This article is particularly relevant for anyone wanting to regain your health in 2019.
I really hope you had a great Christmas and I would like to wish you a healthy and happy New Year!
The year ahead is a blank canvas, so it’s time to start painting the New You you’d like to see on the beach or in the holiday Snap’s this summer.
I want to help you make the most of all the motivation that New Year brings, and to take the necessary step-by-step changes you need to regain your health.
In this stressed out world in which we live, more people are experiencing health issues than ever before. From stress ailments to serious issues, we hear all the time from people who “are not feeling well” or who are “under the weather.” Worse still we hear from many who have been diagnosed with some long term ‘life changing’ illness. For many, it is their lifestyle that has a detrimental effect on their health and wellbeing.
I am a life coach and physical fitness trainer (retired), committed to helping people make lasting changes that lead them on the path to health, happiness and a fulfilling life. I love to talk to clients about starting strong with a “new beginning” at the new year. So I’m saying it to you, this is the time to get started on the New YOU, particularly if your need is to regain your health.
This morning while I was on the way to the gym I was listening to Smooth Radio. I caught the news which included mention that a vast majority of bacon contains cancer-causing chemicals and how campaigners are urging the government to do more to rid the cancer risk from processed meats such as bacon and ham. Stuff like this I hope makes more people consider the “growing consensus of scientific opinion” that points to a vegetarian diet as the healthiest option. I can personally testify this is where the road to healing begins. You want to regain your health, then try to cut all animal produce from your diet. Try it for a month. If you find it makes changes even in this small time scale, which it will, come back and drop me a comment telling me.
Let’s carry on with the lifestyle changes that will support you in being able to regain your health.
Are you someone having to put up with symptoms that are cramping your style, stealing your vitality, making you dam right miserable most the time? Maybe you chalk it up to being over 30, getting older, having food allergies? Maybe you’re just accepting this as your new reality?
Let me assure you that you don’t have to settle for low energy, low libido, poor digestion and all the problems that are slowly leading you down the path to chronic illness. Lifestyle changes will make a difference to anyone hoping to regain your health.
What if you could finally shed those troublesome health issues weighing you down?
Get more energy, better sleep, less pain, more mobility, a happier tummy, and a brighter mood?
No matter what our existing health there are things you can do to regain your health. No one is too young or too old to learn good, healthy habits.
Let me share with you the lifestyle changes necessary to decrease your physical symptoms and help you to reclaim your health.
1. Quit smoking
Quit Smoking is one of the most common New Year Resolutions on this planet. If you smoke, quitting is the best way to improve your health. Cigarette smoke contains harmful toxins that irritate your airways and damage your lung tissues. When you give up smoking, your breathing and other changes will bring about improvements in your health. There’re no advantages of Smoking, ultimately it can kill you, and anyone wanting to regain your health, well there’s no choice you simply can’t smoke.
“Most people, who have quit smoking, have had at least one unsuccessful try in the past. It is not important how many times you try to quit. The only important thing is, that eventually you stay quit.”
Anonymous
2. Eat a nutritious diet
If you have been reading this article all the way through, then you won’t have missed the fact that I believe being Vegetarian is of paramount importance if you wish to regain your health. When it comes to the food you actually put in your mouth, you should really try and stick to whole foods, they’re both calorie and nutrient dense and will naturally increase satiety levels keeping you fuller for longer and consequently reducing the likelihood of you overeating or experiencing cravings. They also come without all the bad crap inside human produced foods and animal products. You have to eat well to feel better. It is also important to eat foods that are lower in fat, as well as plenty of fruits, vegetables, seeds and whole grains. Good nutrition is so vital to your health. Also I am a great believer in intermittent fasting. Let me share with you a previous article aptly titled Plant based Intermittent Fasting is the ticket to health.
“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”
Hippocrates
3. Have an active lifestyle
There are many ways each one of you can have a more active lifestyle. Whether you are a busy mum or dad, young or old, an office or factory worker, or whatever it is you do, you can build physical activity into your life. In this particular case I’m not referring to fitness, or sports, but in its far simplest term, getting busy using and moving your body. It’s the small daily habits that really add up.
Let me introduce you to NEAT – ‘Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.’ We are referring to anything that will increase energy expenditure (calorie burn) but isn’t directly considered as exercise.
We know that, at both work and home, technology encourages us to sit for long periods. We are also more likely to use motorised transport rather than walking or cycling or use lifts instead of stairs. Well buck the trend. Find ways to get yourself active.
- Walk to the local shops instead of driving or take the dog for a walk.
- Carrying a shopping basket rather than a trolley.
- Hand washing/waxing a car
- Actively playing with children
- Gardening and yard work
- Moderate to heavy housework
- Take the stairs instead of lifts and escalators.
- Pleasure dancing and home exercise
“Have fun, be active. Ride a bike instead of driving, for example.”
Dan Buettner
4. No getting away from physical exercise
You simply have to include fitness as part of your life. Physical fitness keeps your weight in check, helps you sleep better at night, prevents heart attacks and strokes and other health problems, and generally prolongs your life. Basically, there are so many benefits of exercising that you really can’t live a full life without it.
Physical fitness is necessary to stimulate the body’s own natural maintenance and repair system. Your bones, joints and muscles – especially your heart – will actually stay younger if you keep them busy. If you are not Physically Active you increase your Health Risks in many ways.
Everyone can start somewhere and slowly build things up. Getting regular aerobic exercise, which is any exercise in which your heart beats harder and you use more oxygen than usual, such as brisk walking, dancing, cycling and swimming, is important for you to do. The recommended amount is at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. This will boost your energy levels, help you sleep better, sharpen your mind, and strengthen your defence against illness.
“You have to exercise, or at some point you’ll just break down.”
Barack Obama
5. Maintain a safe environment
A clean environment is essential for healthy living. The environment is everything around you. The air you breathe, water you drink, the ground you walk on, and food you eat, the place in which you live, as is the one where you work. It’s important that you know what things in the environment can affect your health and what you can do to help protect yourself and your family. According to research outdoor air pollution is associated with heart and asthma attacks, bronchitis, and premature mortality. And our indoor environment is two to five times more toxic than our outdoor environment! Good health will be supported by safe drinking water, hygienic conditions, healthy housing and a supply of healthy food for a start. Just remember ‘cleanliness is next to godliness.’ So endeavour to keep your environment clean and hygienic at all times.
“Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.”
George Bernard Shaw
6. Take time for Emotional management
We all suffer from emotional problems at times. Fear and anxiety, anger and discontent are incredibly common emotions. Emotions are not consciously controlled, they just happen. The problems start when we allow negativity to spiral out of control. Very simply, emotional management refers to the ability to master your own emotions. Essential when stress seems to be coming at you from all directions. Adopting stress management methods such as Meditation, Deep Breathing, Progressive Muscular is important to you. Relaxation is a great aid in dealing with emotional turmoil. Whatever the cause of your emotional stress, you can work toward lessening and managing it, and feeling better in the process. Emotions can have an important influence on physical health, and it is critical to deal effectively with the feelings that accompany the everyday ups and downs of life.
“Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
7. Practice Self-Love together with Self Care
Self-Love and Self Care go hand in hand. Without one the other won’t happen. To define self-care, it’s basically the act of taking care of yourself physically and mentally. It’s a way to make sure you’re getting the time you need to feel at peace. When you love yourself only then do you make the time to truly take care of yourself. Give yourself unconditional love every day, no matter what. I cannot stress enough how important it is to create an environment of self-love. Once you do then you will begin to go into a deep level of self-care for healing. Each of these lifestyle changes will suddenly become important, but their implementation will then be so easy. You may to this point have paid the price for a bad lifestyle but now will enjoy all the gains associated with healthy lifestyle habits. The catalyst is you valuing yourself, in fact loving yourself enough to act. Now give yourself a big hug and get on with reading the article.
“When you are compassionate with yourself, you trust in your soul, which you let guide your life. Your soul knows the geography of your destiny better than you do.”
John O’Donohue
8. Don’t drink coffee to excess
Ok I’ll be honest, this was one of my hardest challenges. I’m a coffee addict. I simply love sitting in Costa or Starbucks coffee shops writing my articles. Simply Heaven. But as they say too much of a good thing isn’t actually good for you. Studies do show that drinking coffee can lower risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes, neurological disorders and liver diseases. So in the right amounts it’s definitely good for you.
However, just because a little bit of something is good, it doesn’t mean that too much will be as well.
Again I’m not saying you have to cut out coffee or tea entirely. But you do have to limit your consumption. In its guidelines on caffeine consumption, the EU’s food safety watchdog has advised a daily limit of 400mg. This equates to about 4 cups of coffee. Again you’ll be amazed at the effects of reducing your consumption if you are a big coffee drinker. Remember I’m not saying cut it out totally just drink less. One more tip that helped me regain health, drink decaffeinated.
“If it wasn’t for the coffee, I’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever.”
David Letterman
9. Water is essential to regain your health.
Cut out or reduce the sodas, beers, sports drinks and cordials. Instead drink water, lots of it. Most of you probably don’t drink enough water. The thing you need to understand is without water, you will die. When you don’t take enough of it, your performance and results will suffer.
Water is essential for our body to function. It is involved in all metabolic processes. It helps everything from electrolyte balance to hydration, digestion, metabolism, kidney health, lower incidence of urinary infection and protein synthesis. The body uses about 10 – 12 cups of water a day, through such things as breathing, digestion, elimination and perspiration.
So, we need to replenish it daily or our bodies will become dehydrated.
Enough said. Drink at least 2 litres of water daily, at least 10 to 12 cups.
I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.
Henry David Thoreau
10. Get enough sleep
Sleeping the full, recommended eight hours is god’s gift to health. We need it, to rest, restore, rejuvenate. Sleeping for about eight hours a night is absolutely necessary for a healthy body and mind. Nothing more needs to be said, just get it on your schedule and make sure every night you get 8 hours of undisturbed sleep.
“Sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow.”
Tom Roth
11. Breathe clean air
As the old saying goes, you can survive weeks without food, days without water, but only a few minutes without air. We all spend too long at work. Some far too many hours in front of the TV, or driving our cars. Getting outdoors is a rarity, very few people do it enough. It reinvigorates us, relaxes us, refreshes us, literally it just helps us to chill out. Walking in the park, around the neighbourhood, along the beach, in the forest. Make it a priority, to get outdoors for at least 15 minutes every day, rain or shine, getting fresh air into your nostrils.
“You can’t change who you are, but you can change what you have in your head, you can refresh what you’re thinking about, you can put some fresh air in your brain.”
Ernesto Bertarelli
Your lifestyle choices affect your health — how you feel today, tomorrow, and in the future is very much dependent on the lifestyle you have. So, If you’re looking to take control of your health and to get it back to a good level making the right lifestyle choices is going to make a massive difference. For anyone wanting tio regain your health implement these 11 lifestyle changes.
Taking steps to manage your symptoms, lifestyle, and emotions will help you regain your health so the effort will be worth it.
I’m here if you have any questions or need some help. You can get in touch by email – I’ll always reply.
Best wishes and a Happy New Year Larry
Share this message with the people you love. They also deserve to know and use these recommendations.
If you need help!
If things are too difficult to manage on yourself and you need some advice from someone who has probably been through something similar to your problems then allow me to offer you a FREE one-hour Life Coaching session, I know I will be able to help you in some way. Go to my Life Coaching website and fill in the details for a FREE session! Want more information about how I can help, well take a look at my Take Back Your Health Coaching Page.
Score Your Way To Good Health - With Our Healthy Lifestyle Plan
Score your way to good health with our healthy lifestyle plan and it's unique 70 point weekly scorecard!
