10 Basic rules for optimal health
How many rules are there to live by? Are they overwhelming? Or do we simply abide by them? For instance, do you see stopping at a red light as a difficult rule to abide by or do you even think of it? Do you see paying for your groceries, gas, etc. as a difficult rule to abide by or do you simply do it.
Well the same kind of automatic behaving and doing would apply to healthy life choices, once you have
put a little effort into creating the habits. Let’s look at a few simple habits.
- Eat whole, organic foods:Simply stop buying the microwaved, pasteurized, processed, toxic, nutrient depleted packages that have been mistakenly called food.
- Read your labels: If the “food” product comes in some sort of container – does it have words listed that you don’t know; is sugar the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd item; does it contain aspartame or some other artificial sugar (note processed sugars, artificial sugars and high fructose corn syrups are all toxic to the body and in particular toxic to the brain!); leave these items on the shelf. Other names that indicate sugar are: barley malt, beet sugar, brown sugar, cane juice, cane juice solids, caramel, corn syrup, date sugar, dehydrated cane juice, dehydrated fruit juice, dextran, ethyl maltol, fruit juice crystals, fructose, glucose, galactose, glucose solids, golden syrup, invert sugar, malt syrup, lactose, maltose, refiner’s syrup, sorghum syrup, sucrose, turbinado, yellow sugar.
- Move: It doesn’t have to be weight training or cardio – in fact, those can be dangerous…but your body was designed to move. Walking, yoga, palletes, martial arts, working in the garden (make sure you move up and down); anything to get your body moving – it helps to remove toxins and deliver nutrients; get oxygen into the body and C02 out.
- Get out in the sun: Make sure you don’t block the UVB rays – only the UVA rays – your body requires UVB to make vitamin D, and a variety of other molecules including anti-carcinogens. Sunscreens, are typically full of carcinogens; and typically block the necessary UVB rays rather than the harmful UVA rays
- Sleep: We need good healthy deep sleep – not medication imposed sleep – to release the melatonin and do all the repair work our bodies require. Our bodies actually do more work when we are asleep than when we are awake. Sleep is fundamental – make sure you get good sleep – turn off the lights, the LEDs, the tv/radio/ etc. (by the way, good healthy sex is a great way to go to sleep and a great way to wake up – awesome exercise – good for the endorphins, etc.).
- Water: Know you don’t need 8, 8-ounce glasses of water a day – that was proven wrong over and over; but we do need some good alkaline, mineral water. Not water from the tap; from plastic containers. If you have nothing else, simply leave your tap water over night to rid it of most of the chloride and fluoride; then put it in a blender to break it up and create a higher pH; then put in some homemade lemon juice (made with the inner and outer rinds; the seeds and the juice – awesome for the body in a wide variety of ways). Start the day and end the day with this and you will do the body wonders.
- Stress: Both gut stress and psychological stress are harmful to the body, we need to work on thinking and eating healthy – meditation can help remove both; breathing good fresh clean air can help; drinking good healthy alkaline mineral water can help; you know the drill – just do it.
- Supplement your body with good vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, polyphenols, etc. We are not getting in our foods what our bodies require so we have to find someone who understands what good products are versus crap supplements.
- Talk kindly to yourself and others: most people beat themselves up internally – you are an awesome individual – gently push yourself into your greater potential.
- Live life with gratitude and appreciation.You are a breathing, functioning individual – you have the capacity to grow and learn – you have the opportunity to create abundance in your life – appreciate that not just with your thoughts but feel that level of appreciation throughout your whole body – every morning when you wake up and every night when you go to sleep.
Don’t try to suddenly change everything overnight.
Choose one item you are not currently doing and work with it till it becomes one more good awesome habit! Appreciate and acknowledge yourself. Take time to recognize the better energy, the clearer mind, and the happier mood. You can do it.
Here’s to your health.
For more information, contact: firstname.lastname@example.org
Dr. Holly is a naturopathic doctor that holds a PhD in Psychology and Biochemistry, specializing in balancing mind, body and energy of the system.
Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and is not a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or other health care practitioner.