Ten Things We Can Do to Enjoy Better Health & Peak Performance

There is no denying that we live in an age, where we are challenged to maintain our health and wellbeing for longer. We are living longer and easier lives, and, therefore, the onus is on us to stay healthy into our latter decades. We are faced with some very real lifestyle challenges, as we sit down, more often, on the job and in every aspect of our day to day lives. The sedentary lifestyle is, literally, killing us. The life of ease and leisure is killing us with kindness. We get up from our beds in the morning and sit around to eat breakfast, before driving in our cars, seated, to our places of work, where most of us labour, whilst seated. Even, using the term laboured is a misnomer, because we just push buttons or touch screens in the majority of instances in the 21C. Our lives have been transformed by technological innovation.

Our lives are temperature controlled by air conditioning, so, even, on hot days, we rarely break a sweat.  Our supermarket shelves are groaning with produce and goodies. We do not need to hunt or gather. Obesity is, now, a global epidemic, especially for our children. We are fat and getting fatter. Our cities are choked by traffic and its accompanying carbon monoxide. What can we do about all these challenging lifestyle factors to maintain our health and wellbeing? Here are ten things we can do to enjoy better health and peak performance.

1. Get up and walk around every 20 minutes. Stretch and move parts of your body that you do not normally use at work or at home. Break up your routines wherever possible, as doing the same things every day will hasten your demise.
2. Drink plenty of water. Drink at least 2 litres per day of pure water. Keeping hydrated is the single most important and effective thing you can do to avoid numerous health complaints from headaches to bad skin. Do not reach for pain killers, when you have a headache as your first port of call, rather have a glass of water and ask yourself, “Have I drunk enough fluid today?”
3. Eat healthy food in moderation and ensure that you are a consuming balanced diet. Avoid too much processed food, basically all those packaged foods lining the aisles of the supermarket. Familiarise yourself with the fruit and vegetable section of your local market. Eat more pulses and less red meat. Vary your diet every day.
4. Exercise regularly and reasonably frequently. Sitting on your backside for lengthy periods will damage your health and wellbeing. Get the blood pumping around your body. You will feel better and have more energy available to you. Exercise is the best remedy for depression. Push yourself to get started!
5. Get at least 8 to 10 hours of sleep every day. Avoid engaging with electronic devices 30 minutes prior to going to sleep. Wake up naturally without an alarm. Keep electronic devices away from your bed. Make your bedroom a no-go zone for electromagnetic fields.
6. Spend some time outside of air-conditioned environments. Perspiring is a natural and healthy thing for your body to do. Don’t listen to advertisements that are selling deodorants and antiperspirants, as they have a vested interest in making body odour a bad thing. Your BO tells you about your current state of health.  
7. Be aware of habitual behaviour, especially as it pertains to your diet and drinking. Comfort foods are killers. Avoid doing things just because other people are doing them. Don’t self-medicate with drugs and alcohol. Cultivate a gracious atttude toward being alive inside your skin. Thank those around you, especially your loved ones.
8. Avoid eating your meals in front of the TV. Eat consciously by being aware of how you physically feel, whist consuming your meal. How will you know if you are full if you are engrossed in a TV program?
9. Avoid labour saving devices in your life. We have reached the tipping point with making things too easy for ourselves. Isn’t it ironic that we are paying to go to the gym because we have removed all the natural labour from our lives?
10. Spend 15 minutes a day by yourself, as an absolute minimum. Close your eyes, take slow deep breaths and feel. Feel what it is like to be alive. Avoid thinking at this time or paying attention to your thoughts. Just be!

You might like to try one or two of these lifestyle tips to begin with and see how it goes. Remember that life is a mystery to be lived, rather than a problem to be solved.