Tips for a Healthy and Balanced Physical Body
Ronya Banks

Your body is the only vehicle you have been given for this ride called Life. Taking good care of your body will ensure a longer, happier ride. The following tips integrate your Body, Mind, and Spirit, which are all required to maintain a healthy, happy body!

1.Healthy diet and nutrition.

Health care practitioners will tell you that you have to provide your physical body with high quality fuel if you want it to run properly. Eat a healthy, chemical-free diet high in vital nutrients. Take the herbal and vitamin supplements that will support you in your good health.

2.Get adequate rest.

Get the appropriate amount of uninterrupted sleep you need to engage your REM patterns. REM sleep is your nervous systems way of healing and refueling your body. Also, if youre feeling overly sluggish, take a short nap or sit and rest. Chronic sleep and sluggishness problems should be reported to your health care provider.

3.Stay focused in the present moment.

Feelings of regret or worry about a past event, or worry and anxiety about an upcoming future event are not only a waste of your precious life time. They also add stress to the body, which makes you more susceptible to disease. Stay present and focused on the beauty and gifts this moment is offering you!

4.Physical fitness/exercise.

Exercise is known to help you live a longer and healthier life. The body needs to stay in action and movement. Move it, or lose it!

5.Mental exercise and stimulation.

A healthy physical body includes a sound and sharp mind. Keep challenging your mind to expand, grow, learn, experience, decipher, and explore. Use it, or lose it!

6.Meditate.

Not only is meditation simple and fun, it also has been known to reduce your heart rate, reduce your stress level, help you become present in this moment, increase your feelings of peace, serenity, joy, and spiritual faith. This all does the body good!

7.Surround yourself with a great support system – family, friends.

Keep yourself surrounded from every side with positive-minded, healthy people who are on YOUR team – People who will care for, support, love, respect, and appreciate you.

8.Laugh often.

Recent studies are showing the significance of how laughter, fun, and mirth help keep people healthy, as well as heal sick bodies. Everyone really is a unique, hilarious person. Look for the hilarity in every situation and keep laughing.

9.Keep your thoughts positive.

What you put out does come back. So if you want to feel and look great, monitor your thoughts closely to ensure that you are thinking only positive, forwarding thoughts. If you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, simply turn it around into a positive thought.

10.Deal with your emotions. Do not stifle them.

If you are avoiding dealing with any emotions that have cropped up in your life, what do you think you are doing to your poor body? It has to store this emotional energy somewhere. Face your feelings, express them healthfully, and whatever you do, stop stuffing them down in to an oozing, black hole of ill health!

About the Author

As a Mind Power Leadership coach, trainer, and speaker, Ronya Banks teaching others how to become leaders and business owners since 1992. Frequently featured in radio, magazine and newspaper articles and interviews, Ronya helps people find the great leaders within by accessing the natural power of their minds. Discover more of Ronyas proven leadership success secrets at: www.livinginaction.com or subscribe to her ezine newsletter at: http://www.livinginaction.com/newsletter.cfm.

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How To Grow Long, Shiny, Healthy Hair
Janice Johnson

Many men and women complain that their hair is not growing. They buy the most popular hair products, which promise more shine and growth. They buy supplements and read magazines looking for the next quick fix. But what many men and women fail to realize it that the way they treat their bodies plays an enormous role in the state of their hair.

Here are some helpful tips to help grow healthier hair:

Consume a diet high in vital nutrients mainly beta carotene, iodine and protein are necessary for shiny healthy hair.

Iodine is necessary for the production of the thyroid hormone thyroxin. This hormone promotes hair growth. The foods that contain iodine are seafoods like cod, mussels, seaweed and haddock.

Beta Carotene is actually converted by the body into vitamin A which makes the hair strong. You can find it in green and yellow fruits and vegetables like green peppers and cantaloupes.

Protein can be found in foods like meat, eggs and nuts to name a few.

Also, try to exercise weekly. This helps improve the circulation while getting your body in shape and making your body “work” better.

The hormones and healthy chemical processes taking place in your body during your workout sessions, assist in overall health.

Get out! Well, I’m not saying this rudely. But rather literally. Get out of the house more often and get some sun. If you’re at the office during the day, take a short walk outside on your lunch break. Studies have shown that healthy doses of vitamin D received from the sun actually plays a role in hair growth. But don’t forget to protect your hair and scalp at all times.

Always apply a sunscreen lotion to your skin and wear a hat if you’re outside for long periods of time. If you’re not wearing a hat a great tip is applying some sunscreen lotion to the exposed skin on your scalp. This will keep the area from getting burned.

Remember, take care of your hair and skin. You’ll be thankful in years to come!

About the Author

Janice Johnson is the founder of the www.CurlyHairSalon.com website. An online multi-ethnic curly hair magazine that offers information, tips and advice to care for curly hair.

Tags: Author, Chemical Processes, Enormous Role, Foods That Contain Iodine, Fruits And Vegetables, Green Peppers, Haddock, Hair And Skin, Hair Growth, Hair Products, healthy chemical processes taking place, Healthy Hair, Janice Johnson, Long Periods Of Time, Lunch Break, Many Men, Mussels, online multi-ethnic curly hair magazine, Seaweed, Sunscreen Lotion, Thyroid Hormone, Vital Nutrients, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Workout Sessions, www.CurlyHairSalon.com —

Eat a variety of foods for a healthy lifestyle
Zaak OConan

Everyone knows that variety is important when it comes to diet. Not only is eating the same foods every day boring, but it is extremely unhealthy as well. That is because each type of food contains different nutrients, and different levels of those nutrients. The best way to eat healthy is to eat a wide variety of foods from all the food groups.

It is important to eat a good combination of meats, beans, dairy products, fruits, vegetables and whole grains. All these foods contain important nutrients, and no vitamin pill in existence can provide the vast variety of nutrients your body needs every day.

Of course simply eating foods from a variety of sources is not enough. It is also important to make smart choices within those food groups. After all, nonfat yogurt and an hot fudge sundae are both dairy products! The best choice in that situation should be obvious, but other choices are more subtle.

Fortunately, the nutritional labels which are required on all packaged foods are a big help for those pursuing a healthier diet. Not only do these labels contain information on the number of calories, fat grams, etc., but they provide detailed information on the levels of many important vitamins and minerals as well.

When choosing healthy foods, small changes can have a huge impact. Simply exchanging fresh, low fat fish for higher fat meats can greatly lower the amount of fat in your diet and increase your level of health.

Replacing highly processed grains for more nutritious whole grain products can also have a great impact on healthy eating. In nutritional terms, less is often more – that is less processing and less refining. Processing and refining methods can strip many vital nutrients from foods, so choosing less refined whole grain foods is important.

Cooking techniques are also very important when maximizing the health benefits of the foods you choose. After taking the time to choose the healthiest, freshest broccoli in the supermarket, it would be quite a waste to slather that cooked broccoli with cheese and butter, for instance.

It would also be a mistake to overcook that broccoli, especially by boiling it in water for a long time. That is because vegetables can lose significant amounts of nutrients through overcooking. When preparing fresh vegetables, it is best to quickly steam them in the microwave or on the stove, using as little water as possible. Use only enough water to keep the vegetables from scorching.

When cooking potatoes, it is a good idea to eat the entire potato, including the skin. Potato skins contain significant levels of nutrients, including fiber, vitamins and minerals. Cooking a baked potato in the microwave, or on the grill, is a great way to make the skin moist and delicious. In addition, these methods of cooking minimize the need for high fat butter or sour cream to flavor the potato. In place of these high fat options, why not use a dollop of plain nonfat yogurt, or some low fat cottage cheese?

Choosing a variety of foods is important to a healthy lifestyle, but it just as important to limit the amount of certain foods. Foods high in sugar, and those high in sodium should be avoided as much as possible. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy that piece of cake or serving of potato chips as an occasional snack; it simply means limiting regular consumption of these high fat, low nutrition products.

When adopting healthier eating habits, it is important to make changes that you can stick with for the long run. After all, a healthy eating lifestyle is just that, a lifestyle. Changing your shopping, cooking and eating habits are not easy, but the many benefits make healthy eating an important habit to get into.
About the Author

Zaak O’Conan discovers and presents useful information on how to enhance and/or repair your life, body and relationships. You’ll find his other articles on eating better and other ways how to improve your life at http://your-health-center.com

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Are you overweight? Have a problem with high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease? Are you worried about getting cancer or other ailments? Do you wish you could just feel better? If so, then you need to make a healthy eating program a part of your daily life.

It all starts with knowing how your body works, and how it reacts to various types of foods. Some foods drain you and can make you sick, others have no real effect, and still others will improve your overall health. It’s this last category that you will want to focus on as you start your own healthy eating program.

The next thing you need to consider is what your health goals are. After all, if you’re not interested in losing weight, then it wouldn’t make sense to start a plan that’s all about shedding pounds. However, you could still look into it and then use the parts of the diet that fit in with your particular goals. See, when you start looking at the bigger picture, you won’t feel as though you have to try every new eating plan that comes out. At the same time though, you will be able to incorporate good ideas from any plan and make them a part of your program.

One of the keys to look for in a healthy eating program is balance. Any diet that has you eat too much of certain foods, or too little of others is usually not a smart choice. The first reason why such plans don’t make sense is that they won’t give you all of the nutrition you need. There are some vital nutrients that can only be found in certain foods, and if those foods are eliminated (or drastically reduced), then you could harm your health in the long run. The second reason is that you will most likely start to crave the “forbidden” foods. Now, willpower can be a wonderful thing, but it can only carry you so far. You will eventually give in to your temptations, and you’ll be worse off than before.

Some general guidelines to follow are to eat whole foods, or foods that are as close to their natural source as possible. Good choices for most people include whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats, and fruits and vegetables. Avoid over-processed foods. Try to eat a wide variety of foods so you have a more complete nutrition profile. Pay attention to the food you eat and remember that food matters.

You don’t have to follow a healthy eating program that was created by somebody else. The truth is that you can make your own plan and do just fine. The catch is that it may take some time to figure everything out and a lot of the available information on food can be confusing. For those reasons, a lot of people will look for programs that cover most of what they’re looking for; as a sort of shortcut to good health. This is actually a good idea, at least to get you started.

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