| I've talked a lot about taking charge of your wellness and changing the things in your life which aren't promoting wellness. Have you decided to make wellness your top priority? Does changing things in your life to promote wellness seem a bit overwhelming? The answer to overwhelm is to choose and change one thing at a time. Every week or two weeks (whatever feels right to you) incorporate a new wellness habit. Here's a suggested (but not all inclusive) list to get you started: Week One: Drink water instead of soda. If your doctor does NOT have you on any water restrictions divide your weight by two - this will give you the ounces of water you should drink per day. Drink SPRING water ( which you will find in any grocery store) or Wellness Enhanced water http://tinyurl.com/s8b6o . Week Two: Eat one salad every day. Do NOT use a high calorie salad dressing. I would also not recommend the low calorie "chemical ridden" salad dressings. Try Annies Green Garlic Dressing (found in the health food section of your grocery store or in a health food grocery store). Check out the salads/dressings in the "Healthy Kitchen" section of http://www.drweil.com/ . Go to your bookstore and peruse the vegetarian recipe books for healthy salad dressings. Week Three: Resolve to eat Five vegetables a day. This isn't hard when you stop to realize a serving is 1/2 cup. Make your plate colorful! Eat veggies of different colors! Week Four: Resolve to not eat fast food. Fast food is normally high calorie, high fat. Week Five: Cut down on coffee! Resolve to have only one cup in the morning. IF you are a bigtime coffee drinker you may consider having one cup of caffeinated coffee and remaining cups 50/50. Gradually change over to just 50/50 and then slowly decrease how many cups you have in the morning till it's only one cup. You might even consider booting coffee out of your life.....You might substitute Green Tea for it's antioxidant qualities! Week Six: Eat four fruits a day. If you haven't been wild about eating fruits up till now then go easy eat two a day and work up to four. Week Seven: Do you smoke? With the issuance of the recent Surgeon Generals report don't you agree it's clear how bad smoking is for your health. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/ If you are a heavy "nervous" type smoker I recommend you talking with your doctor about how to quit. You can also find a smoking cessation group in your area. Most hospitals have smoking cessation groups. Call the Respiratory Care department of your local hospital. The American Lung Association offers smoking cessation http://www.lungusa.org/ and also the American Cancer Society http://tinyurl.com/z4vju . Especially if you are quitting smoking you should consider incorporating an excellent antioxidant supplement into your wellness regimen. Even if smoking is not an issue and you just want to be proactive about your wellness an antioxidant supplement is important. I recommend: http://tinyurl.com/gt7ur Week Eight: Incorporate some form of exercise into your daily regimen. Check with physician before starting an exercise regimen especially if you've been mostly sedentary for some time. Your exercise regimen could be as simple as walking. Get a pedometer and work up to 10,000 steps per day. But find some form of exercise you enjoy and DO IT! These changes will get you started. You might also read the books: "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman,MD http://tinyurl.com/po88c "Ultraprevention" by Mark Hyman,MD http://tinyurl.com/r7y28 So have you decided to change the things in your life which don't promote wellness? Write to me! Let me know how things go! I care about you........ Wishing you wellness and joy! |
Pam Murphy,B.S.,RRT
