Tips for healthy living

There is so much we can do to improve our overall health and wellbeing. But sometimes it can sound like a lot of effort to apply certain healthy habits in our busy everyday life. Over the years of my inter- est in health and wellbeing I have accumulated a number of tips that can be done on a regular basis without feeling like you are on a major cleanse or detox.

Here are a few tips that you may or may not know and some of them may sound easy and appealing to do. It is little things that we do every day that help us create healthy habits so pick out your favourites and commit to them for a while and then include a few more when you feel like it!

Drink a large glass of room temperature water upon waking up. Squeeze a little lemon or lime juice in it for a more alkaline effect. This works like an ‘inside’ shower! It helps flush toxins accumulated overnight and wake up digestion.
Brush your tongue after brushing your teeth in the morning. In this way you scrap any extra toxins accumulated.
If you can stomach it (I can’t!) try oil pulling. This means before brushing your teeth in the morning swirling cold pressed sesame or cold pressed organic sunflower oil for 20 min around your mouth and then spitting it out. Do not swallow it! This is super hard to do in my own opinion but health benefits with this technique of pulling toxins out of the body have been part of Ayurveda for centuries.
Eat your breakfast at least an hour after waking up allowing your digestion to start moving.
Do not eat fruit after meals. Fruit is easily digestible and moves through the track faster but if you eat it after meal it will ‘sit’ on the top of the foods you have eaten and will ferment in your stomach slowing your digestion and give you acid.
Try dry body brushing before showering. It helps remove dead cells and stimulates circulation. Body brushes with natural bristle are widely available. Always brush in movements toward the heart and clockwise on your stomach. Ladies, go gently around your breasts.
While we are at the breasts go braless as much as possible or totally braless! Stay away from underwired bras as metal underneath your breasts is a transmitter for all electro-magnetic frequencies and this is not something we women want passing close to our lymph nodes. Also tight bras pressing on the area below your breasts is proven to cause breast cancers more than smoking does!
Eat as much alkaline foods as you can. An alkaline body is healthy body- an acidic body is prone to ill- nesses and inflammation. Alkaline means plenty of greens, less meat, grains, coffee, alcohol and other acidic stuff. Find out about your blood group and see which foods your blood group is highly intolerant too. Blood group diets work wonders for some.
Include as much raw foods in your diet, especially green juices, salads, fruits and vegetables. Just try to eat an extra bowl of leaves on the top of what- ever is included in your diet that day. Hemp and Spirulina are a wonderful vegan source of protein so even if you are a meat eater try to sometimes substitute your meat protein with vegan options as they are not acidic on your body.
They say any exercise even if it’s going for a long walk is good, but try to do some movements that will make you sweat and increase your heart rate. Only after starting to exercise in this way have I noticed that stubborn weight was shifting off.
Use an infrared sauna if you can find one in your spa or if you are lucky to have space in your house and buy one is one of the best health investments you can do.
Buy a trampoline or rebounder or just join your kids in a playground. The health benefits are numerous!
Go barefoot as much as you can. Our shoes keep us isolated from the earth energy and we need to reconnect anytime possible.
Get some sun and stock up on vitamin D. Try not to shower for at least two hours after sun exposure to get maximum benefits.
Listen to your body. It will tell you which food and drinks agree with it. It will also tell you if it’s really hungry or just thirsty. Very often we are hungry because on a nutritional level we are starving so make sure you give your body nutrition it needs and not just what you find yummy to eat!
Last but not least say no to plastic, especially water in plastic and tap water. This is something we simply must move away from. Plastic substances leaking in our ‘drinkable’ bottled water are so harmful. If you can source your water from a spring it is the best you can do. Purchasing your water in glass bottles is the second best.