5 Tips To a More Healthy Life

I hope you are all having a good start to the New Year. I had a very busy start, as you can imagine, with lots of new clients wanting to improve their health!

This year I thought that I would blog on some of the questions that I am most frequently asked. If you have a question that you would like me to write about, please email me. Here are some of the topics I will be covering:

• What are your top 5 tips to a more healthy life?
• Which basic supplement should I be taking, if any?
• Why are so many people suffering from food intolerances today compared to the past?
• Why are my children fussy eaters?
• I am feeling tired all the time, is there anything I can do?
• What is the best source of water to drink?
• What small changes can I make in terms of nutrition that would make the biggest impact?

Let’s start with this first question: What are your top 5 tips to a more healthy life?

This is such a good question for the start of the new year that I have produced some fridge magnets the size of business cards with the answers on them! If you or a friend of yours would like one, please do email me.

1. Chose foods as they are found in nature

Ask yourself, do you recognise where this food comes from? Do you think your great-grandparents would have seen this food? Would you be able to find this food in the fields or growing in your garden?

These are all very important questions to ask ourselves because our bodies are designed to function on foods as they are found in nature. Our ancestors lived off these foods for generations and did not suffer with the chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and arthritis, we are suffering with today.

A wonderful man named Dr Weston A Price studied indigenous tribes and isolated human groups all around the world. Some of the people he studied were from the remote villages in Switzerland, the Eskimos, various African tribes, the Aborigines, Gaelic communities and Indian’s in South America. He found that people eating their traditional diets had beautiful straight teeth free from decay, strong bodies which were resistant to disease and balanced characters. To read more about his findings, please visit http://www.westonaprice.org/about-the-foundation/dr-weston-a-price-movietone/.

So, it is obviously healthier to eat a plate of fresh vegetables and meat than a processed meal like a supermarket bought ready meal which will have lots of perseveratives in it and will have lost most of its nutrients (vitamin and minerals etc)

2. Drink more water (aim for 8 glasses or 2 litres per day)

Your body is made of approximately 66% water. Water is vital because it is needed in every biological process, chemical reaction and mechanical action. Your brains, muscles, organs and digestions are dependent on it. It is essential for your health and you need to replenish its supplies regularly. Did you know that you lose approximately 2.8 litres of water daily through sweating, exhaling, going to the loo and bowel movements? In order for the body to function properly, this water must to be replaced! How about keeping a 2 litre bottle of water on your desk so that you can make your way through it in a day?

Later on in the year I will be writing a blog on the best kind of water to drink and why.

3. Eat protein with every meal particularly breakfast.

Protein includes chicken, fish, meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds and legumes. In the same way a house is build from bricks, your body is build from protein. Protein is found in your muscles, your bones, your skin and all the organs in your body. It is needed to make hormones, blood, cells, enzymes and neurotransmitters (chemicals in your brain that make you ‘feel good’)!

Protein is broken down steady by your body for energy and can make you feel full for longer. Therefore, if you have peaks and dips in energy throughout the day, it might be worth asking yourself are you eating enough protein?

So, if you are stuck for what protein to have  for breakfast, what about adding some extra seeds and nuts to your cereal or muesli, or having a boiled egg with some delicious cranks organic brown bread toast.

4.  Aim for 20 minutes exercise, 3 times a week

Regular exercise can help you lose weight, can boost your mood and help reduce your chance of developing a chronic disease. According to the NHS, exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer by up to 50% and early death by up to 30%. The department of health has described ‘inactivity’ as the “silent killer”.

What kind of exercise should I be doing? Try to do moderately intensity aerobic activity and muscle building exercises. Moderately intensity aerobic activity is activities that raise your heart beat. These can include fast walk, riding a bike up a few hills, playing a game of tennis, pushing a lawn mower and swimming. Muscle building exercises include weights, rowing and pilates.  Make sure you enjoy the exercise you chose to do or you will not sustain it for long!

5. Reduce busyness to reduce stress

Stress causes an overstimulation of your adrenal and thyroid glands leading to exhaustion. During stress, you use up vital nutrients, your digestion slows down and is disrupted, your resistance to illness and infections declines, you can gain weight, your cholesterol can increase, your mood can swing and your mind can become slower. Some of the minor short term symptoms you may suffer from include headaches, stiffness, insomnia, anxiety, depression, irritability and moodiness. Longer term and more major symptoms include heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and cancer.  So, to start reducing busyness, perhaps you could put a few blocks of time in your diary per week to rest giving yourself permission to say ‘no’ to somethings in order to do things you know are good for your joy and energy levels.  Perhaps you could spend some time with the people closest to you.

So, if you want to give yourself the best chance for optimum health now and a healthy old age in the future, please consider following my tips.

Next time I will be discussing “What basic supplements should I be taking, if any?”. Please ask friends and family to sign up to my blogs so this information is passed on.