Three lifestyle changes you can make (starting today!) to improve your health
I’m constantly re-evaluating and developing my lifestyle, habits and choices to see what seems to work best for the health of my mind and body. But I think I’ve really nailed three huge changes that can improve your health by leaps and bounds:
1. Regular acupressure. I love love love my acupressure mat. Move over, George Foreman! The mother dear has done acupuncture with needles on me only a couple times, but I didn’t like how it felt the few times that I had it done. It felt uncomfortable. It might just be that it takes some getting used to, but I find that because acupressure is less “invasive” (I’m being facetious here – acupuncture itself is definitely not invasive!), it works better for me. The acupressure mat may “hurt” a little when I first climb onto it, but it’s like getting into a super hot bath tub – it’s momentarily uncomfortable and then it feels absolutely amazing. I’m sleeping more deeply, my appetite hasn’t been wildly out of control and I find that I’m more at peace with myself. Acupressure will rock your world and change your attitude on life.
2. Increase greens. I’ve been drinking piles of green smoothies (I use a green powder blend of a wide variety of different greens, seaweeds and herbs for greater nutritional power), as well as really large salads (made with organic mixed spring greens and other vegetables) and romaine lettuce wraps. The weather has been horrible lately, which is especially lame because it means that I don’t want to eat as many “cooling” foods (such as smoothies and salads), but even so, I find that having greens virtually all day long makes my body really happy. One of my raw food friends once said that she wishes that “leafy greens” had their own category on the Health Canada Food Guide, and I agree with her. There are so many important nutrients in leafy greens, but in the Standard American Diet, people get something like barely a serving of leafy greens a day when they should be getting about five times that amount.
3. Change medication. Wow, I had no idea how messed up my body was getting just from medication! I went to my doctor for a prescription refill a couple weeks ago and mentioned that my medication was giving me cramps and such, and he recommended that I switch to a medication with fewer side effects. Within days of switching medication, I was feeling on top of the world. It was wonderful how changed I was! I was feeling so blah before, in comparison to how I feel now. If you aren’t feeling 100 per cent, if you’ve been tired lately or unmotivated or if you’ve even been having problems such as poor digestion or if your skin doesn’t seem to be doing to good, ask your doctor if it’s your medication. You might be pleasantly surprised by the changes you see in yourself by a simple change in your prescription.
The big thing about all of these changes is that I didn’t know my health was lacking until I made these changes. It’s something we see all the time at the holistic vet clinic that I work at: people bring in their elderly dog, not because he has any health issues but just because they want him to get checked out by a holistic vet, and after one or two treatments the dog is suddenly jumping and running around like a puppy. The owner is shocked because they didn’t realize that their dog was lacking anything – they assumed he was just slowing down with old age.
The same sort of thing happened with me when I made these changes in my own life. I’ve been to a couple different doctors within the past couple years and had a lot of tests done (mostly because I needed a medical for a job application which I never ended up going through with in the end anyways), and all of the tests came back “normal.” No problems. Decently healthy.
But what’s the point of being “decently healthy” when you can be awesomely healthy? It’s worth making the above changes, even if you think that you’re at the peak of your health, because you might find that you’ll get even more energy and vigour than you ever thought you’d have!
What are your top three lifestyle changes that you’d suggest to someone? Has your medication caused you problems? Have you found that you’ve had much more energy from increasing the amounts of greens in your diet?
“what’s the point of being “decently healthy” when you can be awesomely healthy?”
Exactly 🙂
“what’s the point of being “decently healthy” when you can be awesomely healthy?”
Exactly 🙂
For me eating breakfast, drinking enough water and being active every day has made a HUGE difference for me. That and remembering to take my vitamins. 🙂
Interesting post Sagan. I should take stock but for me, listening to the bod, trying to add in different foods I might not have tried before – at least try! 😉
Acupressure sounds like a revolutionary regiment, I might just try it out. Perhaps it can sort out my listless nature as of late. And quite true, I’ve been trying slowly to add more greens in my diet. If I asked my past self if there will be a time that I’ll be enjoying munching on brocollis and green tea infused drinks, I would have scoffed at such an idea.hee
It is literally a few changes in your life that can make all the difference! that’s what I love about the path to health: it’s really quite simple, just need only identify what it is that is lacking (or in excess) in your life.
As for top three advice… well, not that I’m qualified to give nutritional advice to anyone, but I would probably say:
1. Drink more water – few people actually drink enough
2. Manufacture some decent Zs – sleep is so overlooked!
3. Hold back the condiments – I remember reading a study that said that if people reduced their condiment intake by 50%, that would make the “lower you weight by 10%” challenge a breeze. Of course, condiments include: salt, cheese, sugar, mayo, butter, etc.
Great post Sagan!
I feel the same way about being in shape. I remember before I was and how much better I felt afterwords. I had no idea!
I think every one can benefit from more greens…though I think we should work towards not having to rely on any medication.
I’ve never tried acupressure before though. Will have to look up on that!
My advice is to get more fresh air…Get out of the gym and walk in the open air. It does you a whole lot of good! 🙂