Improve Your Overall Health

Clean Eating: The best way to eat clean is to eat real foods with one ingredient. Types of foods that have one ingredient include fruits, vegetables, and proteins. When creating a meal think of the rainbow. The more colorful and diverse food you have on your plate, the better. If you are wanting food between meals, eat fruit for a snack. A big part of clean eating is drinking a lot of water.

It is recommended that you get about eight 8-ounce glasses which equals about 2 liters, or half a gallon. Drinking water helps maintain the balance of body fluids. It can help control calories. Water-rich foods that are healthier, more filling, and help you trim calorie intake. Food with high water content tends to look larger, its higher volume requires more chewing, and it is absorbed more slowly by the body, which helps you feel full. Not only does it help cut the calories but it also helps your skin looking great. Dehydration causes your skin to look more dry and wrinkled (source).

Exercise: For most healthy adults, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends these guidelines:

• Aerobic activity.Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week.
• Strength training.Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. Aim to do a single set of each exercise, using a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.

There is an endless amount of activities that you can do to get your daily exercise. Have fun with it! You don’t have to spend hours at the gym to improve your health. (source)

Reduce Stress: Stress can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Here are a couple of ways to help reduce stress which leads to a more improved overall health. First, accept what cannot change. This can be one of the hardest stresses to relieve, but overcoming this can make you feel like the weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Second, choose your friends carefully. If you have friends that are causing you to feel down on yourself, let them go. It will be hard, but worth it in the long run.

Third, maintain a sense of humor. Humor is the best medicine, and can relieve almost any stress in life. Fourth, leave time for the unexpected. Some of the best memories are created when no plans were involved. Leave time for these moments to make an appearance in your life. Lastly, Spend some time alone. Everyone needs some alone time once in a while. While alone practice deep, calming breathing. This will help you to relax and decrease your heart rate.

Get a good night’s rest: To be a healthy adult it is recommended to get at least 7-8 hours a night. Sleep is a vital indicator of overall health and well-being. Try to go to bed early and wake up with the Sun to get a jump on the rest of the day. Waking up early will cause you to get more done during the day, and help you feel accomplished. Let us all start the year off right and make changes to improve our overall health.