4 Steps to Achieve a Healthier Life

Maintaining health through proper diet and exercise should not a difficult pursuit. Here are 4 things to do daily that will facilitate your road to health:

1. Walk! Don’t wait to buy the latest fitness gadget from an infomercial (who needs another ab machine? How many shirts can you hang on your neatly folded treadmill?), instead turn off the television and walk for 45 minutes. It will lower your blood pressure and blood sugar at the same time increase your metabolism so that even at rest you are still burning calories. Try to get in about 10,000 steps per day. You may want to get a tracking device that will remind you of how you are doing.
2. Eat Fresh! Fresh fish, chicken, vegetables, nuts and fruit along with healthy oils like olive oil are the mainstays of a healthy “Mediterranean diet”. Remember beans are a great source of protein so getting your protein doesn’t always require meat. Remember, processed meats are not fresh. Just because Subway advertisements say eat fresh doesn’t mean what they are serving is fresh, deli meats in general have added chemicals to increase the shelf life of food but are associated with a lower life expectancy. Eat as naturally and organically as possible.
3. Read labels! There are a multitude of added chemicals in food added to enhance color and shelf life. Some investigators are suspecting some of them as being obesogenic I.E. may promote weight gain. Remember, we have evolved to digest whole foods, our bodies are not a lab experiment food processors who add chemicals to their food products. Avoid these chemicals and review the list of 75 additives and chemicals to avoid. For reference you can pin it to your smart phone for easy reference when grocery shopping.
4. Be educated! Try to read one health blog article twice week. It’ll take less than 5 minutes of your time. I try to make scientific research available for you in understandable, everyday language. There are a lot health blogs filled with misinformation by authors trying to promote a “fix all” health product. In this blog, I just want to share real scientific data in an easy to read format to increase your awareness and health, information I have learned to become healthier myself. My goal is to help you become an educated decision maker for you and the one’s you love.

Happy healthy eating and walking!