Start improving your health immediately

We are all a little guilty of procrastination when it comes to staying healthy. People want results, but when it comes to doing the work, then the excuses start rolling in. Losing weight and being healthy is not just about hitting the gym or the odd healthy meal here and there, it’s about a complete lifestyle overhaul. This can happen by making regular healthy choices, even before you pick up a dumbbell. Here’s how:

Drink water as soon as you wake up
We all know the importance of water, right? Our body is made up of approximately 70% water. When you wake up in the morning, your body is dehydrated from the overnight fast. Drinking half a litre of water before you do anything else will give your body the top up it needs to start the day. Often, the body confuses promptings of water for food.

Drinking two litres of water per day is a good starting point for most adults. Diminished performance, poor concentration and sickness can be symptoms of dehydration. Your intestines will also squeeze and extract water from your faeces if you are really dehydrated and nobody wants their body made up of that type of water, do you?

Start a workout habit of 10 minutes a day
It doesn’t take long to form a new habit, usually in less than 30 days. Don’t try to do too much too soon. Start by just developing an exercise habit rather than killing yourself at the gym. Using a daily 10-minute workout is a great start. You can fill your 10-minutes with a combination of any of the following movement patterns: squatting, pulling, lunging, pushing, bending. My advice is to workout nice and early before breakfast. Early workouts work in tune with your hormonal system and that way, you’re not thinking about exercise for the rest of the day. Start this workout habit today and before long it will feel as natural as brushing your teeth!

Ditch the table salt and start eating sea salt
A good majority of people are still overloading themselves with processed salt. Salt isn’t actually the problem, it’s the type of salt that matters. Did you know that human blood has the same salt content as sea salt? Table salt is highly processed, often using chemicals that leave it clean, white and absent of all those precious trace minerals. Most table salt resembles something you would find in a science lab rather than in nature.

Start to breathe deeply from your belly again!
Stress causes shallow breathing through the upper chest and neck. Have you ever watched a baby breathe? They breathe deeply from their bellies. As we get older and stress starts to creep into our lives, we start to take that breathing away from the belly into the chest and neck. Shallow breathing causes headaches, upper back and neck tension Learn to slow down your breathing and take your breath to your belly. You can practise deep breathing by doing the following:

Take ten deep breaths counting to 5 on the IN breath and 5 on the OUT breathe. Next, push your belly OUT as you breathe IN and pull the belly IN as you breathe OUT. Remember that two-thirds of your breath should come from your belly and one-third from your chest. Take some time each day and learn to breathe deeply. It’s a wonderful stress reliever!

Re-assess your medication and make some changes
It takes a lot of energy for the body to process drugs and most drugs have side effects. If you are suffering from a sickness or disease, then start to question what may be out of balance in your life. Are you stressed out, eating dead food, dehydrated, lacking in quality sleep? If you have been taking medication for a long time then book an appointment with your doctor to reassess your situation. Don’t just reach for the drugs every time you have a headache, backache, constipation etc. Start to question the source of the problem rather than addressing the symptoms every time.

When you go to bed counts
We evolved from nature and have always been influenced by the fall and rise of the sun. In the mornings, the hormone Cortisol is stimulated, this prepares the body for action. In the evenings Cortisol levels are reduced and Anabolic hormones are released to stimulate tissue regrowth and repair during sleep. If you go to bed too late then you miss out on a large portion of the growth and repair cycle, which usually runs from around 10-2am. From 2am to 6am most repair is mental rather than physical. We are creatures of the earth and need to work with our hormones rather than against them. It’s not necessarily how much sleep you get that matters but when you sleep that counts.

Take off your shoes and start earthing
How often do you touch your bare feet on the grass or earth? Earthing is based on the principle that we have lost our connection with the earth. If you think about it, do you ever walk around in bare feet anymore? Our ancestors used to have constant connection with the earth and this is something that has been lost today. There are lots of research coming out now that shows positive reasons why we should all get out there and dance on the grass or paddle in streams. Just connecting your body to the earth will give you lots of natural energy.