I’m often asked what I do on a daily basis to stay healthy. There are many little things I do that contribute to my general good health and relatively high energy level, but there are five habits that are such an integral part of my day that I feel “off” when I don’t include them in my day. I’m not perfect, sometimes I get busy and forget to follow my own guidelines or just have a day where I don’t feel like doing one or two of them (I’m a big believer in the 80/20 rule), but here are my top 5 tips to start living a healthier life:
1. Get up 30 minutes earlier every morning to get some kind of workout before doing anything else otherwise, it’s too easy to make excuses to avoid working out. I started out by getting up 15 minutes earlier then I built up to 30 minutes and then a full 60 minutes. It takes several weeks to get on this schedule but eventually you’ll begin to feel so good you’ll want to keep doing it. When you do your 60 minutes in the morning your daily activity is done…and anything extra you do is a bonus, but the two MOST IMPORTANT rewards for me for doing 60 minutes before my day begins is that it puts me in a more positive frame of mind, ready to tackle the day. Exercise early in the day also seems to set into motion a chain of hormonal effects that make it much easier to control my appetite and reduce cravings. Do whatever kind of movement you enjoy and gets the heart pumping. I prefer to keep it simple by walking. If the weather is good and there’s a little light outside I’ll go outside and walk 2-3 miles or I’ll walk laps inside the house but any movement that you enjoy will work.
2. Get more sleep! Try to get to bed earlier every night…turn off the lights and tech (TV, ipad, laptop, etc) to wind yourself down and set into motion the biological changes that take to help you fall asleep (NOTE – step #1 makes this step easier to do); taking a magnesium supplement or eating a small protein based snack helps too. Even a little bit of exposure to light once the sun goes down prevents the hormonal changes that help you fall asleep and stay asleep from taking place.
3. Drink at least 64 ounces of filtered water daily…I do this in addition to my other daily liquids intake…I start my day with a mug of organic coffee (black or with a little cream from organic grass fed and pastured cows) and I sip green tea all day long. I don’t remember where I heard it but I’ve never forgotten it…”Use a filter or be the filter”! Every home store and grocery store sells water filters. Use a filter.
4. Eat organic and non-GMO foods as much as possible to avoid toxins, pesticides and questionable genetic modifications to the food you eat. If you can’t find fresh organic use frozen organic. Avoid food in cans unless they are organic and the cans are BPA-free (cans that are not BPA-free leach toxins from the lining of the can into the food). Washing fruits and vegetables only removes the surface toxins; the toxins that are absorbed into the plant during the growing season remain inside the food and end up inside of you.
5. Take some basic high quality supplements and anti-oxidants to fill in the gaps of whatever is missing from the food you eat. It’s not a cure all but it’s an extra little bit of insurance that’s good to do. Nowadays we all know we should buckle up the seat belt every time we get into a car to keep ourselves safe in the event of an accident. Think of taking supplements as the same kind of preventative behavior, protecting you from nutritional deficiencies and disease. There are no 100% guarantees but it’s a good thing to do for yourself, to support all the internal processes that keep you humming along and living your life. Soil and water today are full of toxins and depleted of minerals. Research has shown that the nutritional value of many fruits and vegetables today is a fraction of what it was 100 years ago due to the depleted soil they are grown in. Just like your car won’t go far on a nearly empty gas tank, your body won’t go very far on nearly empty stores of the vitamins and minerals it requires to function optimally.
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