I shared the 5 Components of Super Health in the last five posts of June 2017 and today I bring them all together in one post for easy implementation.
5 Components of Super Health
You can review any one of them by clicking on the above links but the following summary will help you implement these components into your daily routine.
#1 Be mindful of what you put into your body. Always ask yourself, Is this “good fuel” for body in the right proportions. Your daily diet doesn’t have to be fancy or difficult, just the right nutrition in the right amounts. Include any special needs you may have and don’t put bad fuel in your precious body.
To get started, I suggest using a food journal. This means you write down everything you eat, the amounts you eat, the time of day, and how you felt before and after including any changes you notice in your body. Then you can review each item to determine if you want to keep that food in your diet or not. During your review consider it’s nutritional value and how your body reacted. By reporting your mood at the time you ate you can see if you have any lapses in good fuels based on mood swings. Determine what your go-to “comfort foods” are and see if you can improve the nutritional value of those.
#2 Get outside daily and soak up some sunshine. If you are not fond of summer sun, get out early before it heats up. In the winter, bundle up and enjoy a walk in the sunlight. Even if the sun is not shining. a walk in the rain submerges you in negative ions that produce health benefits discussed in my June 30, 2017 post Super Health: Refreshing Water.
#3 Get up and move every day! Include:
- 2-3 Strength Training sessions of all the major muscle groups every week.
- 20-30 minutes of Cardiovascular activity 3-4 times per week. This does not have to be boring, get outside and explore your community or find a dance partner and learn some new moves. Get up off the couch and play!
- Flex your body, head to toe every day. The best way to start and end your day is 5-10 minutes of stretching.
Deliberately train your body every day so that you can enjoy the things you love to do and do the things you have to do with ease. Keep your body strong so you can enjoy life as long as you live.
#4 Drink at least 64 ounces of filtered water per day. The best calculation is to take half your body weight, drop the pounds and replace that number with ounces. For example, if you weigh 180 pounds, you would take the number 180 divide by 2 and get 90. Replace pounds with ounces. Your goal is 90 ounces of water per day.
Increase the amount of water you drink daily if you are ill or working out, especially in hot weather. Women typically require more water than men especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
#5 Sleep 6-9 hours every night. Increase the quality of your sleep by shutting off all blue light sources (TVs, Smartphones, Computers, Video monitors, LED Bulbs), 2-3 hours before you fall asleep. Use an incandescent bulb in your reading lamp at night and sleep in a dark room.
Alternate sedentary and physical activities throughout the day. Take time to relax from mental activity with meditation and cast off your worries with prayer and journaling.
To help measure and keep my water cool I use copper 17 ounce water bottles, shown below. These bottles are amazing and even keep my water cool when left in a hot car. My goal is 96 ounces of water a day. I use my refrigerator’s filtered, cold water and fill my thermos up 6 times a day. I am experimenting with water assisted appetite control to lose weight so I am drinking 2 bottles before breakfast, 1/2 with lunch, 2 between lunch and dinner, 1/2 with dinner, and 1 before bed. I’ll post my results in August.
That water bottles that I use are available on Amazon… click through the link above for your convenience. Disclosure: Affiliate links on this page are of products I actually use and recommend. Your click throughs are greatly appreciated!!