10 Easy Health and Fitness Hacks

 Wellness And The Fountain of Youth

Some simple health and fitness tasks you can easily do right now at any age that will dramatically improve your life and well being.  The beauty of these tips is that they don't require a ton of money or significant lifestyle changes to implement.  Many of us doubt that we can significantly impact our health but we are empowered and we can Begin today to renew our health, energy, and lifestyle. Let's get started. 

1.  Get Outside. We spend over 99% of our time indoors.  From the office, home, gym, shopping, car and movies we are always indoors.  Make time to get outside for at least an hour or more every day. Even if it's just taking a stroll, working in the garden, or reading outside. 
   
2. Fresh Air. Fresh air is a cure all.  When you go outside and fill your lungs with fresh air it helps oxygenate your blood and energize you. Try a deep breathing regimen where you exhale and then inhale and hold your breath for as long as comfortable.  Do this for 4 times and see how it eliminates stress and lifts your mood. 
3. Grounding or Earthing.  Simply walking outside barefoot in the grass and plugging into the electromagnetic waves of the earth on a daily basis can reduce inflammation and accelerate healing. Get outside in your bare feet as much as possible.  
4. Sunshine. We need the sun to live. Soft sunshine is the key whether it's early morning or early evening make sure you get a healthy dose of vitamin D by exposing your skin to the soft sun. Sunshine is excellent for our bones, our teeth, and our overall mood. Stay away from the hot sun that has the potential to burn your skin. 
5. Lemon juice. A few squeezes of lemon or lime juice in your morning drink of water will cleanse your body by detoxifying your liver and kidneys. Think of lemon juice as an internal cleanser for your body.  Lemons can rid your body of all the bodily waste you accumulate throughout the day, Lemons are also a good source of vitamin C, magnesium, and other minerals. One important note is to enjoy your lemon water on an empty stomach so as not to interfere with digestion. A splash of Apple Cider Vinegar in your lemon water can enhance the internal cleansing action.
   
6. Move. Many of us spend most of our day sitting to do our work and between sitting during an 8 hour work day, sleeping 8 hours a day, and sitting while enjoying a game, TV show, or video game we quietly lead sedentary lifestyles.  Simply standing up every hour is beneficial for our blood flow and circulation. Try and go for a walk at lunch or after work. If possible some simple jumping jacks can be a low impact way to activate blood flow to our organs and brain. 
7. Muscle. The more lean muscle we add to our bodies the stronger and healthier we will be. Building muscle doesn't have to involve heavy weights or fancy equipment. We can use or own body weight and do push ups, pull ups, and sit ups to add and maintain muscle.  And for those of than need a more convenient method there are the strength training bands.  I use a $10 band that I can use during a break at work to tone my entire body with a few simple exercises.  The bands are excellent because they are simple to use, portable, inexpensive, and most importantly effective. 
8. Nutrition. Many of us our challenged in our daily eating. We need to eat a good balance of vegetables, fruits, lean protein, and quality fat.  As a rough estimate try and consume a gram of protein for each pound that you weigh.  So at 150 pounds, try at eat 150g of protein. One of the easiest things we can do is start with simple yet powerful changes. One of my key changes was to completely eliminate soda from life. Sugar is a poison and is so toxic to our bodies that it is a leading cause of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer. Look for ways to cut sugar from your lifestyle.  Eat more vegetables and greens.  Think of what you can add to your daily eating instead of what you need to cut.  I enjoyed the taste of spinach and found a simple inexpensive way to add a superfood to eating regimen by simple blending the raw spinach in my vitamix and just drinking it daily. The mild nutty taste is delicious. Try and add omega rich foods like salmon, eggs, tuna, sardines, and anchovies.  Look for creative ways to improve your eating.
9. Gut Health.  The buzz word these days is gut health. The word is that our gut is the key to our immune system, and the easiest way to improve out gut health is to eat fermented foods.  A cheap powerful food that is outstanding for our digestion and adding good bacterium is Sauerkraut. Apple Cider Vinegar, pickles, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, and greek yogurt are excellent sources. Also, a little red wine  in moderation thins the blood, is filled with resveratrol a heart health compound, and aids in digesting red meat. 
10.  Exercise.  Walk, jog, run, swim, bike, play a sport preferably outdoors taking in the fresh air. Whatever you enjoy to keep moving and active to keep your heart, lungs, bones, and joints strong. Try to be active for at least 30 minutes a day where your heart rate is elevated. Sweat those toxins out of your body.  Try some type of weight bearing exercise three times a week even using the resistance bands.  Elevating our heart rate is excellent for blood flow to our heart, lungs and brain. Our cardio, pulmonary system fills our blood and organ with nutrient rich oxygen that helps maintain our youthful glow and energy.
    
11.  Fasting. One of the most powerful eating regimens you can adopt to dramatically alter your health is fasting.  Fasting is simply eating during a consecutive 8 hour window say 12 noon to 8pm and then not eating for the remaining 16 hours. Instead of eating 3 meals a day and snacking in between, we eat in an 8 hour window and allow our body to rest from the continuous work of digestion.  When our bodies and key organs such as the liver and kidneys are able to rest and restore they begin producing beneficial hormones of testosterone, Human Growth Hormone, and Insulin Growth Factor these powerful hormones can be restored at any age when we stop overtaxing our organs with constant digestion. You can build up to it and ease up on the weekends, but give it a try and you can choose the optimum eating window that works for you.
12. Oral health.  Your oral health is important to your overall well beings. Brushing daily and flossing regularly will provide good mouth bacteria that impacts your overall immune system.  Flossing is a simply way to improve heart health. 
    

Attitude. Our mindset or attitude to our health is of the utmost importance. Everything begins with a thought or idea.  When we declare that we are healthy, we are strong, we are vibrant that spirit drives our daily activities and daily living. We are in control and we have the power to determine our health and well being. Look for the simple even little things you can add to your life to begin improving your health today when we add these simple steps up they can have a compounding affect that revitalizes and restores us. A word on supplementation look for a good multivitamin and Omega source if you don't eat fish. 

To Your Health!

With Love,

Coach K