When it comes to health and wellness, it is always easier to be proactive and stay healthy versus being reactive and trying to deal with a bug, virus or other disease that wants to make you its next victim. So, with that thought in mind, here are four habits you’ll want to get that will almost guarantee your health:
#1 Stay Hydrated
Don’t drink enough water and not only are you going to suffer from a lack of energy, but you’ll also prevent your body from flushing out any bugs and toxins that are making themselves at home. Ideally, you want to consume half of your body weight in ounces daily.
For example, if you weigh 140 pounds, you’ll want to drink 70 ounces of water every day (140 pounds divided by 2 = 70 ounces). If your body has already been attacked by whatever is going around and you are running a fever or have diarrhea, drink a little more to help replace the extra fluids that your body is losing.
Water is the best way to hydrate yourself, so it should always be your primary source of liquids. If you like to get your regular caffeine intake via pots of coffee or tea, just keep in mind that both of these dehydrate you (which is why you spend more time in the bathroom after drinking them) and therefore you should only have them in moderation. If soda is your drink of choice, then please read the next recommended habit…
#2 Limit Your Sugar Intake
Many studies have concluded that excessive intake of sugar is extremely harmful to your health. It essentially makes your body a breeding ground not only for an illness that can knock you out of commission for a few days, but also for major diseases – deadly conditions that can actually take your life.
Therefore, one of the most important steps you can take when it comes to staying well is to limit your sugar intake. That means taking it easy on the soda you normally drink, desserts you love to have, and treats you like to reward yourself with after a rough day.
Here’s the kicker: This applies to artificial sugars too. So, if you’re thinking that you’re going to work your way around this suggestion by simply choosing foods and drinks that are “diet” or made with artificial sweeteners, think again because they have the same effect on your body, just with fewer calories.
Admittedly, it can be tough to stay away from the sweet stuff, especially when PMS hits and you can think of nothing other than a nice rich bar of chocolate, but if you tough it out, you’ll actually feel better. Maybe not so much at the time, but after it is over you will realize that your out-of-whack hormones were much easier to get through when you didn’t have the blood sugar highs and lows on top of it.
#3 Get Active
If you were told today that you’d never walk again, how would that make you feel? Would you wish you had been more active and walked every opportunity you could in your previous days? If you’re like most people, your answer is a resounding “YES!!”
Well, here is one more reason you should make staying active a top priority (other than that you’d miss it if you couldn’t): engaging in regular physical activity makes your insides healthy as much as it makes your outsides healthy. In other words, the more fit you are, the stronger your immune system is as well.
That means that spending time at the gym running on the treadmill or down on your living room floor doing crunches during commercial breaks increases the likelihood that you’ll be too strong for any bug that tries to attack you. It’s kind of like you’re building your immune system’s muscles while building your body’s skeletal muscles at the same time.
Make it a point to get out of your desk chair every hour or so or get off the couch at night and do something that gets your heart going and your muscles “feeling the burn.” Not only will you look better, but you’ll feel better too.
#4 Take The Time to De-Stress
When you don’t regularly remove the stress from your body, not only do you feel grumpy and impatient, but you also have a harder time fighting disease and illness. Worse yet, extreme stress can build up over time and result in heart issues and even death.
Surely you have obligations that you have to meet and work that needs to be done by a certain deadline, but you also need to schedule time to just decompress. It may take some getting used to if you don’t normally set aside time for yourself, but soon it will become second nature and you’ll look forward to your down time.
What are some great de-stressing activities? Well, it depends largely on your personality, but here are a few options you may want to consider:
- Reading a good book that you can get lost in
- Enjoying a hot bubble bath with a glass of chilled wine and soothing music
- Going for a walk hand-in-hand with the one you love
- Engaging in a game of hide and seek with your child, finishing with a tickle-fest when you find them
- Meditating, or at least just sitting in silence and letting yourself breathe
- Calling your best gal pal and letting her make you feel better, like she always does
Of course, the options are endless, but you get the point. Find something that soothes your soul and do it regularly so that you don’t wind up having to soothe your body due to an illness.
If you want to stay healthy (which I hope you do), then stay hydrated, limit your sugar intake, get active and take the time to de-stress. This is a much better prescription than anything the doctor can give you, don’t you think?
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