Healthy Lifestyle

Healthy Lifestyle

Living a healthy lifestyle - It's a personal matter! Have you ever wondered what "living a healthy lifestyle" actually means? Do you ever feel that there are unrealistic standards related to improving your health - or just downright confusion about how to improve your health? Well, this article tackles a couple of the biggest barriers to actually getting going towards living a healthy lifestyle and experiencing the many joys of being healthy.

Let's define "lifestyle" - a manner of living that reflects the person's values and attitudes. It's how you live your life, reflecting the choices and decisions you make. The meaning of "healthy" in this context means "having or indicating good health in body or mind; free from infirmity or disease." A healthy lifestyle then, is living life in a way that promotes physical and mental well-being.

Currently, there are a couple of rather unrealistic concepts in society that make it extremely difficult to get started on improving your health and enjoying a healthy lifestyle. The first idea is that there are certain, very specific things that define a healthy lifestyle, such as maintaining a certain weight or eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Those can be health goals, but they do not define what living a healthy lifestyle is.

The image below illustrates the four primary factors that contribute to living a healthy lifestyle:

Your personal decisions and choices on how you use them in your life are part of your lifestyle. See the article on healthy eating guidelines to learn how to make healthier food choices, for example. I read an article on Medicinenet.com that blatantly accuses Americans of not leading a healthy lifestyle, because "...only 3% of American adults adhere to the four tenets of a healthy lifestyle defined in this study. This study confirms that compliance with public health recommendations is remarkably low among US adults..."1 I don't know about you, but this irritates the hell out of me for several reasons. One, because there is no effective education on what the body needs to be healthy in the US, like HOW to maintain a "healthy weight with a body mass index (BMI) in the range of 18.5-25.0" - which is one of the four things that they define as living a healthy lifestyle. This pompous, pretentious attitude oppresses a lot of people and is another barrier to being motivated to even learn how to improve your health. Stating that people who aren't maintaining a healthy weight, for example, are guilty of not living a healthy lifestyle is absurd when the facts are that the diet industry rakes in billions of dollars a year from folks who WANT to lose weight. Obesity is a national epidemic. We can then conclude that that those who accuse us of "not living a healthy lifestyle" are the ones guilty of failure to help their patients with anything effective to achieve and maintain a healthy weight or other similar factors, like not smoking. (I smoked for 30 years and no doctor helped me to stop, ever!) Crick, when I read stuff like that, it sounds like we are bad, misbehaving dogs, peeing on the rug or something that we know we shouldn't do but do it anyway!

No wonder such a small percentage of us "pass muster..." We're not bad dogs! We do our best when we feel that we have the power of choice and our own self-determinism over our lives. The joys of being healthy are self-determined, not dictated by some "authority."

Living a healthy lifestyle is a matter of relative choices that you make, the choices being made on the basis of "more healthy or less healthy." Improving your health is done on a gradient basis. The idea that if you don't get physical activity 30 minutes or more per day at least 5 times a week then you aren't living a healthy lifestyle is a false concept that prevents a lot of folks from even starting in my opinion.

For example: let's take a guy named Joe who leads a pretty sedentary (lack of physical activity) lifestyle. He decides to take a little walk at lunchtime to start incorporating some movement and stress management into his lifestyle. Let's say he starts out by taking a 5 - 10 minute walk at lunch maybe 3 times a week. According to the definition of "healthy lifestyle" in the above study, Joe is guilty of not living a healthy lifestyle. How do you think Joe might feel if he was accused of that? That he might as well give up right now because it's not real yet for him to engage in physical activity for at least half an hour a day? I beg to differ. By getting out for a bit of exercise and fresh air, maybe even noshing on an apple mid-morning instead of a doughnut, Joe is certainly living a healthier lifestyle

than he was when he was sitting at his desk all day, scarfing down coffee and doughnuts for energy!

So the idea of rigid, "all-or-nothing" compliance to some arbitrary definition of "healthy lifestyle" is probably one of the most unrealistic and ineffective concepts to have if you really want to improve your health and enjoy the joys of being healthy. It isn't a matter of "healthy" or "not healthy." It's a matter of "more healthy" or "less healthy." The unrealistic ideas that slow us down or prevent us in improving our health are just as important to discuss as going over the factors in living a healthy lifestyle themselves. When you subscribe to À Santé, the health and wellness newsletter of Improving Health and Energy, you'll open the door to useful, realistic help and discussion about how to improve your health. Starting with the understanding that improving your health is something done gradiently, step-by-step instead of an all-or-nothing activity, you'll be actively living a more healthy lifestyle by tossing that stressful notion into the garbage!

Food, Nutrition and Health What's the relationship between food, nutrition and health? Well, they are all very closely related! The food that we eat can contain either good nutrition or none at all. The quality of nutrition that we provide to the body has a direct impact on health.

If improving your health is one of your goals, educating yourself about nutrition is one of the first steps you can take. The primary factors that affect health are: • • • •

Nutrition Physical activity Sleep and Stress management

Learning the basics about food, nutrition and health will give you the understanding and the ability to make well-informed decisions about what you choose to eat. The article on "Nutrition Data" explains what nutrition is and the purpose of nutrition. "The Nutrition of Foods" explains that food breaks down into the nutrients that your body requires to function. These nutrients are: •

Protein

•

Fats

•

Carbohydrates and

•

Vitamins and minerals

Although we don't usually think of water as a nutrient, it is actually vital to your health. We'd croak if we didn't have any! The article on the health benefit of water describes why water is so essential to your body and improving your health. A nutrition fact label is found on all processed foods and has information that you can use to make informed choices about food and nutrition for health. It's especially useful once you you are aware of the different nutrients and how your body uses them.

Protein in the diet: The importance of protein Protein is one of the primary nutrients in the food we eat. The main source of protein in the diet is from foods such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products, beans and nuts as well as from a variety of grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Proteins provide the "building material" for the growth and repair of tissue and are a key part of every cell in the body. The word "protein" comes from a Greek root word that means "prime or chief, first." So that gives us a good idea of the importance of protein! Proteins break down into substances called amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. There are 20 amino acids that the human body needs to function. There are two groups of amino acids - "essential amino acids" and "non-essential amino acids." •

Essential amino acids are called "essential" because your body can't make them. They need to be obtained from protein in the diet. There are 9 essential amino acids.

•

Non-essential amino acids are called "non-essential" because it's not essential that you get them from the protein in food - your body is able to manufacture them from material that's in your body. There are 11 amino acids that the body can make with the material it has.

If you've ever heard the term "complete protein," that refers to protein in the diet that has all 9 essential amino acids that the body can't make itself. "Complete" proteins are found in animal protein such as meat, fish, milk, and eggs. The soybean is also a source of complete protein. Protein from plant sources, like corn and rice for example, is "incomplete" - simply meaning that it doesn't have all 9 essential amino acids. This doesn't mean that plant protein is inferior by any means! "Complete" and "incomplete" proteins merely refer to the number of essential amino acids in them.

What do amino acids do? Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are restructured in the body to create:

Hormones Hormones are proteins that are produced by living cells. Hormones circulate in body fluids, such as the blood, and because a certain effect on other cells that are usually at a distance from the place where the hormone is made. Adrenalin is a hormone that is produced by the body in times of stress and adrenalin causes the heart rate and breathing to speed up. Enzymes Enzymes are complex proteins formed by plant and animal cells that assist or enable chemical reactions in the body to occur. Digestive enzymes, for example, help your body break food down into chemical particles that can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Antibodies An antibody is a protein produced by certain white blood cells in response to a foreign substance, called an antigen, such as bacteria. Hormones, enzymes and antibodies are just a few of the things that are ultimately made by the body from the protein in the diet.

Daily Protein Requirements The amount of protein you need every day depends on various factors, including gender, age and level of physical activity, but is roughly about 20% of your daily nutritional needs. Protein is seldom used for energy. That's the job of carbohydrates and fats.

Types of Dietary Fat

the “Skinny” on Dietary Fat Along with protein and carbohydrates, fats are one of the main nutrients that nourish our bodies. The different types of dietary fat that we eat come from either animal sources, which includes dairy products, or plant sources. You can get a good idea of the importance of dietary fat from this list of some of things it does for the body: • • • • • •

Fat is a component of all cell structure, including having a protective function for the skin Fat absorbs, stores and transports certain vitamins It helps to insulate nerves and improves nerve function Fat combines with proteins to make certain hormones in the body It protects the organs and insulates the body Fat provides energy to the body along with carbohydrates

As a matter of fact, fat is composed of the exact same elements as carbohydrates (carbon, hydrogen and oxygen) but in a different structure. Insufficient amounts of dietary fat can contribute to health problems including: • • • • • • •

Dry, scaly skin Dry, dull hair or hair loss Bruising Poor growth Lower resistance to colds and infections Poor wound healing Mood problems, depression, lack of focus

Fat digestion: Fatty acids

Just so ya know! What's an "acid?" "Acid" is the name for a kind of chemical compound with certain characteristics.

Fats break down into substances called fatty They're called "acids" because acids. There are essential fatty acids and

when they are dissolved in

non-essential fatty acids.

water, they have a "bite" or sour taste.

Essential fatty acids need to come from our

diets because they cannot be made by the Now you know some chemistry body. You’ll hear these referred to as "EFAs." lingo!

The non-essential fatty acids are just as important, but can be made by the body. There are 3 types of natural fatty acids: • • •

Saturated fatty acids Monounsaturated fatty acids Polyunsaturated fatty acids

(These are commonly referred to as simply "fats" instead of fatty acids.) The word "saturated" essentially means "completely full." The different types of dietary fat are called "saturated" or "unsaturated" based on their chemical structure and whether they can add more stuff or not. Most food has some combination of these types of dietary fat. Saturated fatty acids come mainly from animal fats. Meats, whole-milk dairy products - like cheese and ice cream - and egg yolks are the main sources of saturated fatty acids. You find such micronutrients as Vitamin A (riboflavin) in this type of fatty acid. Monounsaturated fatty acids come from plants. Olives and olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, cashews, almonds, peanuts, most other nuts and avocados are sources of monounsaturated fats.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids also come from plants and are plentiful in many vegetable and nut oils. Sunflower, corn, flax seed and soybean oils are rich in polyunsaturated fats, as are certain kinds of fish like salmon or tuna. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are divided into two sub-groups: •

omega-6 fatty acids and

•

omega-3 fatty acids

Which are both essential fatty acids because they cannot be synthesized by the body? When you hear about the health benefits of fish oil and flaxseed oil supplements, these particular "EFAs" (essential fatty acids), are what is being talked about. In diets that contains a lot of processed food; these essential nutrients are deficient and create physical and mental problems.

Trans fats "Trans" fats are artificially made by taking unsaturated vegetable oil, which is usually very healthy, and adding hydrogen atoms to it so it will last longer. This is called "hydrogenation." Trans fats are found in processed foods such as: • • • •

commercially prepared baked goods and fried foods, like French fries and onion rings margarines snack foods processed foods

"Good" fats, "bad" fats Different types of dietary fat have certain effects on the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream. That's how they get the label "good" or "bad." The types of dietary fat from plants - monounsaturated and polyunsaturated - are considered "good" fats because they affect cholesterol levels in the blood in a positive way. Saturated fats tend to increase the kind of cholesterol that can stick to your blood vessel walls if there's more than the body really needs, so it is called "bad." Saturated fat isn't completely "bad" in reasonable amounts. About 10% of a person's daily calorie needs could come from saturated fats, with 30% total of daily energy (calorie) requirements coming from the different types of dietary fat. Trans fats lower the "good" kind of cholesterol and increase the "bad" kind of cholesterol. It's best to work on completely replacing Tran’s fats in your diet with the other types of dietary fat, especially unsaturated fats.

What's the truth about carbohydrates in food?? Ahhhhh, carbs. Are they our friends or enemies? There are so many myths and false information about carbohydrates in food that it's no wonder our minds spin when we try to understand them! Want to have some fun? Type "carbohydrate myths" into your search engine. Whoa... you'll find that there's a lot of information going around that really isn't true at all about carbohydrates in food! For example, it is not true that all carbohydrate is "bad" or that sugar is a separate food group - sugar is carbohydrate. So are so-called "starchy" vegetables - all carbohydrate!

So what IS carbohydrate? The term "carbohydrate" comes from "carbon + hydrogen" which are the elements it's made of, plus oxygen. The function of carbohydrates in food is to provide the main source of fuel for energy. All of the body's functions and physical activity need energy and it's the carbohydrates in food that do the job. Carbohydrates in food come from plants. Breads, cereals, fruits, vegetables and legumes* are the main sources of the nutrient carbohydrate. Additionally, a large percentage of the protein you consume is converted to carbohydrate and stored in the liver. * A legume is a kind of plant that has pods, such as peas and beans.

If protein is the building and repairing material for the body, like bricks and cement for a building, then carbohydrates are like the construction workers, providing the energy that gets the materials moved around and put in the right place.

Types of carbohydrate There are three forms of carbohydrates in food: • • •

sugars starches and fiber

Sugars are the type of carbohydrate found in fruits and vegetables. The term "sugars"

means more than just refined table sugar that you sprinkle on your cereal or put in your coffee. These are called "simple" sugars or simple carbohydrates because they are made of just a few sugar molecules and digest quickly.

Refined carbohydrates When the carbohydrates in food are refined, most of the parts that are rich in nutrients are taken out. That's why too many of those gooey, finger-licking' sugary things aren't so good for you - they don't have anything in them that nourishes your body. Refined carbohydrates, such as processed white flour, are in the simple sugar category. Too many refined carbohydrates are the "bad carbs" and unfortunately, give the rest of the "good carbs" a bad name.

What are complex carbohydrates? Starches are the kind of carbohydrate found in foods such as grains, cereals, whole grain breads, beans, potatoes, legumes and pastas. They are called "complex" carbohydrates because they are composed of many glucose molecules and take longer to break down during digestion and be absorbed by the body.

What's dietary fiber? Dietary fiber is also a complex carbohydrate that comes from the thick cell wall of plants. The body cannot fully digest fiber, but fiber contains minerals and other nutrients that are absorbed and contribute to good health. There are two kinds of fiber, water soluble and water insoluble fiber. "Soluble" means able to be dissolved. Soluble fiber can absorb water and slow down digestion of the carbohydrates in food, allowing more time for nutrients to be absorbed. Soluble fiber helps to keep blood glucose (also called blood sugar) more level (instead of swinging way up or down) because the fiber causes the carbohydrates in food to be absorbed more slowly. Oats, beans, dried peas, and legumes are good sources of soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber can't absorb water. It's what we generally think of as "roughage" although it's not really rough at all! It is important to digestion and elimination. Wheat bran, whole grain products, and vegetables are major sources of insoluble fiber. Fruits, vegetables, and barley contain both soluble and insoluble fiber.

What is glucose? Glucose demystified The carbohydrates in food break down into a simple sugar molecule called glucose during digestion, which is then absorbed into the bloodstream. Glucose is the main source of energy for the body. Glucose enters the bloodstream and travels to all the cells of the body, where the hormone insulin "opens the cell doors" and allows the glucose to enter the cell. The glucose then combines with oxygen in the cell to produce energy. Carbohydrate can be used immediately or stored in the liver and tissues for future energy needs

What exactly is the glycemic index (The "GI"??) The word "glycemic" means "causing glucose (sugar) in the blood." Carbohydrates are "glycemic" because they break down into glucose (a form of sugar used for energy in the body.) The word "index" in this sense means a numerical scale used to compare things. Foods with carbohydrates range on the glycemic index from 1 - 100 depending how fast and how much they raise blood sugar levels. For example, white bread breaks down very quickly, causing blood sugar to rise rapidly. So it has a high glycemic index value of 70. Spaghetti is digested more slowly, causing a lower and more gradual change in blood sugar. So it has a low glycemic index value of 38. Just think "LOW = SLOW" to remember that a low GI value means that the carbohydrate digests and absorbs slowly. The glycemic index expands on the fact that simple carbohydrates digest rapidly, increasing blood glucose faster and for a shorter time, while complex carbohydrates digest more slowly, causing a slower and longer rise in blood glucose. The glycemic index measures the "power" or quality of carbohydrate only. It doesn't measure the effects on blood sugar level of the quantity of the carbohydrate that is eaten. (A ton of spaghetti is a ton of spaghetti!) Although there are a number of good websites with

Vitamins and minerals in the diet

What should I know about vitamins and minerals?

In a great land, people lived a good life. They worked hard all day and were out in the sunshine a lot. They had quality family and leisure time and ate yummy homemade food that was all grown and produced locally in rich, fertile farm land. The people were very healthy in general. They only needed one town doctor, who would come to your house if you were too sick to travel. There were no huge drug stores on every block of town and there weren't health food stores with rows of vitamins and minerals and other dietary supplements either. These people ate fresh, locally grown food that did not require chemical pesticides or preservatives. They got their vitamins and minerals in the diet!

Vitamin and mineral source Food is where vitamins and minerals come from. The body cannot make vitamins and minerals for the most part, so we need to obtain vitamins and minerals in the diet and by helping it with supplements. Vitamins were discovered as a component of food in the first part of the 1900's. Scientists and researchers discovered them by observing that there were improvements (or declines) in the health of humans and animals when certain foods were consumed on a regular basis.

What do vitamins and minerals do? Some vitamin and mineral facts

Good health and vitamins and minerals are needed by the body just as a fish needs water. The main function of vitamins and minerals in the diet is to help the body use the nutrients that it gets from protein, carbohydrates, fat and water (the macronutrients). Because the body needs vitamins and minerals in order to function, but in small quantities, they are called "micronutrients." A vitamin benefits the body, as do minerals, by assisting the body to convert food into energy. That's a very, very simple explanation. The number of processes that the body performs in order to maintain itself is pretty mind boggling. The point is that vitamins and minerals are required to perform these tasks.

Quality of vitamins and minerals in the diet The quantity and quality of vitamins and minerals in the diet depends completely on the quality of the food source itself. Vitamins and minerals are found in both plant and animal foods. Minerals in food come from the soil that plants are grown in. Animals eat those plants and that's where the minerals in animal food come from. If the soil is used over and over and becomes depleted of minerals, and synthetic* fertilizer and pesticides are used, plants absorb these. We then eat things that don't have very many minerals or vitamins - and also contain toxic stuff from the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. * Synthetic means man-made, not natural.

Since vitamins are a natural part of food, the quantity and quality of vitamins in food also depend on the quality of the soil they are grown in, the way animals are raised and how much processing the food has had.

The amount of vitamins and minerals in the diet has virtually disappeared with the rise of mass food production over the past several decades. It's not the purpose of this

article to go into the methods and practices of mass food production and distribution you can find information for yourself if you're interested. It's enough to say that you cannot get the nutrition your body needs from commercially produced and processed food.

That is why organic food is in great demand now - because the production of organic food is pretty much like it was in "that great land not so long ago" that I described earlier. We are becoming more and more aware that many health problems can be traced back to the poor nutritional quality of the food we've been eating. "Organic" in this sense means grown and raised without using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or hormones. It refers to allowing animals to roam freely out in the open, fresh air instead of crammed into pens, eating stuff I can't describe and other super gross things. (I don't care for horror stories and to be honest with you, I almost puked when I found out how animals are raised for mass food production. So beware, it is pretty freaking' horrible.) It has been, and continues to be, validated by food science research that there are significantly higher amounts of essential vitamins and minerals in the diet when you eat organic food compared to "conventionally" mass-produced food. And organic food tastes ohhhhhh, so incredibly good! Please visit this refreshingly simple and informative site, Start Going Organic if you want to try organic food but aren't sure where to start!

Vitamin and mineral supplements Because the food supply of today contains less nutrition than it did even 50 years ago, vitamin and mineral supplements are usually necessary to make up for this deficiency. I am not providing a chart or list of vitamins and minerals and what they do for a couple of reasons.

1. Vitamins and minerals work as a part of a "nutrition team" - they aren't separate from food and they don't work very well by themselves. If you were to take just a vitamin B complex supplement, for example, you could create an imbalance of the other nutrients that your body needs and defeat the purpose! This is not to say that individual supplements are bad for you at all, just that they work best together. 2. It would make for a long and boring article on vitamins and minerals in the diet to attempt to list them here.

Exercise Information With all this information telling us how beneficial it is to get exercise, why is it that about 80% of Americans don't do enough exercise, with about half of those not doing any at all? Could part of this problem be that the information that we are getting is confusing and incomplete? One source of information says "You need to exercise for at least 30 minutes a day for at least 5 days a week" while another says "It is now recommended that you get an hour of exercise a day, at least 3 - 4 times a week to gain any benefit from exercise." Auuuugh! It's mind-boggling and enough of a barrier to cause anyone to plop down on the couch and reach for the remote control. With a big bag of cookies!

What's the difference? Physical activity, exercise and physical fitness The first thing we'll look at in order to make better sense of all this exercise information is the difference between the terms "physical activity," "exercise" and "physical fitness." Although these terms are related and have similar meanings, they aren't identical in meaning. Existing exercise information frequently uses "exercise" and "physical activity" interchangeably, but there is a definite distinction. The idea that they mean the same thing contributes to the confusion about exercise information.

Basic definitions of physical activity, exercise and physical fitness Understanding the difference will help blow away any brain fuzz on this subject and help you improve your participation in this element of your health.

•

Physical activity is exactly that - any activity that involves using your body. Housework, shopping, a bit of yard work or gardening, even fidgeting - it's all "physical activity."

•

Exercise is physical activity that is focused on training or developing the body for the sake of health. There are specific kinds of exercises that improve your: o Strength o

Flexibility

o

Endurance

o

Balance

Physical activity

This article on the different types of exercise explains how each kind helps your body and your health. •

Physical fitness is a result of good nutrition, effective physical activity, good sleep and effective stress management. Some exercise information leads us to believe that "physical fitness" just means a body like a Marine or a super-toned and shiny physique like the models that you see on the cover of "Muscle and Fitness" magazine. That's a very misleading concept of physical fitness! Physical fitness means that you are in a condition that you have the ability to perform and enjoy physical activities with ease.

Thus there are different levels of physical fitness. For example, one level of fitness would be the ability to bend down and tie your shoes without difficulty. At an increasing level would be the ability to play with your kids,

Exercise: Focused physical activity

grandkids, your cat or dog without tiring easily.

The ability to do the Iron Man Triathlon would be at an extremely high level of physical fitness.

Improving your health and energy is accomplished in gradually increasing steps. As a component of health, your level of fitness can be increased in gradually increasing steps too. The primary components of health and wellness that you can control are: •

Quality of nutrition

•

Amount of physical activity and exercise

•

Quality and amount of sleep

•

Stress management and relaxation

You can begin improving your level of fitness by simply increasing the amount of physical activity you blend into your routine, even if it's just a little more to start. Even "a little bit more" physical activity, done on a regular basis, will gradually improve your strength and stamina.

If you are a "bed vegetable" like I was several years ago, just the idea of walking around the block was exhausting! I didn't even have enough energy to laugh at the idea of doing anything resembling exercise. But I finally realized that if I really wanted to feel better, moving around a little bit more would help me a lot. And it did! I started by doing little things around the house more often. My strength and stamina have improved to the point where I can actually do some more focused exercises, like faster-paced walking, strength training and stretching. And now it's enjoyable!

At the beginning of this article on exercise information, I mentioned some statistics about the large percentage of Americans who lack sufficient exercise to maintain health. Well, it's one thing to just publish alarming statistics and another thing to do something about improving the condition. By understanding that exercise and physical activity are different levels of physical fitness, the door is opened to a workable solution. It is true that our way of life now is more desk and computer oriented than it was even 20 years ago, which has had a huge impact on our levels of health and physical fitness because we don't move around nearly as much. Stress levels in our modern society have also increased, which can leave us feeling exhausted and drained. It is true that exercise helps to handle stress, but if we know

that - but still aren't exercising enough to enjoy better health, there must be a block somewhere!

The missing link in exercise information ANY physical activity, no matter how little or for how long, done on a regular basis improve health and fitness levels.

As your strength and endurance improve gradually, so will your ability and desire to be more physically active. That's the missing link! The majority of exercise information fails to emphasize or even omits this vital piece of data. I believe that it is a major block that has kept so many folks in "couch potato" mode. If we knew that even a little bit of regular physical activity would make a difference, don't you think it would be a lot easier to blend some more physical activities into our daily routine? Compare that to thinking that you must do at least a half an hour of exercise 4 times a week to make any difference. Which could you do right now? What was your response to the second piece of exercise information? "I can't find the time" and "Yeah, right" are common responses… Kind of stops you dead in your tracks because it's an unrealistic target! Simply cut back and find a level of physical activity that is realistic for YOU and that you LIKE. At some level of physical activity, we feel like "I can do that!" This article on the benefits of exercise offers an enlightening look at why our body requires regular physical activity to prevent illness and enjoy health. Whatever your physical condition, there is something you can do to increase your level of physical activity! If you're in bed most of the time, maybe it's something like putting on your bunny slippers and shuffling around the house every day

for a few minutes. Or if you work at a computer all day, maybe it's taking a leisurely stroll around the block when you get home. The best place to succeed is where you are, with what you have. - Charles M. Schwab

The last and an important piece of exercise information is that physical activity and exercise has to ultimately be pleasant and enjoyable. If you dislike jogging, why do it? Incorporate shorter amounts of enjoyable physical activity into your daily routine and before you realize it, your endurance and strength will be better, the quality of your life will be improving, and you'll naturally want to do more physical activities and exercise!

The Importance of Sleep How important is sleep? Let's use direct observation to answer this question. How do you feel when you haven't gotten enough sleep? Peppy and energetic? How about when day after day you wake up and you don't feel rested? Do you feel like taking on the world? The importance of sleep becomes pretty obvious when you look at how you feel when you haven't gotten enough good sleep. We don't need to know that rats who generally live 2 - 3 years die within 3 weeks when deprived of sleep to understand how important sleep is to our bodies and health. But it does emphasize the importance of sleep!

There's plenty of research on the stages of sleep, brain wave activity during sleep and how the eyeballs roll around rapidly during certain stages of sleep. But none of it, at least that I've found, is really useful in evaluating the importance of sleep. So we aren't going to bother with that type of information. Plain ol' direct observation tells us that sleep is important because we can't function very well without it. Sleep is the time we rest so that the body can rejuvenate and recharge. The body needs sleep and rest time to build and repair itself. Look at the fact that babies can sleep up to 20 hours a day, and children need 10 - 12 hours of sleep every day on average. What does that tell you? The importance of sleep is obvious when we look at how it's necessary for physical growth and health! Many folks want to learn how to sleep better because sleep is so essential to our mental and physical well being. With our modern lifestyles, good sleep seems harder to come by. One thing that definitely affects sleep is a certain hormone that your body produces called melatonin. Learn the relationship of melatonin and sleep and you just might enhance your nightly pillow-fest! Sleep (or lack of sleep) has a direct impact on your health and energy levels. No doubt you have observed that yourself! The main factors that determine wellness or illness in addition to sleep are:

•

Nutrition

•

Physical Activity and

•

Stress Management

Those are the primary elements of health and they are all related. For example, if you have poor nutrition or lack sufficient physical activity, the quality of your sleep will suffer. If you're constantly stressed out, that's a great sleep killer!

How does stress affect lifestyle? Maybe the question should be, "How doesn't stress affect lifestyle?"

Since this site focuses on improving health, let's define stress and take a look at how can stress affect lifestyle, rob us of energy and what we can do to understand and manage stress better. Stress comes in all shapes and sizes. The following definition of stress includes mental stress and physical stress and combinations of both. In this article, we'll define stress in a clear way so that just about any stressful situation can be more easily examined and improved. The definition of "stress" is any opposing reaction or force to your own intention that causes strain or tension, and this can be mental and physical. Similarly (but not the same), the definition of a problem is an opposing intention or force of some kind. A problem doesn't necessarily cause stress or tension. The main characteristic of a problem that becomes stressful is feeling like we can't do anything about it. Not all problems are stressful when we feel that we can do something about them, no matter how much or how little.

Example of how stress affects lifestyle A simple example of how stress affects lifestyle could be that you want to sleep until 7:00 AM. But an opposing thought that you have to get up at 5:30 AM to get to your job causes you to resist and protest.

Maybe you feel that you don't have a choice but to go to that particular job with that particular schedule. Whatever the reason, you feel like you can't do anything about the problem of having to get up at 5:30 in the morning - voilà, stress affect lifestyle. Using a similar example, if you had to get up at 5:30 to get ready to leave on vacation, or if you like to get up at 5:30, would that be stressful?? Look at these definitions yourself and decide if you've observed examples of them! Here are some very simplified illustrations of a problem, and a problem that becomes stressful:

A solved problem:

A problem that turns stressful:

(Yes, he could stop and go in a bush but he hasn't thought of that.)

Stress can affect lifestyle positively too. It is a part of living the game of life! A life without any challenges or problems to solve sure would be pretty boring after awhile. I am talking here about a stressful situation that is not handled to the point where the stress affects lifestyle negatively. You could have a long term unhandled situation or too many smaller sources of stress or some combination. The point is that this level of stress not only affects our attitudes but has physical consequences that can rob us of energy and even cause illness. In this case, stress affects lifestyle negatively.

Physical response to stress One of the body's responses to stress is to generate more adrenalin* and other stress hormones and chemicals. Stress signals the body into thinking “danger - high alert may need a burst of energy soon” so the body produces more adrenalin to meet the potential needs to run for your life. That's normal on a temporary basis, but when you're constantly facing stress, the body is constantly pumping extra adrenaline and eventually, the body gets burned out. You can become chronically exhausted. Unhandled stress can affect your outlook on life and your physical health. I've experienced some pretty major physical problems and when I look back, there was more stress than usual around the times that I experienced the physical problems.

We often create our own stress. For example, assuming that you do well with 8 hours of sleep but you decide that you can "get by" on 5 or 6 hours. You've just created a stressful situation for the body! And that directly affects your physical health because enough sleep is one of the basic things the body needs to work right. Another example of creating our own stress would be worrying about things that don't exist or "might happen" - I've done that myself and have come to the conclusion that it's a waste of time! I've "wrapped myself around a pole" doing this and even made myself sick. Not worth it. Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but won't get you anywhere. Author Unknown

Now that we've gone over what stress is, are there really things we can do to deal with stress better? There are a few things that can be done to relieve and handle stress, and we're going to start with something simple but powerful. Stress tends to draw our attention inward. Worry or upset about something, "thinking too much" can make us feel mentally cramped. Don't you hate when that happens?

Some things you can do to handle stress The simplest remedy for feeling stressed out is to get your attention outward. Don't dwell on it! My absolute favorite thing to do when I feel stuck and exhausted especially from stress is to get my butt outside and simply take a walk, checking out my environment until I feel refreshed. Or I go out and putter around in the yard for a bit. Or listen to some music that I love anything to put my attention on something different and enjoyable. I find that it's a great time to just get into some housework too. Very therapeutic and I've done something productive to boot! Here's something else you can do to assist you in managing stress that's affecting your health and lifestyle.

Grab some paper and a pen and a cup of coffee or whatever you like. Find a comfy place and time that's relatively distraction free if possible, and just LOOK at the things in your life that you feel stressed about. Write them down. Don't get into "Oh, how am I going to handle this" or let yourself get upset about them, stay above that. When you identify something, write it down and move on. Take your time doing this. You don't have to do it all at once by any means. Maybe you have a close friend that you can do this with. You might end up laughing together! The purpose of this action is to help you step back and more exactly identify sources of stress in your life. When I get stressed out, things seem to mush all together and appear to be one massive blob. When I can look at one thing at a time, then I can work on handling one thing at a time...

Health related fitness What exactly is "health related fitness?" I think that's a good question, so let's take a closer look at it. "Health" describes a condition of physical and mental well-being; freedom from disease, pain or defect. Health is a condition of soundness or vitality. "Fitness" describes a condition where someone or something can perform certain jobs well.

For example, "Fitness to become a good parent requires the ability to love, respect and guide children." Or "A Phillips head screwdriver doesn't possess the fitness to unscrew a flat head screw."

We're talking about physical fitness here, which describes how well your body can perform a task - anything from tying your shoes to being able to climb Mt. Everest. There are different levels of physical fitness just as there are different levels of health. You can read more about this in the article that describes the relationship between health, physical activity and exercise. A common perception of "fitness" brings to mind a picture of a body builder or a professional athlete. While those guys are definitely at a level of fitness needed to perform those specific activities or sports, we can all have health related fitness no matter what our physical conditions is right now. Any level of fitness is related to your level of health! Fitness and health go together, they're not separate nor can you truly have one without the other. Being fit means being healthy! If someone isn't very fit, you can be sure that he isn't completely healthy and full of vitality either You can learn more about how health is related to fitness and exercise by checking out the article on the types of exercise and what each kind does to improve health. It's easy to lose sight of this basic fact, that health is related to fitness, in these current times of symptom-oriented "give me a pill to fix it" mind-set. There is very little

Exercise can be enjoyable and will improve your level of health and fitness

emphasis by conventionally (Westernmethod) trained healthcare providers

on nutrition, exercise and proper sleep because that is not what they are trained in. That approach has only created more illness so how can it be right? If we step back for a minute and look at the benefits of exercise and physical activity in our lives over time, the picture gets much clearer about how health is related to fitness and that they are really just two sides of the same coin - the condition of our bodies!

A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs. ~Joan Welsh

Definition of Green living

how green living benefits your health

What do you think the definition of "green living" is? Choosing paper instead of plastic grocery bags? Recycling your beer cans and newspapers? Driving a fuel efficient car? Eating organically grown food? Those certainly are all activities that contribute to keeping our planet Earth and our personal health in good shape... But what exactly is "green living" and what does it have to do with improving personal health and energy? Let's take a look! The broad definition of green living is any action or activity that results in a positive impact, to any degree, on the environment so that the planet can continue to support future generations.

The effect of green living on the environment... Let's take a dip! Looking at it from a different perspective, the practice of green living minimizes or eliminates toxins (poisons) from our environment as well as reducing and eliminating purely destructive habits. The goal and purpose of green living is preserving and improving the health of planet Earth for all who live here! This definition of green living embraces our personal environments, including the internal environment of our bodies, our home, work and social environments as well as the whole planet's environment. Adopting a green living philosophy simply means making choices and decisions that have the most positive effect possible for all of these environments. Being able to make good choices depends first on having good information. Here's a simple article that answers the question, "What is carbon dioxide?" and how it relates to our health.

More about the definition of green living: What is "sustainability" and "renewable?" Most likely, you've heard the terms "sustainability" and "renewable" in connection with the subject of green living. Let's clear them up while we're at it because they are essential to gaining a good concept of the definition of green living. "Sustainability" refers to using resources in a way that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

This is commonly heard in relationship to energy consumption, such as the energy needed to light your home or the energy required to drive your car. For example, there are finite amounts of oil resources on the planet, a major source for energy production. It is not sustainable as a resource because you can't go out and plant any oil seeds and grow more oil. When it's gone, it's gone! Likewise, "renewable" means that a resource can be created again. For example, trees can be cut down, but more trees can be planted and grown. Energy obtained from the sun and the wind (solar and wind power) are essentially "renewable" sources of energy because they aren't likely to run out.

Green living and personal health The subject of green living is growing in popularity and importance as we face several different problems relating to lifestyles and practices that are actually destructive to our environments. The severe weather of the past several years is one example. Public awareness of these situations and their causes is increasing, and solutions are being sought, found and applied. Learning and practicing green living is something that we can do about these problems as individuals, families, groups and nations to start turning the scene around! One practice that is particularly destructive to our personal health and well-being is the use of toxic chemicals in our food supply, household cleaning

This is the effect of destructive manufacturing and lifestyle choices. Wanna take a dip?

products and personal care products. For example, most laundry soap and bleach that we use drains out into the ocean and because it is highly

toxic, it destroys the ocean environment on which man depends for many things. Additionally, the toxic chemicals from the laundry soap and bleach are absorbed into your body through the skin. Add to that the toxic household cleaners, "air fresheners" and personal products that contain synthetic chemicals (man-made, not found in nature) that you also absorb into your body through the skin and breathing, and you have a toxic wasteland right in your own body!

The body gets overloaded with toxic substances that cannot be eliminated through normal means. This toxic overload, caused by toxins staying in the body because there's just too many for the body to eliminate, causes poor health and illness. That is why body cleansing and detoxification are important health improvement topics nowadays.