Healthy Lifestyle:

I just wanted to share this with you all. I think this article by nutritionist ©Sally Joseph - All Rights Reserved is definitely something everyone should read.

”” I often get asked what are the most important things we need to do in order to be healthy and my response is always the same…
‘It’s the little things we do each day that will determine our health tomorrow’

A few weeks ago I was out to lunch with one of my ‘not so healthy’ friends. He drinks too much coffee, smokes, works too hard and does little to no exercise, except for the kind of weight lifting that involves putting a few too many beers to his lips. You could say my friend has adopted the classic approach of ‘putting off today til tomorrow’, when it comes to his health.  Perhaps this is because he has convinced himself that everything else is far more urgent than making the little changes to his health today, he knows would make all the difference to his life down the track.  So as my friend tucked into his bacon and egg roll and 2nd cafe latte for the day, we got talking about health, which inevitably tends to happen whenever I share a meal with a friend. He asked me for some suggestions on what he could do to ‘get healthy’ before proudly announcing he was thinking about going on a ‘health kick until March’ – at the time we met for lunch, March was only 4 weeks away…

His comment got me thinking about something I am genuinely fascinated by – that being the notion that being healthy is something you only do some of the time, as opposed to adopting healthy habits every day. So I posed a question in response to my friend’s resolution to attain ‘short term health’ and asked what he hoped to achieve by embarking on a healthier diet and lifestyle until March. “Well…to feel good I guess and maybe to lose my tummy so I don’t have a heart attack someday”. My response – “So if your goal is to ‘feel good and prevent a heart attack years down the track’, wouldn’t you need to change your current diet and lifestyle habits for good, rather than through to March?”, silence from my friend across the table, as he contemplated this concept. 

‘Feel good every day’. The reason for my choice of words is simple – I believe one of the greatest gifts we can experience in this life is just that. Feeling good every day, or the best part of, is our body’s way of telling us things are in sync and in my view, that translates to being able to do the things we want to do, when we want, as opposed to being limited by our state of health. What’s more, feeling physically well will largely influence our inner happiness. So if the sensation of feeling good is something humans strive to experience and our physical and emotional health is largely responsible for this, then why do so many of us struggle to do the things each day, we know will keep us healthy? Why are so many of us prone to applying healthy habits only some of the time? For many doing the little things each day we know will keep our body fit and well is a source of inner turmoil and angst. Could it be that we simply become overwhelmed by the mere THOUGHT of making change and instead of ACTING to do so, put it off for another day when we think we will have the time and drive to do so? The truth is, that perfect day usually never comes, so it would be far simpler to start with putting one foot in front of the other, making one small change to our health each and every day. Eventually all those little changes will add up to become long term habits, changing the course of our health for life. How exciting would that be?

In my view ‘HEALTH = LIFE’. Without our health we lose the ability to experience life to the fullest. Losing our health to a debilitating illness or disease (and the ensuing impact on every aspect of our life), is far harder than practicing healthy habits each day. We hear the common phenomena, that it is not until we lose something we have taken for granted, that we grasp its true value and our health is no exception. I once came across a quote that read “Why when we are challenged to survive, do we give ourselves permission to truly live” …..In other words,fundamental shifts are usually born out of a life changing moment, usually triggered by some form of loss or hardship. Waiting until we develop a preventable illness or disease to decide to change our diet and lifestyle habits, is all too often the catalyst for change, rather than living our life to prevent ill health.

The human body is actually designed to be naturally healthy, but our state of health is a product of our environment. The choices we make each day in relation to our diet and lifestyle will shape our health and body, into what it is today as well as down the track. Should we feed our body with unhealthy food and live an unhealthy lifestyle with too much stress, we are likely to escalate the risk towards developing a preventable disease. But the good news is and perhaps the most remarkable function of the human body, is it’s innate ability to repair and recover. But this is dependent on us creating the necessary environment for healing to occur. So no matter what point you are at with your health, or what stage you are in life, it is never too early or too late to make little changes each day to ensure better health tomorrow.

It is the little things we do each day that will determine how we feel and function tomorrow.
Here are my daily top health tips to achieve just that…

1) Sleep – ensure you get close to 8 hrs each night. Furthermore, the hours slept before midnight count the most 

2) Avoid eating within 3 hours of going to bed – to ensure healthy digestion 

3) Avoid drinking water 20 minutes either side of meals – to prevent diluting your stomach acids – necessary for effective digestion of food 

4) Start your day with a large glass (500ml or more) of filtered water and add the juice of a fresh lemon to alkalise your system 

5) ‘Drink your food and chew your water’ – in other words chew your food slowly until it is as close to liquid consistency and consume small sips of water regularly, (away from meals) rather than gulping large mouthfuls sporadically (drink at least 1.5 – 2 litres of filtered water reach day) 

6) Be present when you eat – don’t eat on the run, while working, or speaking on the phone 

7) Meditate ( even if its just 10 minutes each day) – the art of quietening the mind and creating gaps in our thinking will reduce excess cortisol levels (caused by stress) 

8) Breathe deeply and slowly – start your day with ten minutes of deep relaxed breathing, to calm your nervous system and increase the circulation of oxygen to every cell in your body. 

9) Move your bowels at least twice a day – this is your body’s way of removing waste and toxins 

10) MOVE – every day and avoid being stagnant at a desk for hours on end each day, stand up and stretch and go for short walks regularly, swop the car for travelling on foot or on a bike.

11) Eat plenty of greens – include a big bowl of fresh organic leafy green vegetables with lunch and dinner every day

12)  Eat good fats – especially from omega 3 sources – fish, eggs, unrefined coconut and flax seed oil

13) Cut forms of gluten out ( particularly from wheat), cows dairy (try and swap cow’s milk for nut or rice milk) and sugar – substitute with a little quality dark (85% cocoa) chocolate instead

14)Cut back on the coffeeand alcohol – allow yourself to have alcohol and coffee free days, your liver and adrenal glands will thank you for it

15) Quit smoking today – don’t put off til tomorrow, because it may never come

16) Catch a ray of sunshine each day – expose your skin to 25mins in summer (avoid the hottest part of the day) & 45 minutes per day in winter, without sunscreen to maintain healthy vitamin D levels

17) Supplement with a quality multivitamin complex – as a safe gaurd against nutrient deficiencies

18) Don’t sweat the small stuff, because it really is small stuff

19)Do something everyday that makes you laugh - because no matter what, laughter really is the best medicine “”