Eat clean. Move Every day.
Falling in love with movement and falling in love with clean eating those are the two kind of top things that we can hear from a lot of people, but there’s so much more to healthy living than just eating clean and moving every day. So you should focus on eating clean and moving every day but also a few more things that you want to think about as busy women and women who may feel like “Oh! I feel good but I think I could feel better.” If you are one of those women who says I feel good but something is missing, there’s a piece missing and I just need something else to push me over that edge. Many of us, love eating food, love talking about food, love cooking food, love it all. So, Starting with nutrition just basics so the first thing of the seven simple steps to better health is the:
1. Plan meals and snacks around the triple threat of protein+ healthy fat+plus fiber.
This idea is presented by many nutritionists where they say that if you plan your meals and snacks using the triple threat you are going to feel satisfied. Your blood sugar is not swinging up and down. You’re going to feel calm. You’d be happy. You’re not going to have that horrible hangry feeling where you are hungry and you’re angry or you’re weak and you’re groggy and woozy because you’re feeling just hungry, your blood sugar has crashed and you’re feeling like you need to get something and you need it now.
So, Focusing your meals and snacks around this triple threat is not as hard as it sounds. It’s the single swap, instead of reaching for an apple for a snack. You reach for an apple with the scoop of almond butter. Almond butter contains fat, healthy fat, and protein and the apple provides fiber. That’s just a simple suggestion or idea that you can think of a snack using this triple threat plan. You can also have your nose around this. You can very quickly and easily whip up a simple breakfast of eggs and chicken scrambled in some coconut oil. You can also use aggressive butter or ghee so you’ve got your healthy fats. You have got your protein and then the side of something fiber. That’s not for everyone. Everone’s body does not tolerate grains. So everyone should not look to the whole grains of the fiber. In that case, you have to look for some other things like vegetables. This probably sounds crazy to some people, but starting your day with vegetables has been one of the most amazing tricks or keys to changing the way you feel going through the rest of your day. You can take steamed vegetables in the morning like a leftover from the night before. Use sweet potato left from the night before or even carrot. So there are so many options things that you could do to come up with this combination of protein healthy fats and fiber, just let your mind run wild.
Don’t be afraid of Fat.
The thing about healthy fats is, a lot of times people hear the word fat and they think “Oh my Gosh! that its gonna make me fat, I am trying to lose weight. I don’t need fat.” But the fact is that our entire body, every single cell in our body is composed of cells with membranes. Cell membranes are composed of fat. A large portion of our brain is made of fat. We need fat to survival, to feel good. You’ll not believe how good you can feel when you start eating more healthy fats. When we talk about healthy fats, we are not talking about chemically altered fats, hydrogenated fats, trans fats or fats that have been heated beyond their smoking point. Fried food is not the best option. We are talking about grass-fed butter, ghee, coconut oil, and olive oil when it is used in cold preparation like salad dressings. The fats are naturally found in grass-fed meat and wild-caught fish, nuts, and seeds. These are delicious ways to get healthy fats.
Focus your attention on the natural fats that are naturally in their natural state. Coconut Oil is a solid not because it was chemically altered to be made of solid because that’s just how it is when it’s at a certain temperature. Some people do not tolerate dairy but they can tolerate ghee which is dairy but the casein has largely been removed from it. So ghee, olive oil, and fat naturally found in food avocados, fish, meat, nuts, seeds, and coconut oil.
2. Eat more Veggies.
Many people need vegetables at breakfast often and have found that has helped to stabilize blood sugar because of the fiber and great nutrients and root vegetables and choke-full of antioxidants minerals, vitamins everything you need, you’ll find in vegetables. You eat a rainbow of produce. Many people have heard that time it again and that sounds kind of cliche but it does make a difference eating a big variety of colors. Your purple cabbage… your orange carrots… your colored bell peppers… your lettuces… and your dark leafy greens like kale leeks onions… eggplant… the list goes on. So, eat your vegetables, their rainbow.
Set a good example.
If you have kids, it’ll be highly encouraged to please show them a good example. Set a good example for your kiddos. The last thing the kids are going to want to do is eat their vegetables when mom and dad are turning up their nose at whatever it is. You should make a pact that there’s a vegetable that your partner doesn’t care for because you like them all but if your partner doesn’t care for a certain vegetable then your partner shouldn’t be allowed to say out loud in front of your kids. It’s really important to not make a big deal when your kids eat their vegetables. It should be a natural part of life, something that people just eat. You should avoid any type of books or references or anything that you come across that might have a reference to the stereotype of kids not liking vegetables “it’s not for us”. If we start reading the library book and there’s a reference to spinach is gross, shut it, that book is going back. You should not tolerate that type of stereotype being perpetuated.
You have to make vegetables a non-issue and your kid does a great job eating them. If you have picky kids that just don’t want to chop them up small, you can blend them up and put them in baked goods. Have a serving of veggies in every meal (in snacks too). It helps you get all of those micronutrients that so many of us are deficient in. So, eat your vegetables.
3. Buy “INGREDIENTS” Not “FOOD”.
“There’s no FOOD in the house!” you have heard this a lot of time but when you open the cupboard and there’s a lot of food, it’s just nothing that grabs and goes easy. Many of us have said this while growing up and have heard our family say it to us but the key is that in modern society we tend to think of food as there’s a lot of rooms in the house, sometimes we think of that as package things that are convenient and easy and quick to grab, cup of noodles and pop tarts and granola bars and that kind of things. Those types of packaged food is not best for health or a waistline or your budget. If you can think of ingredients as what we want to purchase not food, not the packaged food.
Make “Whole Food” Choices. The simpler, the better.
When you go to the store to purchase ingredients, so whole foods, healthy whole foods, meats, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, dairy if you tolerate it, whole grains and legumes if you tolerate them. Those are great things to have in your house and you can quickly easily make a lot of things from ingredients. Next time somebody says there’s no food in the house, put the apple, grab some peanut butter, top it with some raisins. You got yourself a delicious snack. If you want to make some spicy then you can make it with ground meat, some beans if you tolerate, legumes and some diced tomatoes. Three things you can find in your pantry or fridge, you can put some seasonings and it’s fabulous. You can quickly make quite a few things using ingredients.
This is all about balance.
Anyone doesn’t have to feel like you can’t ever have a convenience food item. That’s not true at all, you need to have something to make your life easy. We all want it, we have to be imitation all day long making food but the majority of your food should consist of healthy food ingredients rather than packaged convenience items.
Quick “Soft Serve”: Blend Frozen Banana Slices+Coconut Milk
A few more examples if you need a quick dessert, you are just dying for some dessert then one of the best things that you would love doing is blend frozen banana slices with coconut milk. It will be a great soft serve. Use it instead of icecream, sweeteners and sugars and that kind of thing. You’re seeing the natural fruit sugar, It’s a healthy fat from coconut milk. DELICIOUS!!!
Ease. Convenience.
Another thing that you should do that helps with convenience because the key to all of us want ease and convenience and that’s what makes so tempting to have these packaged foods that may not be the best for us. It’s so easy when you’re strong to just want to grab the bag of chips or the crackers or whatever. To make the healthiest choices, you need to be prepared.
Pre-Wash Lettuce. Makes Salads a breeze!
One of the most important things you should do is start to wash your lettuce as soon as you get it from the store. Wash it. Dry it with Salad spinner. Put the lettuce on paper towel or tea towel and roll it up stick it into that, stick it in the fridge. That will save you because Salad is love but washing lettuce is not so good task.
4. Skip the Soda… Choose Water or Tea…
If you are a Soda Drinker then think twice. This isn’t about perfection. This isn’t about deprivation or saying never to things. This is about realizing that overconsumption of soda leads to health problems. That’s just the truth. It’s the cold heart facts. Most cans of regular soda have as much sugar as the recommended daily allowance for your day and goodness knows if you have a can of soda you’re also going to have some sugar elsewhere. So You’re getting more sugar than your body really should be processing in a day.
“Liquid Candy” Vs. Artificial Sweeteners
When you’re drinking soda, Soda is liquid candy. If you’re drinking diet soda that has all sorts of scary chemicals it could be the artificial sweeteners that are used unless they’re very natural artificial sweeteners and some would even argue again some of the more natural artificial sweeteners as they are chemicals that are harmful to our bodies and There are some known harms that they give to us, there are a lot of unknown to. It scares, the amount of artificial sweeteners that people consume in our society. Over Consumption of Soda is not a good thing. Please don’t give it to your children and don’t take it in yourself in large quantities. Regular Soda has been meant the sugar soda has been linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, because of the blood sugar rush your pancreas has to produce lots of influence which messes up the entire regulation of insulin and your bodies at responsiveness to the insulin in the long term also a phosphoric acid content in soda is harmful for your teeth can wear away the enamel and the sugars and soda can lead to tooth decay. There are many reasons not to be drinking sodas. You should try other options. It doesn’t mean that you can never have a can of pop but why don’t you try water.
Infused waters: Ginger, Clemente, Lemon, Lime, Cucumber, Watermelon…
If water is another thing you can try infused waters Like ginger water. All you have to do is get a piece of ginger three to four-inch, chop it up. Place it in a pitcher. Boil some water. Pour the boiling water on the top and let it steep until the water cools down to room temperature and at that point take out the ginger. You can also refrigerate it if you want but at room temperature, it’s warming and invigorating and amazing. you can also make clementine include infused water so that it would be little clementine oranges. Slice them up. Pour water on them. Let it sit or put into the fridge if you like the cold and the water becomes delicious. You can do the same thing with lemon, lime, cucumber, lemongrass, you can do watermelon. You can put watermelon chunks in an infuser or your pitcher or you can make kind of agua fresca with water blended with watermelon. It’s delicious, great for the summers. These are all sorts of options you can do with your water.
Another thing that you can consider is tea. Herbal tea usually has no caffeine and green tea often has less caffeine than black tea or coffee. If you are trying to limit consumption of caffeine tea is a great option and it tastes so good. So That’s it for the nutrition.
5. Move MORE!
Our lives have become so sedentary over the years. People no longer work or walk from place to place. They’re not working in the gardens or manual labor jobs as much as in the olden days, in the times before technology where we all seemed to be hooked to our computer. We all have to understand that movement is the key to health.
Fall in LOVE with movement!
People should fall in love with the feeling of movement. Everyone should consider movement important.
Walking:
Walking is what humans were designed to do. We are designed to be upright on our feet and able to walk. Walking keeps the hip joints lubricated. It keeps the back and core muscles strong, the pelvic floor strong. Walking is healthy. Walk as much as you can. Grab a chance to walk. Whether it’s a morning walk, lunch break walk or before dinner walk.
Identical Movement:
Identical movement is all the little activities throughout the day that you don’t think about as exercise but they all added up together to be a great form of health benefit. Like walking up and downstairs, squatting down to pick up the things. Everything adds up. It’s all good. The more we move the better now you can increase your amount of incidental movement that you have in your life by taking care of many little things. Make it a habit to not do any work while sitting. Try to do your tasks with movements.
Morning Routine… First thing in the A.M.!!!
You should get a miracle morning routine. This is an awesome way to get rid of that morning stiffness that we all start developing more and more as we older. It tends to come on more easily, that stiffness in the lower back, the neck, the upper back. When you get up and do a super quick 4-minute movement routine, you’ll feel so much better for the rest of the day.
Keep your morning routine simple.
Your routine needs to be easy enough that you don’t dread them. Keep it simple enough that you do it soon after you wake up and not feel light-headed or nauseous or tired. If you try to do an intense workout in the morning, you do not feel good. It should be not more than TRUMP TWIST… FORWARD BENDS… BACK BENDS… HIPS CIRCLES… COUNTERTOP PUSHUPS… Whatever exercise you’ll do it’s a great way to start your morning.
Fitness Training: Group or Solo
When we are talking about organized exercise and fitness that may not be very necessary if you live a very active lifestyle and if you walk everywhere you go if you do manual labor or a lot of gardening, you may not need to struggle to remain fit and organize exercise or set up an organized routine. But if you live a sedentary life, it is highly recommended to find something you love and then doing it as often as you can. Whether it can be a yoga class or something else. But do it. Commit to it. You have to love it. Otherwise, you don’t do it. Love what makes you feel good, what makes you feel strong and confident.
Videos
There’s a ton of great video options for free on YouTube. There are a lot of YouTube channels that can help you out to get active. There are also videos that you can purchase and there are so many varieties. It just depends on what you like, what makes you happy.
6. The Pelvic Floor: The “Floor” of the Core
When we talk about the pelvic floor, the in women whether you have children or not you man overtime start experiencing pelvic floor dysfunctioning. You might start experiences some bladder leakage, pelvic organ prolapse, hip republic pain, pain with intercourse, all sorts of problems can go into the pelvic floor region.
Are Kegels Necessary?
Kegels are the pelvic floor contractions when you contract and relax the muscles of the pelvic floor in isolation. The answer to the question that Kegels are necessary is kind of surprising. Kegels are necessary if we all live in a society that humans were meant to move in the way that humans were designed to move as moving often that’s moving fully that squatting and standing and walking and running and moving throughout the day. Humans these days tend to be quite sedentary we don’t go through full ranges of motion. Many people cannot do a whole squat as they get older. This is due to the lack of movement.
Modern Lifestyle: Higher Risk for Pelvic Floor Dysfunctioning
Many of us are overweight which causes strain on pelvic floor muscles. There are a lot of reasons that these days people do tend to have pelvic floor dysfunction and they need that little extra boost of knowing how to properly isolate contract and relax the pelvic floor muscles that are kegel. If you’re living a very active life and you’re not having any pelvic floor dysfunction then you don’t need to do Kegels. If you’re not, if you’re having some problems and then you need to know how no Kegels can be overdone you can it can be just as problematic to do too many Kegels to have your pelvic floor muscles too tight and strong and never relax them. That creates a whole set of problems on its own so you have to get to know your body.
Don’t do Kegels while Urinating!
Don’t practice the Kegels while urinating. That’s a myth floating around that you should be doing Kegels every time you go to pee. That’s not the case when you do that it’s a good way to periodically like a monthly check-in to see if you are doing your Kegels correctly. Because If you can stop the flow of urine then you’re good. You’re doing Kegel.
Don’t “Hover”. Sit Down! Relax!
It’s highly recommended not to hover over the toilet seat while you are urinating. Sit down. Take a load off. Let the pelvic floor pelvic girdle muscle relax. So that you can let it all out without having to push.
7. REST: SLEEP… MEDITATE… PRAY…
The last step is about rest. Sleep, meditate, pray whatever it is that in terms of meditation or prayer you should have some quiet time during the day.
Avoid Artificial Light 1-2 hours before bed
Please try to limit your time on electronic devices to being done at least an hour maybe even two hours. Artificial light is very stimulating to the frame. It makes harder for you to fall asleep. You need to have a good period of quality 7-9 hours a night is sort of average for most people. That’s time your body repairs, rebuilds and heals. Sleep time is essential. The quiet time during the day is essential. Our society is so going… go… go…. that we sometimes don’t get that break and our bodies need it. We were designed to have rest.
I hope these steps to better health will help you!!