Improving your health means making healthy behavioral changes that stick over time. It’s important to keep it simple, start where you are with your current knowledge and ability, and keep moving forward. Try these 5 simple things right now to improve your health.
Increase the number of fruit and vegetable servings you eat each day. Fruits and Veggies are our nutritional power foods packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber. By increasing your servings each day you’ll have a better chance at warding off the major diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It will keep your immune system strong and assist with weight management. We all have different nutrition needs where some of us need more servings than others, however on average if you strive for 5 cups a day of fruits and vegetables combined you’re doing really well. An example is eating 2 cups of fruit and 3 cups of vegetables. A serving of fruit and vegetable is typically a ½ cup and raw salads and leafy greens are 1 cup. Include fruits and veggies like broccoli, kale, bok choy, blueberries, or apples each day.
Choose water as your main beverage. Water is important for every cell in your body and rids you of toxins. It can replace high sugar drinks that provide no nutritional value and that may pack on unwanted pounds. The Institute of Medicine recommends 13 cups of fluid each day for men and 9 cups a day for women. Other sources of fluid other than water are soups, green tea, low fat milk or milk alternatives like Almond Beverage, and fruits and vegetables.
Choose healthy fats. Eating fat is important to provide you with a highly concentrated form of energy, provides the transport and absorption of fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A, E, K and D, provides the essential fats like omega 3 and omega 6 which are not made by your body, and provides an insulation for your body. Choose healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado or peanut oil. Fish is high in the Omega 3 fats however there are also plant sources like ground flax meal or chia seeds.
Move more. Exercise can help reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes and manage weight. It can improve your mood and promote better sleep. Strive for a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each week. You can break it up in 10 minute increments if you like.
Take 3 deep breathes By practicing deep breathing periodically throughout the day you can remain focused and present, obtain full oxygen exchange in the lungs, become more relaxed, and stabilize blood pressure. To start, first take a normal breath. Then try a deep breath: Breathe in slowly through your nose, allowing your chest and lower belly to rise as you fill your lungs. Let your abdomen expand fully. Now breathe out slowly through your mouth (or your nose, if that feels more natural).
by Vincent Alvarez, RDN, NSCA-CPT