Improve Your Health In One Week
by Bethany Reddenhurst
http://www.brhealth.com
Everyone has heard the same standard advice for getting
healthy. Eat a balanced diet. Avoid harmful habits. Get
plenty of exercise. Get enough sleep. Just the thought of
making all those sweeping changes at once is enough to make
anyone reach for the gallon of ice cream and wait for
manana.
Don't. Take a look at these concrete suggestions for seven
simple things you can do to help yourself get healthy, one
day at a time.
Some of these daily tips are one time things. Others are
just the first step in building a new habit. Pick one and
do it today. Just this once. Then tomorrow, pick another,
or do the same one again. The effects are cumulative. In
just one week, you'll be feeling the healthy effects.
Put your cigarettes in the other room.
You know you should quit smoking, but it's not easy.
Anything you do that reduces the number of cigarettes you
smoke each day is a step in the right direction. Make it
inconvenient to smoke - put your cigarettes downstairs or
in another room. At the very least, you'll have to THINK
before you light up.
Eat fish tonight.
Fish and seafood are picking up kudos from all sorts of
folks in the medical community. Low fat, low carb and
high quality protein, they pack a lot of nutritional punch
with a very low calorie load. Medical experts recommend
eating fish or seafood instead of beef or other meat at
least three times a week.
Brighten up your plate.
The brighter and deeper the color of the veggies on your
plate, the more of a nutritional punch they pack. Swap
out your dingy canned vegetables for fresh carrots or
plain steamed green beans with almonds. Far more vitamins
and you won't believe the difference in taste.
Take a walk after dinner.
The American Heart Association recommends walking as one
of the healthiest ways to exercise. A brisk 30 minutes a
day will keep your heart in shape and help you lose weight.
You don't even have to do it all at once. Leave your
car at the station and walk a few blocks to work, then back
in the afternoon - presto! Instant exercise.
Pack a snack for the office.
Instead of eating three meals a day, aim for five - three
small meals and two big snacks evenly spaced. A midmorning
and midafternoon snack will help spread out your calories
for the day and keep your body working on high octane fuel.
Pick up the phone and call your doctor.
Make that appointment you've been putting off. A full
physical should include a cholesterol screening and a
blood sugar level. One of the most exciting recent health
discoveries is that even diabetes can be reversed - if you
catch it early enough.
Get some sleep.
Sleep is far more important to your overall health than
most people realize. If you're not getting at least six
hours of sleep a night, your body isn't getting the down
time it needs to stay healthy. Get to bed early tonight so
you'll be ready to start another healthy day tomorrow.
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