If you have already broken your New Year’s Health Resolutions, you are not alone. Anytime is a good time to improve your health and there is never a better time to start than today! Don’t wait until 2017!
Lifestyle change is an ongoing process. A lifestyle change should not be impulsive, but a carefully considered decision to change your life for the better.
It is difficult, but not impossible to implement all of these changes at once. A better plan is to add one lifestyle change every so often. For example, a new one every month, until you have them all under your belt.
Find out what's happening in Ramseyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Why not see if you can get these changes implemented (one at a time) before 2016 is over? If you don’t like one, just skip it! Implementing any of these is better than not implementing any of them.
10 Steps to Changing Your Life for the Better in 2016 - From Dr. Mercola:
Find out what's happening in Ramseyfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
These 10 changes are the upper shelf of lifestyle strategies that you can implement to hopefully improve your health.
1. Give Up Soda - Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, liver damage, osteoporosis and acid reflux are just some of the health conditions linked to soda consumption. If you’re not yet among them, commit to swapping your soda for healthier beverages like water, sparkling water, and occasionally, tea and/or organic black coffee. This also includes diet soda, which may be worse than non-diet soda.
2. Eat Two Meals a Day, Within an Eight-Hour Window - Your body probably only needs two meals a day and eating this way allows you to restrict your eating to a window of six to eight consecutive hours each day, while avoiding food for at least three hours before bedtime. As long as you restrict your eating to a six- to eight-hour window, and avoid eating for at least three hours before bed, you can choose between having breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner, but avoid having both breakfast and dinner. Which two meals you prefer are up to you; let your body, and your lifestyle, be your guide. This type of intermittent fasting has numerous benefits for your health, including weight loss, disease prevention, resolving insulin resistance, optimizing your mitochondrial function and preventing cellular damage from occurring.
3. Get Eight Hours of Sleep Each Night - Most adults really need about eight hours of sleep every night. What makes sleep deprivation so detrimental is that it doesn’t just impact one aspect of your health; it impacts many. Sleep deprivation has the same effect on your immune system as physical stress or illness, which may help explain why lack of sleep is tied to an increased risk of numerous chronic diseases. Sleeping less than six hours per night more than triples your risk of high blood pressure, and women who get less than four hours of shut-eye per night double their chances of dying from heart disease.
4. Eat More Healthy Fats and Fiber - Public health guidelines condemn healthy fats from foods like butter, full-fat dairy and recommend whole grains and cereals. This is exactly the opposite of what most people need to stay healthy. The latest science suggests healthy fats (saturated and unsaturated fats from whole food, animal, and plant sources) should comprise anywhere from 50 to 85 percent of your overall energy intake. Healthy fat sources include coconut and coconut oil, avocados, butter, nuts, and animal fats.
5. Eat Fermented Vegetables - Fermented foods are potent chelators (detoxifiers) and contain much higher levels of beneficial bacteria than probiotic supplements, making them ideal for optimizing your gut flora. In addition to helping break down and eliminate heavy metals and other toxins from your body, beneficial gut bacteria perform a number of surprising functions, including helping with mineral absorption and producing nutrients such as B vitamins and vitamin K2. They may also play a role in; preventing obesity and diabetes, regulating dietary fat absorption, lowering your risk for cancer and improving your mood and mental health
6. Sit Less and Walk More, Work on Your Flexibility - On average, a U.S. adult spends nine to 10 hours each day sitting, which is so much inactivity that even a 30- or 60-minute workout can’t counteract its effects. While it might seem natural to sit this long since you’ve probably grown used to it (physically and mentally), it’s actually quite contrary to nature. Studies looking at life in agriculture environments show that people in agrarian villages sit for about three hours a day.
7. Have Your Vitamin D Level Tested - It’s incredibly easy to boost your vitamin D levels, so there’s no reason to put your health at risk from low status. Yet, researchers such as Dr. Michael Holick estimate that 50% of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. If you’re among them, your risk of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and other chronic disorders may be significantly increased. In a study of more than 100 people, those with low vitamin D levels were more likely to have type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, or metabolic syndrome, regardless of their weight. One of Dr. Holick’s studies showed that healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for a few months upregulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes. Optimally, your 25 Hydroxy D levels should be over 50 ng/ml and under 100 ng/ml.
8. Eat Nutrient-Dense Protein (Quality not Quantity) - Protein is essential for your health as it’s a structural component of enzymes, cellular receptors, signaling molecules and a main building block for your muscles and bones. But, eating excessive amounts of protein could actually be worse than eating too many carbs. Excessive protein can stimulate two biochemical pathways that accelerate aging and cancer growth. For optimal health, I believe most adults need about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of lean body mass. The quality of the meat you eat is just as important as the quantity. As a general rule, the only meat I recommend eating is pastured, grass-fed, and grass-finished, ideally organically raised meats (and of course, the same goes for dairy and eggs). Wild-caught Alaskan salmon and sardines are also excellent protein sources. You can also get plenty of protein from plant foods. Consider hemp seeds (hemp hearts), chia seeds, spirulina, sprouts, and bee pollen, for instance.
9. Meditate for 5 to 10 Minutes a Day - Stress-related problems, including back pain, insomnia, acid reflux, and exacerbations to irritable bowel syndrome may account for up to 70% of the average US physician’s caseload. Such health-care expenditures are the third highest in the US, after only heart disease and cancer. New research suggests, however, that such costs could be cut drastically simply by becoming more relaxed.
10. Help Others and Be Active in Your Community - Volunteering is a simple way to help others, but it’s also a powerful way to help yourself. Beyond the good feelings you’ll get from donating your time, and the potential to develop new, meaningful relationships with people in your community, volunteering has a significant impact on your physical health, including a boost to your heart health.