A good way to start your journey towards a healthier balanced lifestyle is to take small steps. This you can do by taking up habits and practices that are within reach for all.
1. Spice up your life
By doing some research you can pick spices that can give you flavor and also have strong impact on your health. There are spices and herbs that can help heal our body. They are full of anti-oxidants. Just by adding some to your meal you will be supplying your body with good energy. To name a few I would try garlic, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, coriander and oregano.
2. Add Tea to your Drinking Habits
Tea is a great way to reduce coffee consumption or soda. There are a great variety of teas that are full of plant based chemicals. It is common knowledge that green tea is full of anti-oxidants. Few know that hibiscus tea is even richer in antioxidants than green tea. Drinking tea is a good way to hydrate your body alongside water.
3. Increase plant based food
Plant based food will provide you with more vitamins. It also has fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients that the body needs all the time. For example, beets and goji berries speed up your methylation. Carrots and tomatoes will fill your cells with carotenoids and lycopene. Garlic, onion and leeks add sulfur and reduces inflammation. Bell peppers and bok choy are full of vitamin B6. Increasing plant based food will improve your health in all possible ways. This means reducing your animal based foods instead.
4. Sweat your Heart out in a Sauna
Sweating it out is a successful way of ridding your body of toxins. Sweat has a higher concentration of toxins than your body fluids. When sweating it out, you are getting more toxins out of your body. The Japanese have patients do infrared sauna. They have proved to have better artery functions and less of heart symptoms. Try to have a sauna on a regular basis and sweat your heart out. Or get a infrared sauna.
5. Add Co Q-10 as a Supplemental
This is an enzyme that the body needs for the production of energy in your cells. It is also a strong antioxidant. As we get older, the body creates less of this enzyme. If you are on cholesterol lowering medication you even make less of Co Q-10. It is worth having this as part of your supplemental diet. Suggested doses are 100 mg for under 50 and 200 mg for those over 50 years old. This has shown to be helpful therapy for congestive heart failure.
You can buy the supplements here.
6. Try to avoid sitting
I have written a blog about the bad of sitting. People with active jobs are more likely to be healthier than us that sit all day. Trying to stand instead of sitting is something to consider with your desk. As I suggested, go for walks when you need to have a meeting. Try to get a standing desk that you can stand and do your work instead of sitting. The more you can stand instead of sit the better. Read my blog here for more ideas.
7. Sleep is the Key to Energy
To be able to stay energized through the day we need to charge our batteries. This we do by getting enough sleep. While we sleep the body are repairing everything that needs restoring. It processes all the toxins we consumed. During the day we use up vitamins and antioxidants. We might even have some DNA damage during the day. If we don´t allow the body to repair and recharge we might be in for some trouble.
We need about 7 to 8 hours of sleep on a regular basis so the body is able to complete this recharge. You are reducing your risk of heart disease as an example by 1/5 by having enough sleep. If you need help, you might want to read this.
8. Have Sex to stay Heart Healthy
Having sex at least twice a week reduce the risk by half of getting heart attack. This is in comparison to those that do it only once a month. Arteries are in the whole body, as well in the groin. If a man can’t have an erection or maintain it. It is most likely an early sign of heart disease. Please, go see your doctor if this is a problem.
9. Go for Yoga and Meditation for your health
As I mentioned in my last blog, yoga is something everyone should practice. Both for your body and mind. Activities like yoga brings back balance and calms our nervous systems. This will improve our health and longevity. Just the breathing exercises that you learn in yoga will help lover cortisol levels. It will also improve your immune function. Also great to improve your heart rhythm abnormalities, improve brain blood flow. On top of that it activates an enzyme called telomerase to reverse aging.
Take 15 minutes a few times a day to disconnect and breathe as it is good to raise your energy levels. Here is an exercise I wrote about breathing.
These are just a few simple things you can do to take steps towards a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. Start with one and once it is part of your routine add another one. Adding good habits is also a good way to remove bad habits. To read more about changing your habits I wrote this blog here.