnight, it’s cumulative. It is a direct result of the way you choose to live. It’s reflected by the friends you have, the food you eat, the water you drink, the work you do, and the attitude you have about the life in general.

Over the years, there is one thing that I’ve found to be true under most any circumstance. People prioritize what’s most important to them. If it’s not important enough, then it simply doesn’t get done.

You must make improving your quality of life more important than doing the yard work, carrying the kids to soccer practice, and bending over backwards for people who exist in your life to only use you for this, that, or the other.

If you are living an unhealthy lifestyle, you can make small, gradual changes to improve your life and be healthier and happier. You may have to make some sacrifices along the way, but overall, its not brain surgery and is completely doable. You can live a healthier life and stay healthy longer!

How to Stay Healthy

1) Consume Healthier Foods Out of 2.1 million deaths a year in the United States, 1.6 million are related to poor nutrition. That’s hard to believe when you live in the land of opportunity. What’s even more alarming is that more than 200 known diseases are transmitted through the eco-chain. The foods you buy in your local superstore contain viruses, bacteria, parasites, and toxins.

Yearly, there are 81 million illnesses and up to 9000 deaths reported by contamination. Improve your diet by making better food choices and buying healthier selections at your grocery store. Buy locally grown seasonal foods. Wash produce, meats, and vegetables thoroughly before consumption. None of us can eat healthy all the time, so be sure to get your daily vitamins too!

2) Positive vs. Negative Negative thoughts cause stress, which impairs immunity, tenses muscles, and slows down metabolism.

Recognize when you are feeling low so you can take action to shift your energy in more positive ways. Remind yourself that the cup is half full instead of half empty! Talking things out with someone you trust has a way of elevating stress levels helps you to view things more clearly. Let go of things you can't change or control. Create a journal, documenting all the good things that have happened in your life and all the things for which you are grateful. Then, if you find yourself feel low, read your journal to remind yourself of everything that went right instead of dwelling on things that may appear to be going wrong.

3) Lose Weight! Obesity is a worldwide epidemic and spreading. Its no wonder with the amount of toxins (preservatives, steroids, insecticides and pesticides) found in our many food sources. Curb your appetite to destruction by eating more frequent, smaller portions rather than eating fewer larger meals.

Increase fibrous foods like fruits, vegetables, dried beans, seeds, brown rice, and whole-grain products. Eliminate partially or fully hydrogenated oils and processed food. Keep sugary foods to a minimum or eliminate them altogether. Healthy foods should be the rule most of the time, with just a sprinkle of unhealthy foods. Learn to eat smaller amounts to satiate the cravings you have for the foods you love.

4) Create Harmony Everything you do in your life, either works together or works in direct opposition. Let say you try to create better health by exercising at least three times a week. However, if you eat a lot of junk foods, indulge frequently in other bad habits like smoking and drinking, and take too many risks, you only reverse the positive effects of the exercises you do. If you want to stay healthy, you have to work at a healthy lifestyle each and every day.

5) Drink Lots of Pure Water Dehydration is the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Another 45 million Americans drink water contaminated with lead, heavy metals, radiation, parasites, chlorine, and bacteria.

Drinking lots of clean purified water is imperative to your health. In fact, drinking 5 or more glasses of clean water a day can reduce your risk of colon cancer by 45%, breast cancer by 79% and joint pain by 80%. Buy a high quality water purifier that removes toxins in your home water system. Carry a bottle of the purified water wherever you go.

6) Spend Time Friends can make the difference between whether you succeed or fail just in the way they support you. If you consistently feel exhausted or stressed-out after spending time with a friend, assess if that friendship is worth diminishing your health. A good way to tell whether a person is a real friend or not is to look at the ways they have enhanced your life. If they are loving and supportive of you, even if they disagree, they are a true friend. Choose friends who accept you as you are and support you in the changes you want to make for yourself.

7) Exercise More Physical inactivity doubles the chances of developing heart disease and increases the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure. Even moderate exercise such as a brisk walk for 30 minutes most days helps control weight, cuts stress, anxiety and depression, maintains full functioning, improves circulation and oxygenates your cells.

Find ways to walk more, like parking farther from the door or using stairs instead of an escalator or elevator, or find other physical activities, like gardening, raking leaves, dancing, etc. Take frequent breaks to stretch various parts of your body to relieve tense, tight, tired or sore muscles and to remain flexible. Keep your body flexible and strong and it will serve you well for a long time.

8) Breathe Clean Air Indoor air can be 2 to 10 times more hazardous than outdoor air, and, as a result, billions of dollars are spent annually for medication to help Americans breathe or cure their respiratory illnesses. And according to the EPA, 20% of all employees have a major illness related to indoor air pollution such as allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases such as Fibromyalgia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 40% of all buildings pose a serious health hazard due to indoor air pollution. The solution is to get outside more, open windows to let fresh air in, and clean the air in your home with an air purifier. Purifier’s destroy a broad range of harmful pollutants, such as mold spores, viruses, bacteria, gases and fumes, odors, pollen and more. This will leave the air you breathe clean and fresh which helps you stay healthy.

9) Work What You Love Doing If you have to work a job you’re not passionate about, it’s easy to become discouraged. Discouragement can lead to self-doubt, feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, depression, low morale, negative self-image, lack of commitment and motivation, and reduced productivity. Most of these negative feelings cause stress that impairs and weakens your body’s immune response.

If you are unhappy with the work you do, take a deeper look into your work situation to discover the cause of your unhappiness or how it might be remedied. If it can't, take some time to identify what you really want to do because if you're going to switch jobs or professions, at least move to or toward the type of work that really gets your juices flowing. If you decide to leave your current position, find another job before you make a move. You’ll rest easier if you know there is hope around the corner.

10) Make Better Choices Each choice you make in every moment of each day leads to a future outcome. Unfortunately, most people make choices for all the wrong reasons, and when things don't turn out the way they expected, they get angry, upset or vengeful. An example is taking a job because it pays more, without considering what you must do or who you must do it with to earn it. You may have the money you wanted working in a job you don't enjoy, but it will cause significant stress, which alters your attitude and performance, diminishes your productivity, and eventually causes your health to deteriorate.

All your hard earned money will be spent on doctor visits to make you well again. Before making a tough choice, ask yourself, "Does it feel like the 'right' thing?" Before you change jobs, challenge yourself to feel good about your choice regardless of the outcome. You will feel better about your choice, no matter how things turn out.

11) Be Sweet Being nice to others' takes so little time or effort! The nicer you are, the more endorphins your body will release. Endorphins are chemicals that make you feel good naturally! The better you feel, the stronger immunity you will have, which leads to a greater resistance to infections and disease. You will find that the nicer you are towards other people, the nicer they will be towards you, and the better you will feel!

To stay healthy, pick the one step that is the easiest for you. Then work through the steps one by one. Before you know it you will find yourself feeling healthier and looking better!

Subscribe to my free newsletter. Get interesting facts and money saving tips to help conserve and improve your beauty and your health.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Use your keywords and this handy tool to find it fast!

To go to the next Healthy Ways to Save Money page, here's the link: The Effects of Caffeine on Your Health

To view the previous Healthy Ways to Save Money page, here's the link: Diet and Health – You Are What You Eat!