Lifestyle choices deeply influence your health.  Without healthy choices your body may develop a chronic condition. The list that follows are habits that have been proven to make a difference.  If you have acquired a chronic illness – arthritis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, MS, or one of the many others, then you need to examine your choices and determine if you are willing to commit to making changes that will improve your health.  Such changes may completely reverse the chronic challenge you are dealing with.

With this list I am not giving you the reasons why each of these choices is important.  If you want to find out why, then you need to do some personal research or feel free to contact me and I will explain why each of these steps and others affect your future health or if adopted can start you on a healthier path through life.

The list provides a few of the more important lifestyle choices you can make to maintain or improve your health!

1. Get 7 to 8 hours of restful sleep each and every night. This is not negotiable and not something you can catch up on. Sleep is essential to your well-being.  Too much or too little works against optimal health.
2. Arise early each morning. Give yourself some quiet time to begin each day calmly. Make your bed, drink some clean water, plan your day, and be grateful.
3. Spend time in nature. Get outside. Breath in fresh air and be in touch with the earth.  We evolved within nature and our bodies respond well to reconnecting with her.  When possible walk barefoot in the sand, read sitting under a tree, walk in the woods, …
4. Spend time with positive people. Socialize with those you love and friends who have a healthy outlook on living.
5. Make sure your days have breaks for joy and laughter. Look for and even record in a notebook the positives that happen each day. If lacking such breaks in your life, make changes allowing them to become an integral part of each day.  Choose positive actions rather than dwelling on negative news clips. Smile!
6. Sit less. Move more.
7. Eat fresh unprocessed foods. Ideally eat foods that are non-GMO, that have been grown organically or at least grown without chemicals. Eat these foods in their natural forms when possible – whole fruits instead of their juices; pasture raised beef not factory processed, ….
8. Eat a variety of colors of fresh vegetables and fruits each day. Aim for a minimum of seven different ones daily.  Check the “clean foods” lists on the internet and make sure at least those on the “dirty foods” list are sourced organically.
9. Spend time shopping for (farmers’ markets??) and preparing your own food. Appreciate that you have a choice and you can choose to nourish your body.  Again, be grateful for this blessing.
10. Avoid all things artificial. Especially diet foods and artificial sugars.  Choose natural over processed and sit down to eat and drink when possible.  Enjoy your food –choose to eat consciously and not while on the run or when distracted (as in front of the TV).
11. Hydrate your body. Choose to drink water – add lemon or other natural flavoring if desired but drink to hydrate your body.  The usual recommendation is to drink the number of ounces a day equal to one half of your body weight in pounds.  Sounds like a lot so work up to this gradually.  Your body will thank you.
12. Build yourself a healthy microbiome. There are billions of good bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live within our human bodies.  Critical to good health is building and maintaining a healthy gut.  Your health depends on this living system within your digestive tract.  Your food and beverage choices determine if your gut will be healthy and supportive of you or will colonize unhealthy microbes that can do much damage both in the gut and elsewhere in your body.  What and when you consume nourishment determines your microbiome’s ability to synergistically help you or to lead you into disease.
13. Eat within a twelve hour or shorter time frame each day. Your brain and your body will thank you.
14. Only use medications when they are absolutely necessary. Things like antacids, antibiotics, and over the counter medications as well as prescriptions disrupt and imbalance your gut microbiome and affect multiple other areas of your body. Only use such things when they are essential – that is do not take a pill to hide a symptom you could have avoided by choosing healthier foods, not eating on the run, and not going to bed when you have just eaten a full meal.  Be kind to your body.  You cannot replace it with a new model.
15. Get up and move.  Take a brisk walk around the block once or twice a day.  Instead of meeting a friend for coffee, meet them for a walk at break time or lunchtime.  Find something that you enjoy and make time to do it regularly.  Your cardiovascular system and your lymphatic system will thank you!
16. Choose health-enhancing habits. Quit non- healthy ones.  g. stop smoking – even/especially artificial cigarettes.  Stop addictions to sugar, to electronics, to violence, … Choose health.
17. Choose to immediately end any unhealthy relationships.
18. Write in a journal – Plan your day; write out what you are grateful for, keep track of your healthy choices, and aim to make your good choices score higher each day. You will enjoy your life much more.
19. Get involved in activities that make you truly feel great. A new hobby, a group that helps clean up the environment, … Think outside the box and find something to do that makes your heart smile.
20. Adopt these habits and your life will take on a new vibrancy. You will enable your body to avoid disease and grow in health and strength.  You will begin to awaken looking forward to each day and fall asleep at night with ease.  Make a personal choice to be healthy.

You can add to this list. You can learn more about each of these personal choices. You can live disease free. You can rebuild your body – it all depends on your life choices.  Bless yourself by making these choices good ones.