Five Simple Health Tips to Jump Start A New You

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Creating a heather lifestyle does not have to be complicated, but it does require commitment. It takes 21 days to create a new habit and 6 months for this habit to become rooted in your routine. Because life can get in the way, I recommend small changes, one at a time. The list below represents five simple fitness and health tips that you can incorporate into your life and have a huge impact on your health, energy, and vitality. Choose one item at a time and do this for at least 3 weeks before adding another component to your lifestyle. When you are doing this without having to constantly remember, then you are ready to move on to the next item.

• Drink half of your "ideal" weight in ounces of water per day.

If your ideal weight (not your actual weight) is 120 pounds, you should drink 60 ounces of water a day. Even mild dehydration will cause a 3% drop in your basal metabolism. That means you will gain 1 pound of fat every 6 months! Drinking water minimizes swelling and water retention in women. These symptoms are usually a result of lack of hydration. Drinking lots of water is how you release the fat and toxins stored in your fat cells and also how you can prevent muscle cramps. When muscle cells do not have adequate fluids, they do not work as well and performance can suffer. During exercise, you should try to drink 3 to 5 ounces of water every 20 minutes. Knocking down your 8-10 glasses of water at once does not cut. For maximum effectiveness, staying "evenly" hydrated throughout the day is how our bodies metabolize fat. In addition, proper hydration keeps our kidneys and bowel function healthily. Getting proper hydration also gives you younger looking skin. The symptoms associated with mild dehydration are weakness, muscle cramps, headaches, irritability, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, heart palpitations and anxiety.

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• Get your vitamin D levels tested.

More than 80% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. This is especially prevalent during the winter months. Research shows that adequate levels of vitamin D can boost the immune system and decrease the risk of cancer. You can buy vitamin D3 in a supplement form or you can spend some time in the sun even though your body can only generate vitamin D from UVB rays and during certain hours of the day. There is a smartphone application called Dminder. This app lets you know at what times of the day, based on your geographic location, the sun is at the right angle and generating UVB rays so your body can create vitamin D. In some geographic areas there will be times of the year when you do not can generate vitamin D from sun exposure and will have to get it in the form of supplements or special tanning beds. This application takes all scientific data into account, in addition to your personal profile, which includes skin pigmentation, weight, and age. When you are ready to begin your exposure to the sun, enter the type of clothing you are wearing and start the timer. When you maximize your production of Vitamin D during the day, an alarm will sound to end your session. For those of you who do not like the outdoors or live in a place where you can not generate vitamin D, there are plenty of vitamin D supplements. Look for vitamin D in the form of D3. The recommended daily amount is controversial, but generally, 1000-5000mg is recommended. For more information on this topic, visit mercola.com.

• Go to bed before 10 at night.

Since I know this is going to be a challenge, start with going to bed a bit earlier every night and work your way to 10 pm over a three week period. The latest sleep studies indicate that deeper and more regenerative sleep occurs between 10:00 p.m. - 2 am If your body is chronically deprived of "regenerative sleep" between 10:00 a.m. - 2 a.m., then you may still feel tired and have difficulty getting up in the morning. At 10 o'clock at night, your body goes through a series of transformations after increased production of melatonin. Melatonin not only helps regulate your sleep/wake cycle, but it is also responsible for repairing and restoring your body. A reduction of your mental and physical activity is needed by ten o'clock at night. change to occur. Watching television, reading from an electronic device or bright LED watches impact melatonin production and the subsequent chain reaction that takes your body to deep sleep. This is a good reason to buy paperback books and a book light! You can also listen to relaxing music. Getting a good night's sleep can create longevity and health. Deep rest at night helps you fight stress, maintain a healthy weight, and keep your energy levels high. A simple health tip for those who want to lose weight: Get a minimum of 5 hours of sleep per night.

• Eat more fruits and vegetables.

When we eat a diet rich in whole foods, we feed our bodies with thousands of micronutrients that stabilize blood sugar and cholesterol, decrease weight, stimulate the immune system, reverse heart disease, and prevent cancer. An apple a day can keep the doctor away, but a mushroom a day will help keep cancer away! The micronutrients found in fruits and vegetables are very powerful antioxidants. Micronutrients create many protective compounds of cells. Many of these compounds, such as polyphenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, and phytoestrogens have significant health benefits and are an essential component of optimal health. Micronutrients rich in carotenoids are found in carrots, tomatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, and spinach. Vegetables that are dark red, purple or black provide rich sources of polyphenols. Flavonoids are found in nuts, seeds, grains, green tea, red wine, kale, and lemon. Phytoestrogens are found in soy and linseed. If you do not have access to a new variety of products, add your diet with a good formula for concentrated foods. It is important to incorporate raw and cooked vegetables into your diet. A simple health tip is that baking vegetables is easy, fast and delicious! Cut your vegetables into small pieces, drizzle them in olive oil, add salt, pepper, and a little cayenne pepper. Baked at 420 degrees for about 20 minutes. To change it, add raw nuts or dried cranberries in the last five minutes of cooking. You can either squeeze the fresh lemon juice or stir some Parmesan cheese over the top to give it more flavor.

• Exercise for 20 minutes a day.

It is not necessary to kill yourself in the gym for hours on end. You can get a tremendous benefit from just 20 minutes of activity per day, and even walk by the dog account! If you can think of exercise as a play-date, then it may be something to be expected, not something to be done! Find something you enjoy doing and doing. It could be tennis, swimming, hiking, jogging, weight lifting, aerobics Zumba, dance, pole dance, kickboxing, boxing, cardio bar, Nia, yoga, cycling, jump rope, hula hooping, climbing stairs or even shoot baskets. Think of something you like to do and then do it again! If you can commit to anything physical for 20 minutes a day, you can have a big impact on your health and really boost your metabolism! Running on a treadmill for 20 minutes a day at 4 mph will take 26 days for you to lose 1 pound of fat. That's a total of 14 pounds of fat in a year from this simple health tip. That's a lot of pants sizes! There are so many fun ways to lose weight and get in shape by improving your heart health, reducing stress, increasing endorphins, and building muscles.

None of these simple health tips is rocket science. In fact, I bet you already know most of these things, you just do not. I spent years looking for complicated diets and supplements to put myself in ideal shape. The best medicine I ever had, I already knew - I just did not do it. Make this fitness andhealth tips your new resolution a lifestyle change to incorporate healthy habits three weeks at a time!

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