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You’re in the right place. Read on to explore these three painless ways to improve your health without effort by:
1) taking in more antioxidants
2) getting better sleep
3) eliminating ‘time wasters.’
We all know we’re supposed to eat fruits and vegetables, but how many of us actually know why we’re supposed to eat them? No, no, it’s not “just because” our parents told us no dessert if we didn’t. Really it’s because fruits and vegetables have that wonderful important fibre that keeps us regular and keeps our blood sugar from spiking like a porcupine on a trampoline, but that’s not all they do. We should also eat plenty of fruits and vegetables because of the wonderful antioxidants they contain.
It works this way. Do you remember the old PacMan game? The video screen maze contained all those dots that PacMan went in and gobbled up. Imagine that the dots are the bad guys inside, rioting, damaging your body and brain cells and causing all sorts of health problems, and that PacMan is an antioxidant you gained from eating fruits and vegetables. PackMan enters the maze and munches up all the bad guys and heads on to the next level for more. The killer dudes that whack PacMan? You deciding not to eat the antioxidants in the first place.
Next on the easy to accomplish list is sleep. Unless you regularly get your quota of sleep, it’s likely you need more. For some reason we, in our society, have come to the unanimous decision that sleep is a waste of time and we are better off working. Not so. Without enough sleep, and without quality sleep, you will suffer. Your brain and body won’t work as well. You may become fatigued, grim, and irritable, have a slower reaction time, and be unable to concentrate. So it’s likely you wouldn’t win at Jeopardy if you happened to find yourself on the show.
Because there are numerous reasons why we can’t, don’t, won’t sleep, I’m simply going to give you the name of a great book that offers top rate suggestions to help overcome sleep deprivation. The book is called No More Sleepless Nights by Haurie and Linde.
And I’m going to offer these sleep enhancing ideas: make your bedroom a sleep oasis and take out distractions such as the tv, telephone, computer, and the like. Don’t take in caffeine later in the day. Practice relaxation exercises to help you drop off into the land of nod. And if you’re getting enough sleep but don’t feel like you’ve slept? Check it out with your doctor. There are numerous sleep disorders that can have a detrimental effect on your health over time.
The last suggestion for the ‘no effort way to improve your health’ is to eliminate one ‘time waster.’ A time waster is some activity that you do in your life that offers no benefits at all or an activity whose ill effects far outweigh its benefits. Each one of us will have very different time wasters. Perhaps you watch six hours of tv a night and feel you could do something more constructive and beneficial with some of that time. Or maybe you volunteer for so many groups and committees that you’re stressed beyond belief. Giving up even one group can ease the stress you experience considerably. Or perhaps you’re a pack rat and your house is so full of clutter you waste endless hours looking for items. Getting rid of some of your stuff, may do the trick.
In all cases, eliminating a time waster frees up some of your precious time, enabling you to enjoy life more, reduce stress, or do something else you prefer to be doing.
In the New Year, these three no effort ways to improve your health will benefit you regardless of whether you've made resolutions or not. Either way, hopefully they’ll be just the thing to boost your morale and get you back on track to a positive and healthy lifestyle.
Happy New Years to all.
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Photo Credit: Zsuzsanna Kilian
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