7 Simple Steps to Healthy Living
Happy 2020! NOW is the perfect time to go for these simple steps to healthy living!
This is not just the start of a new YEAR, it’s a new DECADE!! Wow. Let’s make this year, this month, TODAY the start of something BIG for you and your family! You know as soon as YOU get healthy, they are gonna want to have some of that fun!!!
7 Simple Steps to Healthy Living
Here they are and you can start TODAY! Adopt them all right now or add in one at a time, whatever works for you.
Here's the part I keep missing: make sure there is PLENTY of joy in your life. I have so much joy-potential around me, it's INSANITY to overlook it!
If the major source of your joy is found in your kitchen which is how it used to be for me? I’m telling you right now that’s not joy: that’s stuffing down fear and pain. We mistake the relief of not feeling fear and pain for joy. That’s not joy. Step #3 below has helped me tremendously in discovering and seeking more joy!
Ok. Take a look at the steps to healthy living!
#1 MAKE THE DECISION that healthy living is your priority
You are #1 on the priority list because you gotta have it to give it!
Remember the X-factor: persistence? Be persistent. When you drop the ball, just pick it back up again.
Place reminders everywhere you look. Tape the phrase "Healthy Living is my Priority" to your mirrors, cars, devices.
I use this post-it note tape. Love this stuff! (You can buy singles at office supply stores, too!)
#2 STOP EATING these "acceptable" poisons
I'm talking about the 4 horsemen of the obesity apocalypse: bread, sugar, chips & soda. Yes, I said that out loud. I LIVED on these foods, I know how addicting they are!!! I thought I would NEVER be able to live without Diet Coke or corn chips. And Snickers. Or those big Symphony bars.
But my fervent desire to not die fat overcame my anxiety at giving them up.
I never want coke or candy bars now. Chips and french fries are still my weakness. I literally can't have them in my house. As long as I don't, I'm safe and I no longer have to resist buying them at the grocery store. I'm allowed to eat them at a restaurant (we rarely eat out) or at a friend's house (rare as well). If I have them too often, though, it wakes up the chip monster who lives inside me, lol.
I know this, I admit it. I live with it. I'm so happy to be in charge of my body and my food now, I can HAPPILY live with it. Besides, there’s PLENTY of good fun delicious food to eat!!!
I suggest -- and I learned this from every clean-eating website I've visited -- making a clean start. Go right now and THROW AWAY all the baddies. Then, once it’s all in the garbage, take the bag outside and throw it in the big bin. Then drag that sucker to the curb. Even if trash day is not till next week, get that stuff OUT and away.
CONFESSION: I have thrown away more food, then bought it again, then threw it away again more times than I care to acknowledge. It took me awhile to believe I couldn't resist certain foods and that I needed TIME without hearing those foods calling my name from the cupboard/freezer to loosen my grip.
To the Bakers
I know this is especially hard for you. If you are overweight, if you want to have your body back AND you love to bake? I'm sorry to say it but baking is literally KILLING you. Nothing will stop this trend but giving up the dangerous foods.
If you love to bake and you don’t want to die fat or of heart disease, cancer or diabetes, bake organic sourdough bread -- the most digestible bread -- and/or keto.
I'm not keto but I do eat low carb. Kristie is my favorite keto cook on YouTube. You don't have to be totally keto to use her recipes!
The facts about how bread, sugar, chips & soda contribute to illness.
These 4 unhealthy foods are the most commonly found in our kitchens. Your body sees them ALL as sugar and sugar is the devil when it comes to weight management and health.
Heart disease is the #1 killer of Americans and out-of-control blood sugar plays a significant role. Did you know that you can reverse heart disease? This is the supplement and this is the book that explains how it works.
Cancer is the #2 killer of Americans and cancer LOVES sugar, no matter where it comes from!
Diabetes is the #7 killer of Americans, but it may actually be much higher on the list. Because
the number of diabetics has DOUBLED in last 20 years, and
it is hugely underreported because 25% of diabetics and 90% of pre-diabetics don’t know they have it.
What about Hormones?
As long as you are ingesting unhealthy foods, your hormones will be out of balance. Not just what we call the sex hormones (testosterone, estrogen, progesterone) but also ghrelin (turns on hunger), leptin (turns it off), insulin (turns blood sugar into energy), cortisol (stress hormone). These all play an essential roll in a healthy weight and lifestyle.
And toxins?
Conventional foods contain toxins including (but not limited to) GMOs, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, plastic & styrofoam residue. A healthy body will eliminate many of these toxins via regular detox pathways: liver, kidneys, colon, sweat, lungs.
In today's world, we are overwhelmed with toxins and those detox pathways often become clogged. When that happens, your body stores as many excess toxins as possible in body fat. It's your body's way of protecting you from them.
You can see how this makes losing fat an uphill battle. You want to lose the fat, your body wants to keep it to protect you. Your body usually wins.
What's more, your brain is 50% fat, your cells are 50% fat, your organs have fat in them... it's not just belly & back fat where toxins are stored!!!
DETOX Strategy: with clients, I use a 30 day elimination diet to start the detox/cleanse. Once that is completed, we use this zeolite spray to complete the job.
#3 READ or LISTEN to Personal Development books
If you are not moving forward, you are sliding backward into entropy which is disorder. There is no such thing as staying static. The circumstances of your life may or may not improve, but your level of joy definitely will not improve. #nomatterwhereyougothereyouare
Joy is tied to your beliefs and your beliefs dictate your thoughts, actions, decisions, results. If your life is not looking like you want OR, if it looks fabulous but you are not experiencing joy, it’s SOLELY because of your limiting beliefs.
Maybe you believe that your past experiences dictate your future. Not true. You see, in order for something to be a fact, it MUST BE TRUE 100% ACROSS THE BOARD IN EVERY SITUATION FOR EVERY PERSON.
BUT we all know people who had horrible upbringings and are now successful HAPPY HEALTHY human beings. Clearly their shitty past did not dictate their happy future, right? What’s different? Their beliefs.
To be everything you were MADE to be, you gotta change your limiting beliefs. It’s the hardest and most rewarding work you will ever do.
Your beliefs rule. To change your results, you must change your beliefs.
How to change your beliefs
Retrain your brain using EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and education. This is my reading list, which is constantly updated.
The first two books I recommend: The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton Ph.D. and You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. Powerful, life-changing information.
#4 Spend the first 5-10 minutes of your day in Silence
No time? Heh. Get up 10 minutes earlier, get that first cup of coffee, tea or water, then just sit and stare. Or sip with your eyes closed. No blue screen, no reading, no radio: silence.
Sometimes this is the only “me” time I take. And I must TAKE it, not wait to GET it. TAKE it. Trust me, every single one of us has earned that 5-10 minutes!!!
The rewards from this simple act are PHENOMENAL. Mostly because, with this one action, you are changing one of your limiting beliefs. Even if you don't know what that belief is.
PS. I just read this short blog post from Paul Chek. Good questions to ask ourselves and points up the importance of a little alone time!
#5 COMMIT to spending 10-50% of your food budget on naturally raised/grown food
If it's locally grown, even BETTER!
Studies show that food raised naturally — either livestock or plants raised/grown without hormones, antibiotics, pesticides & GMOs — actually have a much higher nutrient density than “conventionally” raised foods.
Most of us who eat this way report SAVING money because, as we become healthier, we eat less. PLUS as we change our limiting beliefs, we have less need to stuff down emotions.
EGGS from pastured chickens fed non-GMO soy-free feed are an excellent gateway food. You’ll pay $3-6 for a dozen eggs. Sounds pricey but just GET OVER IT. No problem spending $4 for a bag of chips, right?
Chips are $.25-$.50/oz up to $3/oz for pork rinds, with ZERO nutritional value except calories! Healthy eggs are $.25 to $.50 each and so nutrient dense, they are considered superfoods!
When shopping for eggs, here's how to read the egg carton labels to make sure you are getting what you are paying for!
Did you know that pastured eggs (compared to conventional eggs) have:
1/3 less cholesterol
1/4 less saturated fat
2/3 MORE Vitamin A
2x more omega 3
3x more E
7x more beta carotene
50% more folate
Do you want to dance at your grandkids wedding and remember who they are??? Then healthy food is one of the essential steps to healthy living!
#6 Belly Laugh Every Day
If you can laugh with another real live person, even on the phone or video, even better! Norman Cousins cured cancer twice with laughter.
And, P.S., you are changing another limiting belief =/;-)
#7 EXERCISE is not on this list
Joining a gym early in your journey to healthy living is the fastest way to failure. By March 1, 85% of you will have quit going altogether IF you ever went at all.
Ask any LONG TIME body builder or personal trainer or gym rat: BODIES ARE MADE IN THE KITCHEN. That is where you start getting healthier.
When to add exercise
Anytime, of course, but you will get the most benefit once your toxic load is down and your eating habits have improved.
Now when I exercise, I notice a difference in my body and my overall health. At first, though, it just made me tired and grumpy.
What if I WANT to exercise???
OF COURSE, you can exercise all you want, all you are able! I've come to love it and look forward to it!
And you may lose some weight at first, but that 6 pack won't show until you change your eating habits.
When you do add exercise, choose muscle building over chronic cardio. You’ll burn more fat all the time, increase your metabolism, protect your joints instead of beat them down, and strengthen your skeleton.
Muscle building exercises include yoga, pilates, body sculpting, and gym workouts. I alternate between yoga and these HIITs (High Intensity Interval Training) at home.
That's it!
The 7 beginner steps to healthy living!
Consider adopting the 80/20 rule: 80% healthy habits, 20% questionable. Everybody has cake now and then. Just don’t ever keep it in your house. When the party is over, throw the rest of the cake away right then. I’m dead serious.
I'm so looking forward to watching your progress. Remember: 2 steps forward, 1 step back? THAT IS STILL PROGRESS!!! Here's to a fabulous decade!