5 Steps to the Most Vibrant, Healthy You!

5 Steps to the Most Vibrant, Healthy You! By Gillian B (Follow on Facebook) Looking to take your health to the next level? Here are my suggestions to help you optimize your vitality and look and feel your absolute very best. 1-Remove most if not all processed foods from your diet. This is going to take a little self-discipline, but it will all be worth it I promise. Filling up on fresh, organic, un-processed foods that are packed with live enzymes will give you a new lease on life. If you maintain this lifestyle free of processed foods your energy levels will sky rocket and stay consistent throughout the day without any help from coffee or energy drinks. 2-Eat at least one raw meal a day. The process of cooking foods zaps somewhere between 50-80% of the available vitamins, minerals and live enzymes, which is problematic because the conventional foods we eat have very little nutrition to begin with. I suggest having one meal a day that is uncooked in order to maximize the benefits. This can be a big colourful salad or you can get creative and try some of the many raw food recipes online. The preparation of raw food may seem daunting at first but it is really very simple. No need for ovens or microwaves, its time to teach yourself how to un-cook! There are plenty of recipes out there that you can find that do not require some of the tools like a dehydrator, Vitamix or spiralizer (but those are fun too!). Give it shot! 3-Try green juice. Get as much goodness as possible in your cup.Next time you stop at Booster Juice or Jamba Juice, choose one of the freshly squeezed juices instead of the sugary blends they so commonly whip up. They say the juices are ‘all natural’ but really they have been heavily processed and made into sugary sorbets and fruit ‘cocktails’. Don’t be fooled by this deceptive marketing, go with the simpler choice. Look for a juice blend with kale, spinach, beet, cucumber, celery, carrot, apple, ginger or lemon! If you really want to optimize your health you can invest in your own juicer and get busy in the kitchen and come up with your own marvelous creations. Fun, fun, fun! Wheatgrass and E3 Live (blue-green algae) shots are also PACKED full of nutrition and are a much better choice than some of the other menu options. Can’t handle the taste? Chase it with a little bit of freshly squeezed orange juice. 4-Find an activity that you really enjoy and do a little each day. By now, we all know about the importance of exercising and living a healthy active life. But what benefit does it have if we don’t truly enjoy every last moment? If you find yourself straining and pushing yourself in your workouts to the point where you hate it and want it to be over, than you may want to reconsider your workout. Having negative thoughts during your intense workout just will not yield the same results as if you have fun in the process. Negative, angry thoughts bring about stress and a hyper vigilant state, which in turn makes the body more acidic. Happy, playful thoughts do just the opposite, they relax you and reduce the risk of disease. If you haven’t found your place in the world of fitness, don’t fret. There is something out there for everyone. Try a new activity each week until you find something that really clicks. I find it really helps is you bond with others in the class or try new activities with a friend. Camaraderie makes the process of working out more fun and the benefits on the body more profound. 5-Take the time to learn about what foods are best for your body. Knowledge is power! The more that you know food the better choices you can make on the fly without relying on a meal plan. The Internet is the greatest tool when it comes to researching how to eat a well balanced diet. Keep a list of healthy recipes that you would like to make in the future and try to get in the habit of cooking a new one each week. This will help to broaden your healthy meal repertoire, which is beneficial for you and your loved ones. Be well, Gillian