10 Essential Rules of Good Health
1. You need a doctor focused on wellness
Get a doctor who meets your personal needs, and understands the difference between treating an illness and helping and guiding you through the wellness process.
2. Food should be a nutrient, not a drug
Think of your body as a Ferrari. You want to put in the best fuel you can at least 80%–90% of the time. People often use food as an anti-depressant, and choose treats with little nutrient value that they think will make them feel better.
3. Sleep is as critical as food and water
If you cannot sleep, you cannot be well. Failing to get a good night’s sleep can disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm, which regulates blood pressure and hormones. Sleep plays a critical role in maintaining properly functioning memory as well as avoiding weight gain.
4. Your mind and brain need a breather
Taking a few moments out of the daily grind is essential to reduce stress, which makes you vulnerable to illness. Ways to give your mind and brain a “time out” include breathing exercises and meditation. You can elicit a “relaxation response” by performing diaphragmatic breathing, in which you hold your breath for a second, then slowly exhale through the mouth while focusing on a word or phrase.
5. An exercise regimen should be balanced
Your regular exercise routine should include a mixture of muscle-building, stretching, and aerobics, which provides cardiovascular conditioning. The Mayo Clinic recommends that a workout regimen have five elements: aerobic fitness, strength training, core exercises, balance training, and flexibility and stretching.
6. Recovery is as important as exercise itself
During exercise, recovery is an essential component that enables the body to adapt to the stress created by exercise, helps restore muscle glycogen, and allows for repair of body tissue. Combining high-intensity activity with recovery, or low-intensity periods, proved effective for cyclists in a study at the University of Stirling, in Scotland.
7. Keep your waist size slim
Waist circumference can give you a better indicator of obesity more so than bodyweight. “If you can keep your waist below 34, you’re probably in pretty good shape,” A waist circumference over 34 means you’re starting to build enough fat that puts you in danger of developing diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.
8. Be social
Social people are predisposed to better health. There are health benefits to being pro-social as opposed to focusing socially on the self. Social support and expressing love can improve overall resiliency and your capacity to give social support also has a tendency to feed back to you and pay dividends to your own health.
9. Keep attainable, realistic goals
Mix some reality into your training plans as well as your aspirations for healthy living, advises Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, founder of the University of Ottawa’s Bariatric Medical Institute and author of Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work. Setting goals that aren’t attainable is a recipe for disappointment.
10. Think long term, not short
It doesn’t matter about your weight or fitness a month from now or two months from now; it matters a year or two from now. Long-term health is more important than setting an arbitrary weight-loss goal for two months from now. People who take short-term outlooks tend to try hard and then quit.
~Men’s Journal, Brian T Horowitz