Most of want have a long life. However, there isn’t much point to living till you’re 90 if you’re bedridden or the quality of your health ran out at 75. So, here are seven quick tips to help prevent early aging and to keep you on track for a long and equally healthy life.
7 quick tips to help improve your overall health.
1. Express gratitude.
2. Get enough sleep.
3. Eat clean foods.
4. Move! Exercise is critical.
5. De-stress
6. Hydrate
7. Take vitamin D
GRATITUDE
Expressing gratitude can change your life. As simple as this sounds it can have a multitude of positive and amazing changes on your life. Not to mention, it just makes us happier!
Gratitude has an emotional impact, making you feel more relaxed and increases positive feelings. It also positively affects your personality, making you less self-centered and materialistic, while making you more optimistic and spiritual.
It can improve your overall health, making you less sick and giving you more energy. It can help you exercise more, improve your sleep and even help you live longer!
Gratitude can improve your marriage, deepen your relationships and your friendships. It can make you kinder and more social too.
Need help at work? Gratitude can impact your career by helping you improve your decisions and networking ability. It can improve your productivity and goal setting too.
While gratitude is not a magic pill or cure-all, it is an amazing tool that anyone can use. It truly improves your overall happiness.
SLEEP
The importance of sleep on our health and well-being has been often over-looked. We now know that not getting the right amount of sleep puts us at risk for developing disease. Your body needs downtime to not just rest but, also to heal.
Lack of sleep increases the risk factors for heart disease and stroke. Getting the right amount of sleep in a dark room helps release melatonin. Melatonin appears to suppress the growth of cancers.
Stress increases with the lack of sleep. With the body on high alert, the production of stress hormones increases as does blood pressure. It also increases the inflammation in your body and inflammation can lead to a whole host of diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
It’s also believed that a lack of sleep affects the balance of hormones that control appetite and as a result, people that get less than 7 hours of sleep a night have a greater tendency to be overweight.
Getting the right amount of sleep can also improve your memory, alertness and reduce your risk of depression.
EAT WELL
Give your body the nourishment it needs. Without balanced food choices, you body might not have what it needs to get you through the day and sustain longterm health. A good diet provides the nutrients you need for growth and repair, keeping you strong and healthy while helping you prevent diet-related illnesses.
A good diet has so many health benefits but, here are just some of them: reduces the risk of obesity, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. It promotes a good memory, better mood, strong bones and teeth and one of the most important benefits, good gut health. It is now believed that the gut is a second brain and where a lot of inflammation that leads to disease begins.
Eat clean foods like green leafy vegetables, eliminate processed foods and sugar and you are well on your way to a healthy diet.
EXERCISE
Being physically active helps prevent a myriad of chronic disease and keeps your brain healthy. It is important to lift heavy things from time to time but, that doesn’t mean you have to grind it out at the gym every day. All physical activities count and exercise is cumulative.
Just doing exercise can make you feel happier. It’s good for your muscles and bones, increases your energy, reduces your risk of chronic disease, keeps your brain healthy, helps you sleep and can help reduce pain. It can even promote a better sex life.
The bottom line? Find something you love to do and go do it! Walk, hike, run, bike, swim, garden, or dance! Our bodies need movement to be the happiest version of ourselves. So… go do stuff!
DE-STRESS
While eating right, exercise, sleeping well and expressing gratitude can help you de-stress it’s also good to just try some relaxing activities.
Read a book, listen to music, watch a movie, take a long bath or have coffee with a friend are just some of the activities that can help bring those cortisol levels down.
Even on the most hectic day find 10 or 15 minutes to spend on yourself. You need to let that stress out! Take a break and do some slow, deep breathing.
DRINK WATER
The vast majority of us are dehydrated. Which is pretty surprising considering water is free and pretty much available everywhere. I think we tend to take it for granted and overlook how vital it is to our health.
We are made up of 60% to 70% water so, it’s important to maintain hydration and even as little as a 2% decrease in hydration can impair brain function!
Being hydrated can also help prevent headaches, constipation, kidney stones and help with weight loss. So, staying hydrated is important to every function of your body including your brain, heart and muscles.
THE SUNSHINE VITAMIN
Vitamin D, or the sunshine vitamin, is produced by exposure to the sun or by consuming supplements. Despite the name, vitamin D is actually considered a pro-hormone.
Vitamins have to be consumed through our diet and the body cannot produce them. Vitamin D, however, can be synthesized by exposure to the sun. It plays an important role in a number of health benefits.
It can assist with cancer prevention, reduced risk of diabetes, promote healthy bones and even reduce the risk of the flu.
Sadly, like dehydration, most people have a vitamin D deficiency. People who live in northern latitudes or large cities, work at night and stay home during the day, all should consume extra vitamin D.
If you have any of these symptoms you might have a vitamin D deficiency: fatigue, getting sick often, depression, painful bones, back or muscles, suffer from hair loss or have wounds that are slow to heal.
Some great sources of vitamin D are: cod liver oil, herring, sardines, salmon, tuna, eggs and chicken.
Conclusion
These tips are all easy to implement into just about any type of lifestyle. You CAN take control of your health and consequently the improve the length of your health-span and your life-span! Give them a try.
