Tips for Healthier Living
- Ensure that you drink enough fluids – minimum 1 fl. oz. (~30 mL) of water for every 2 pounds (~1 Kg) of body weight. Water and/or herbal teas preferred!
- Avoid sugar including in its many guises: glucose, dextrose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, sucrose, maltodextrin, brown sugar, sorbitol – to name a few.
- Avoid aspartame and other ‘sugar replacements’ such as Splenda, Sucralose, and Sweet’n'Low.
- Avoid soft drinks, ‘energy drinks,’ ‘vitamin waters,’ and fruit juices (unless freshly pressed). Make water your beverage of choice!
- Minimise flour products – breads, pasta, muffins, bagels, crackers, etc.
- Minimise refined and processed foods. Foods are best when eaten closest to their natural, unrefined state.
- Eat local! Support your farmers’ and public markets; grow some of your own veggies, if possible.
- Avoid microwaving your food.
- Consume healthy fats: omega-3 fatty acids from cold-water fish and algae; olive oil; coconut oil; ghee; butter (in moderation).
- Avoid unhealthy fats including transfats, saturated (hydrogenated) fats, and partially hydrogenated fats.
- Decrease refined vegetable oils including canola, soy, corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, palm, and palm kernel oil. Many of these are genetically modified (especially canola, soybean and corn) unless they are certified organic.
- Foods high in fat are especially important to consume organically: vegetable/plant oils, meat, dairy (milk, butter, cheese, yogurt), eggs, avocadoes, nuts, and nut butters. Many pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics and growth hormones used in conventionally grown crops and factory farm-raised animals, are fat-soluble and thus concentrate in the fats and oils of foods (and ultimately, in you).
- If you consume alcohol, do so in moderation.
- If you smoke and can’t bring yourself to quit yet, try to decrease how much you smoke.
- Minimise cell phone use and other exposure to wireless electromagnetic radiation.
- Maintain a satisfactory work/life balance.
- Get regular exercise.
- Get adequate rest, and sleep in as dark a room as possible.
- Minimise electrical gadgets in your bedroom – use an old-fashioned battery alarm clock, not an electric one; no computer, TV, stereo, or telephone.
- Nurture loving and supportive relationships.
- Consider an animal companion.
- Rejuvenate yourself in Nature.
- Practice mindfulness and awareness of the Present Moment.
- Connect with the Stillness within your Self.
- Breathe…
