By Joe Love
The better care you take of yourself, the more calm, positive, and creative you will be. This is why often your best thinking, your best ideas and your best decisions come after a holiday, vacation or period of rest.
You can increase the quality of your life by eating right and getting the right amount of rest. You’ll also find that by taking more time off you’ll create more opportunities for high quality thinking time which will have a positive affect on your life, career and income.
The phrase that “you become what you think about” is never truer than when it comes to eating and exercise. The way you think about food and exercise determines how much you eat and how much you exercise you get. If you change your thinking about food and exercise you change your behavior toward both.
Everyone wants to enjoy high levels of health and vitality. Your current levels of energy and physical well-being are perhaps the best indicator as to how well you are currently doing in your life.
Here are seven keys to maintaining high levels of vitality and physical health:
1. Maintain a proper diet. Eating a proper diet requires that you eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grain cereals, and more lean sources of protein. Eat more fish, chicken, prime cuts of meats, egg whites, low fat yogurts, and soy products. When you eliminate most fats from your diet and replace them with high-quality vegetables and lean-sourced protein you’ll increase your levels of energy, clear your mind, and lose weight.
2. Eliminate the three white poisons. The three white poisons that are common in most diets are white sugar, white salt and white flour. These three poisons are inert substances. In other words they contain little or no food value and are mostly used as preservatives in canned goods, soft drinks and snacks. If you reduce or eliminate foods that contain sugar, salt, flour and replace them with more fruits, vegetables and lean-source proteins your will feel happier, healthier and more energetic almost overnight.
3. Maintain proper hydration. Water is one of the greatest aids to good health that you can possibly consume. Studies show that you should drink eight glasses of water daily and more if you’re doing physical labor or exercising. In fact medical studies have shown that as much as 70 percent of all health problems can be eliminated or reduced by increasing your water consumption. This is mainly because of the tremendous amount of toxins and impurities that you flush from you body when you drink water.
4. Maintain the proper weight. This simply means that you should eat less and exercise more. The way you think plays a dominant role in your eating and exercise habits. For example, people who are overweight often think about the pleasure of eating and give little or no thought to how they will look and feel afterwards. Whereas people who are never overweight are usually very thoughtful about how they will look and feel after eating. They don’t like the feeling of being full or looking fat, so they eat less and stop eating sooner.
5. Get the right amount of exercise. Studies show that on average you need to get 210 minutes of exercise weekly or about 30 minutes per day to maintain a high level of fitness. You can get daily exercise from a variety of activities such as, walking, swimming, cycling, golf, tennis and exercise equipment. Perhaps the best exercise you can get is doing aerobics for 20 to 30 minutes, 3 to 5 times per week. One important note on exercise: Before you start an exercise routine you should get a complete medical check-up.
6. Get the right amount of daily vitamins and minerals. It’s almost impossible to get the right amount daily vitamins and minerals that you need from diet alone. This is why you should at the very least take a multi-vitamin each day. Opinions vary widely on which vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements are good and how much of each you should take. You should consult your doctor or a nutritionist before you start taking other supplements in addition to a multi-vitamin.
7. Get the right amount of rest and relaxation. You need 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night to be fully rested. It’s important that you give your body, mind and emotions time to recuperate from the day. If you can take a short 20 minute nap during the day. Have at least one day set aside during the week just for your family and recreation where you don’t think about your work at all. Here’s an important rule to remember: The time when you most need time off is when you don’t have time to take time off.
You should think of your body as a machine that is designed to last 100 to 120 years with the proper care and maintenance. Take good care of it. Feed your body the proper foods and nutrients. Drink lots of water. Exercise regularly. Rest and recuperate, and give your body a chance to recharge on a regular basis.
Your body is the best investment you can make. It pays for itself over and over again, every minute, every hour and every day. As you develop the habit of good health, nutrition, exercise and overall proper care for your body it affects every other area of your life in a healthy and positive way as well.
Copyright©2008 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and success coaching programs (http://www.jlmandassociates.com/resources.php?). He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in career coach training (http://www.jlmandassociates.com/resources.php?). Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world, on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing. Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.
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