Free Ways to Health
Most everyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy studying, pursuing, researching, practicing, and even lecturing on the subject of health. In the past year I've talked to many people who desire to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but bemoan the fact that being healthy is not only hard, but expensive.
I thought I would share a few inexpensive (not-so-tedious) ways toward a healthier lifestyle. These are things I implement in my habits and find them helpful, if not essential.
Exercise
Habitual exercise is not only helpful with maintaining a healthy weight, but it is an overall boost to your day. Walking, stretching, sit ups are all free ways to health!
Drinking more water
How much water do we really need? Water is an essential compoent to our makeup. It makes up approximatly 60 % of our body weight. The Institute of Medicine dtermined an adaquate intake for men is roughly 13 cups. For woman about 9 cups daily. With additional exercise you will want to drink more water. Twelve oz. for every thirty minutes according to some. Some excellent ways to drink enough water for those of us who find it challenging are:
-- Drink two cups of water with every meal
-- Keeping a water container with you when you're in town
-- Adding essential oils or drinking sparkling water with meals
Substituting White Sugar
White processed sugar is not only "not good for you", but it's also really bad for you. For a more detailed post please read Sugar. Some natural substitutes for sugar would be: Raw honey, maple syrup, Rapadura, Stevia, date sugar, blackstrap molasses, malted grain syrups, sorghum syrups, and naturally sweetened jam.
Eliminating Refined Starches
I couldn't stress enough how essential this is to one's overall health.
Refined carbohydrates in the gut can stimulate an overgrowth of candida albicans. Candida is a natural fungi that breaks down “dead” foods. With a diet that includes an over-consumption of dead foods, (like sugar and refined carbohydrates), candida multiply uncontrollably. Heavily yeasted foods can also encourage an unhealthy multiplication of candida. The yeasts will actually change form, attach and grow into the intestine, causing holes where undigested foods and toxins can enter the bloodstream. These toxins also produce candida and trigger allergic reactions. For more on this topic please read my post: Is a Gluten-Free Diet Healthy?
Eliminating Bad Oils
Today, many health experts say that reducing fats in the diet is essential for losing weight. It is true that fats have more than twice as many calories as carbohydrates.
But it is carbohydrates such as sugar and starches that create the most weight gain. Though Fats have more calories than starches, fats satisfy hunger four to five times as much as carbohydrates. Fats are essential to our health. Fats are our storage of energy. They help protein do it's job and also start chemical reactions that contribute to our immunity, reproduction and our metabolism. Interestingly, fats help the body to absorb fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, D, E and K. Our brains cannot work without fat. Obesity could be curbed easily by cutting back on grains, pastries, starches and sugar which, if not burned right away, store up as weight. Good Fats are not the culprit. For more on fats and oils please read my post: Healthy Fats?
Writing
Express your way to health! I've realized this fact in my own health journey -- my mental state actually does play a huge part in the success (or lack thereof) in my health. How I view myself or my family-life status, or circumstances, really is important. When I am able to sit and "observe" these things through writing, I find a peace and security. An actual therapy. Once while experiencing awful pain I wrote a poem. I found real physical relief while writing. My emotions, once analyzed and expressed, made my pain easier to endure and from then on I began the habit of expression. It has benefited me throughout my entire health journey.
Good Sleep
Going to bed at a decent hour and getting up early has been a life saver for me at times. Sleep needs vary with age and health, but the recommended average is 7 hours a night. For more info you can go to the Sleep Foundation's website. Yep, there's such a thing! sleepfoundation.org
Ideas
DIY Body Wash Recipe
Visit Simply Real & Raw!
Whole New Mom's Healthy Hairspray
Happy Food Healthy Life
DoTerra's Healthy Spritzer
Thanks for sharing this Toni. It was simple and helpful. I'm glad that not everything we can do for good health has to be expensive! Sometimes it just requires a little bit of self-discipline. Growing up in my family, we were extremists. (As you know! Haha) It was the "all or nothing" mentality. But it is encouraging to remember that even the little things can take you a long ways. Great post. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGlad it was encouraging. Health doesn't always have to be expensive or complex! :)
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how there are very east simple tips like these on being healthy......I always think that "being healthy" is a really strict hard diet or something but it's amazing how little things like this go a long way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Toni,always a great reminder. :)
Tasha
Thanks Tash. :) I expect to see you drinking more water! Hee hee.
ReplyDelete