So you’ve decided it’s time to get healthy, but you’re not sure where to start. You know you need to lose weight. And maybe, just maybe, you should stop being a couch potato.
So what now? Prepackaged meals? A gym membership? Less caffeine, chocolate, and alcohol?
There are a hundred things you can do to be a little bit healthier. There are 4 things you can do if you want to become truly healthy.
- Eat a truly healthy diet
- Detox
- Exercise
- Get good sleep
The Healthiest Diet
A truly healthy diet isn’t found in a package. It doesn’t have a fancy name. It is a diet that eliminates artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, MSG, trans fats, and GMOs. Stop eating sugar. A full 80% of the diet consists of fresh, raw, organic produce – more vegetables than fruit. It does not include processed, boxed, packaged foods. It is a diverse, organic diet filled with nutrient dense foods and plenty of clean water.
Eat salads. Make big salads (at least 6 cups) with at least 10 different vegetables. Add fresh garlic, turmeric, and fresh cracked pepper.
Detox
It is not enough in this day and age to simply eat the best food. Though diet will always be the foundation of health, our toxic environment requires us to cleanse our bodies of chemicals, heavy metals, parasites, and pathogens twice a year (or more) if we are to achieve optimum health.
Although a full cleanse involves the entire body, the gut is the first and primary focus. The goal is to cleanse the intestinal tract of bad bacteria and Candida and repopulate it with good bacteria. Candida feeds on our body’s tissues as well as our nutrients as does bad bacteria. Both exude toxins. Cleaning up the gut also aids the immune system. Two of the best things you can do to aid in a detox is to drink a lot of cranberry lemonade sweetened with stevia, and eat salads with garlic.
Exercise
Exercise is crucial for a healthy body and a healthy immune system. If you are a couch potato, start slow. Walking and rebounding are gentle exercises that help the lymph circulate in the body. There is no pump for the lymphatic system.
Do bodyweight squats. It’s likely the best exercise there is. We are naturally built to squat. It does much more than just build leg muscles.
For those who cannot squat, “get ups” are a wonderful exercise that works out the whole body. Simply lie down on the floor on your back. Now roll to the left and get up. Lie back down. Roll to the right and get up. Each time be sure to use the other leg to push off the floor. Each day, do as many as you can. You will find the number rises quickly. This is a great work out for the beginner. If that’s not possible try getting in and out of a chair repeatedly. A chair that you can lower as you progress is great for this. As you get stronger, try using as little momentum as possible.
Sleep
Is coffee what gets you through he day? How many hours of sleep do you need? If you sleep more on your days off, catching up on lost sleep, you are not getting enough. How many hours do you need to sleep a night when you are on vacation? For most adults, eight hours is the absolute minimum. If possible, get off of any and all drugs, and that includes caffeine.
Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:
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