It’s time to put many of the healthy lifestyle tips into a comprehensive list that can be easily implemented.
TAKE COLD SHOWERS / BATHS
Challenge yourself, increase your immune system limits by tolerating extra cold or extra hot. Take your pick, maybe it’s a sauna for you, or maybe you prefer cold showers. I am a fan of the cold. The easiest regimen to follow is by Wim Hof. You can use his program both for cold showers/ baths and breathing techniques. If you don’t know where to start Wim Hof’s program is great.
Here is the link to his site: https://www.wimhofmethod.com/
MEDITATE / PRAY / VISUALIZE
Spiritual practices have a broad spectrum of benefits including health. When you focus your energy inward and start treating your body as a temple that you need to look after, it becomes easier to make healthy dietary and lifestyle choices. Spiritual practices teach you to delay gratification, which is crucial to success in diet and exercise.
Many people find that having spiritual practice, even though it requires discipline, delivers many benefits to their life. If you are new to this, start with Yoga or Wim Hof breathing. Basic YouTube search will give you plenty of ideas how to go about it.
Watch the video version of healthy lifestyle tips here:
ALWAYS DEFINE YOUR GOALS AND SYSTEMS
Defining of your goals sounds obvious, and yet so many of us aim at something that isn’t clearly outlined, health especially. When was the last time you asked yourself, what health looks and feels like to you? Do you need to lose weight to be healthy, or seal leaky gut? Do you need to be able to bang out 20 push-ups or be able to swim for 45 minutes? Do you want to wake up in the morning pain free? Whatever your health goals are, have them clearly defined.
Remember this though: goals need to have systems attached to them. Once you have your health goals, you need to work out how you are going to get there, that means come up with the system to achieve your goals. For example, if you need to add exercise to your weekly routine, write down how you will do it, what arrangements you will need to make to get to the gym, rain or shine, good mood, or bad mood.
Define your goals but remember to have system/process to achieve them. Be rigid with your goals but willing to adjust and innovate your systems.
SLEEP
There have been studies, books, focus groups dedicated to sleep: the quality of it, the amount, and the depth of it. Vast majority of adults need 7-9 hours of sleep that occurs same time in the 24-hour cycle. I don’t think I need to convince anyone past the age of 30 how important quality sleep is. Although every now I then I will hear a counter argument: well Napoleon slept three hours…You are likely not like Napoleon.
Sleep deprivation is used as means of torture. Any way you look at this, you need your sleep, to regenerate, detox, repair, renew, and get ready for the next day.
Did you know that in many people that suffer from anxiety, depression the culprit is insomnia? Good night sleep is an outcome of correct living, there isn’t any one thing you can do to improve your sleep. You must take an approach of strengthening your entire body and giving it tools to function optimally, quality sleep will follow.
ADD SENSIBLE SUN EXPOSURE
Just as sleep is critical in our lives so is the sun. Don’t cover yourself, head to toes, in sunblock before you go out. Spend appropriate amount of time based on your skin complexion and geographic location so that you are exposed to UVB lighting. This could range from 20 minutes to three hours.
Sunscreens should be used only when you can’t control the amount of time you spend in the sun, say due to work, playing sports, etc. Otherwise, don’t avoid the sun, and don’t overuse sunblock.
WALK BAREFOOT IN NATURE
My mom used to send us to run barefoot in the morning in the backyard as means of “preserving youthful look”. I thought it was one of these folk traditions, but grounding turned out to be a real thing. Exchange of negatively charged electrons with the one that are positively charged in our bodies, have soothing effect on our nervous and immune system among many other benefits.
EAT RED MEAT
Red meat was the most valued meat by our ancestors, and in my opinion evolutionarily most appropriate for human nutrition. There are many studies that we can discuss and can go either way, but my rule of thumb is: when in doubt, check what your ancestors did, and they revered red meat.
FINAL THOUGHTS
To have happy and healthy body, you need address many aspects of your life almost simultaneously and then things like sleep, mood, digestion will naturally improve.
And, in case you missed it, click here for Part 1 of healthy lifestyle tips…
