12 Steps to a Healthy Lifestyle

You must eat well-balanced meals. Food guides were created to educate you in the amounts of food required each day to be healthy. It's important to follow its guidelines.

Where fruits and vegetables are concerned, be sure to eat a variety of colors since each different color represents different antioxidants which your body needs to stay healthy; if you eat only grapes, you'll never have the benefits which strawberries and pears offer. If you eat only potatoes and carrots, you'll never reap the wonderful benefits of broccoli.

To learn more, feel free to visit the featured lens, further down before the guest book, called, A Colorful Diet to Defy Aging.

Study nutrition labels. When you see foods high in saturated and trans fats, sugars, and sodium, avoid them whenever possible. Look for foods with a higher intake of iron, potassium, calcium and fiber. Keep in mind that percentages are relative; a product which provides 12% of the daily recommended intake of fiber is a good source of fiber. However, if it has 12% of the recommended daily allowance for Calcium, it will be OK but, unless it reaches 30%, per serving, it won't be anything to brag about.

Exercising daily improves all aspects of your health. Exercising forces your heart to pump blood throughout your body at a faster rate which helps keep your heart strong and healthy. Believe me - you don't want your heart to become lazy as it does in people who develop poor eating habits, who place exercise at the bottom of their list of priorities.

Also, as blood pumps through your body it seems to have a renewing effect on your mind. You feel younger, stronger, and better equipped to deal with life's situations. It greatly reduces stress levels, improves your state of mind and allows you to feel, even for a little while, that you can conquer the world and anything it throws at you.

Wouldn't you love to feel this good? If so, start exercising. You don't need to take up jogging or pay expense fees at fitness clubs. Go for a brisk walk each day. Take your family swimming or sledding a couple of times a week. Kick a ball around the yard, rake the grass or shovel the snow. Place a basketball hoop on the side of your house or turn your den into a dance/aerobic studio twice a week.

The ideas are endless; the important thing is to act upon incorporating exercise as part of your daily, or even bi-daily, routine.

Sleep provides your body with much needed energy to carry on daily functions. Without proper rest, your are more stressed. You can't learn as well in school nor can you perform your job as well as you would like. In addition, sleep deprivation affects your thought processes, reflexes and reactions and even your outlook on the future and life in general. It also affects the way you treat friends, co-workers and family members.

Your body's immune system is strengthened during sleep, helping you fight infections and disease more easily. When you get an adequate amount of sleep and relaxation, overall, you will feel healthier and more vibrant on a daily basis. Yes, even on your worst days, you fare better when you are fully rested.

For adults, you should try your absolute best to get at least seven to eight hours of rest per day and, hopefully most of those are spent sleeping. If you can catch an additional couple of hours to read, watch TV, spend time relaxing with your family, among others, it is even more to your advantage.

Essentially, your body will turn against you if your mindset continues to be go, go, go...so slow down the pace a little and take time for you; take time to rest and relax - and don't feel bad about it. You are doing yourself a favor while enhancing your quality of life.

Eliminating nicotine, alcohol, and drugs will help reduce stress on all levels. Your body won't continue to crave substances which affect your nervous system, especially when such addictive substances are unavailable.

Reducing caffeine also helps reduce the level of anxiety a person feels in many situations.

Gambling is another major addiction which has the potential to destroy your family.

This may not even cross your mind but your addiction to requiring the latest styles of clothing/shoes and your addiction to needing the newest computers or electronic gadgets can wear you down because you never feel satisfied with what you have!

Though it seems difficult to work towards - and maintain - a healthy lifestyle, the rewards are worth it. You'll feel better in all aspects of your life and people will begin to feel better around you.

Whether through relaxation or prayer, meditation is great for you. It allows you the opportunity to slow down and step back from reality to focus on your spiritual selves.

The hectic pace we live tries to convince us we don't have time; the reality is that we must make time or we will lose out on the peaceful existence we would, otherwise, be experiencing each day.

Faith's rewards are many. Your belief system gets you through the roughest of life's trials. You believe things are in control by a greater power than yourself and, eventually, life works together for your good. It makes you feel great and always gives you a reason to be thankful and look forward to tomorrow, regardless of what it may bring.

Do you know that stress can kill you? Do you know that you likely have more stress in your life than you realize? It's true!

Even if your marriage is not falling apart and debt is not mounting around you, there are so many other areas in your life which can send you to an early grave. They may involve raising your children and dealing with various homework assignments - not to mention extra-curricular activities your child/ren many be involved in.

Perhaps your health is failing or you are worried about your job. Could it be that you lost people close to you and you don't enjoy the thought of living tomorrow without them in your life? Perhaps you will be moving to another province/state and you have mixed feelings about it.

Regardless of the type of stress you deal with, you can help yourself mentally reduce stress by having personal time each day doing something you enjoy - and be optimistic.

You may have heard the expression, "It's all in your mind," before; well, in this particular case, your mindset does play a vital role...so keep your mind focused on the belief that nothing will happen that you can't handle. It truly does wonders for reducing stress levels!

It sounds easy sometimes but impossible at others. However, when you refuse to forgive someone, the only person you are hurting is yourself. You are holding on to a grudge that someone else may have forgotten a long time ago.

When you forgive others, it releases you, mentally and spiritually, allowing you to move healthily forward with your life.

For more information on this subject, check out The Art of Forgiveness. It will open in a different window.

Everyone has neighbors and, for most people, neighbors are not living acres away on another farm; they are living next door.

Relationships with neighbors are important; if you are arguing constantly with your neighbors, before long you will regret having to leave your house. You may even want to sell your property and move somewhere else, uprooting your family and starting all over again. It's not conducive to a healthy lifestyle.

I agree! Sometimes neighbors do make mistakes and do things which annoy and aggravate us; however, unless they've committed some terrible criminal act, they should be given a second chance. It's much simpler to greet a neighbor as you mow your lawn or shovel your drive way than to continually ignore and berate them.

Ultimately, you can have rich friendships and a wonderful support system - as I have - if you are willing to do your part in maintaining good relationships.

Interacting with, and talking to, your families will bring a stronger bond between you whether you are talking around the dinner table, folding a load of laundry with your child, or quietly relaxing on the patio with your spouse.

You will learn more about each other and, when details of troubling days have been shared, your family unit provides comfort, support, and guidance. Your home feels like a healthy place to be.

Socialize with extended family members when opportunities arise. Your immediate family doesn't feel like your only outlet when you need to release frustration or spread overwhelming joy.

Socialize with friends and meet new people. You learn about others and the world around you through conversation. Fun becomes a part of your life away from home and it makes for a healthier you.

You live life with so many demands on your time and attention; you need a break from it all - a time to focus only on yourself and your needs.

That's not saying that you care nothing for the poor and down trodden; it's not saying you should neglect your family and commitments.

It merely means that you need to take time to recharge your batteries, so to speak, so you can continue to function effectively for those around you, whether it's co-workers or family members.

It may mean reading a book for a hour, going for a walk, or sitting on your patio with no one else around - just you alone with your thoughts and ideas - where you can close your eyes or watch the birds flying from one tree branch to another.

Personally, I love seagulls; I can watch and listen to them for hours at a stretch. All I need is time, my camera and the sound of the surf. However, watching a sunset is also up there at the top of the list...and a sunset which includes seagulls - it's hard to beat that - unless I'm in the Rocky Mountains watching a sunset. Breath-taking indeed!

Note: Even writing the previous paragraph renews and invigorates me and I'm only living in my memories; the computer screen is still brightly illuminated in front of me.