Every single year most people get stuck in the same cycle regarding fitness. As the days grow shorter and colder we exercise less. When you add in holiday laziness and indulgence, along with an over abundance of delicious food, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why so many of us start adding extra pounds.  So should you wait until spring to start losing weight or just look for ways to not add it during the winter?

An ounce of prevention

As Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” While I doubt he was talking about keeping a trim waistline, the saying is very accurate. It is extremely easy to gain excess weight and fat. Simply add a few extra helpings of dessert each week and watch those pounds add up. But conversely you have to burn 3500 calories of energy to lose a pound of fat. That equals 3 1/2 hours of hard cycling, over 4 hours of step aerobics, or 5 hours of jogging.

Where to start?

Psych yourself up for staying in shape! One of the more overlooked aspects of weight gain and weight loss is the proper mindset. If you aren’t focused on a particular goal then you won’t reach that goal. For staying in shape the easiest way to forge that focus is by placing attention firmly on your abdominals. Far too many people think the all-mighty scale is the best tool. They will agonize over every little pound. But honestly, a scale gives a raw number which does not consider how you actually look. Overwhelmingly when people consider being ‘in-shape’ they think of a trim midsection.

• Work out your abdominals every other day. Do it in the morning before breakfast.
• Before you get in the shower, take a good look at your stomach. Consider how it is now compared to how you want it to look.
• Use your morning visualizations and ab soreness as motivation during the day to eat right and avoid the bad foods.
• Always bring a water bottle with you and drink frequently.
• Find some sort of easy exercise to do a few times a week and stick to it. The goal is to offset any extra calories you might consume.
• Keep a picture with you of the type of shape you want to be in. Use it for motivation when a food craving hits.

Mind over body

People can accomplish any number of goals in life if they have the proper mind set. A focused attention can easily overcome obstacles. By looking at your midsection as a point of focal point and using that as your motivation, you can avoid the roller coaster weight gain most people go through over the winter months. Then when spring arrives you will be ready to hit the ground running for fun instead of spending all of those hours working off excess weight.

Nick Walden is a fellow fitness enthusiast who enjoys a healthy and active lifestyle while developing mind and intelligence.

One of the more compelling reasons for adopting a frugal lifestyle is, lets admit it, scarcity of resource. Whether it be an altruistic effort to preserve the resources of the planet or to get by on a smaller budget resulting from reduced income, frugality is rapidly becoming the norm rather than an option. Not only does frugal and simple living ease the burden on resources and income, but it is also a healthier and more ethical choice to exercise. One of the effects of adopting a frugal lifestyle a few years back dawned upon us recently as we realized that our eating had undergone a total revolution. We were eating healthier, eating a larger range of food, cooking different dishes, experimenting and trying out newer cuisines and preparations, using uncommon and exotic ingredients, and, hold your hats, spending less than we used to on groceries and provisions!

Here are some of the things that we were able to identify that made this change possible:

Home Cooking Only

Being pressed for time, a natural response was to either book a table or order home delivery. As we started watching our budget, one of the first things to go was the expense on eating out and ordering in, since it did come up to quite a bit once we looked at the whole month. The same thing had to be done for office and school lunches; packing them instead of buying at the cafeteria. While we did all we could to reinforce the value of the healthier home cooked food, it was not an easy habit to break, especially in the face of the seemingly tastier and more attractive commercial preparations, in addition to the bother of cooking when tired or late. However, as we practiced this habit for several weeks, we slowly found that we were beginning to dislike the commercial preparations, especially the fast food type of stuff. Our tastebuds had got used to the low sodium, low fat, and natural food flavors of home cooking, and revolted when we did eat out after a while. What surprised us was the fact that we never realized how salty and greasy the food was all these years!

Planning, Research and Strategy

We embarked on meal planning two years back, and it has paid off rich dividends. We make a weekly meal plan, which we mostly adhere to, making allowance for sudden changes, visitors, and food cravings! We use this to draw up our shopping list for provisions and groceries. Meal and menu planning helps to ensure that we are getting a good balance of all the essential nutrients and not missing out on anything. We keep time aside for auditing the pantry and stores and menu planning in our schedule in that order. This helps in using up ingredients that are creeping towards the use by dates and ingredients that are almost over before we get fresh supplies.

We try and shop strictly by our list and we visit the stores after a meal. Having a full stomach helps control impulsive purchases of food items. We look out for coupons, discounts and compare prices and ingredients. We have learned to go by price per unit weight rather than the number on the price tag. Buying larger packages of items often translates to lower cost. Challenge areas were herbs and spices, and we learned to come up with a basic set of spices that we would use and buy. Replacing dried herbs and dried spices with fresh variants either from the market or grown in the garden was one of the strategies we adopted. We also set up a collective buying plan for expensive spices that we really wanted in the kitchen like saffron and nutmeg, buying larger amounts at a lower price and sharing the cost and the spice with friends and family. We also studied pricing patterns at supermarkets and discovered that there are predictable discount patterns connected with time of day and day of week. These change from store to store, but the ground rule is that Wednesdays and Thursdays are lower priced as stores stock up midweek and are eager to let go of older inventories. Late evenings see discounts on perishables. Your will need to study your local store to figure out their discount pricing pattern.

Restaurant Style Cooking at Home

We built up a small repertoire of fancy restaurant style dishes using common and frugal ingredients that we would use when entertaining people. We took a few basic preparations, looked up different gourmet recipes and searched for images to get presentation ideas. Then we practiced them by cooking them often. This led to some wonderful meals as well as expertise and familiarity with preparing them. We also came up with a list of quick and easy to prepare emergency dishes and began practising them till we could do it in our sleep. These recipes are our saviors when we come home and are too tired or too lazy to do something elaborate.

The Social Aspect of Food

One of our greatest influences in our current eating and cooking has been the work of Michael Pollan. Apart from the health aspect of increasing plant foods and reducing animal products, his books have helped us understand that food is much more than mere fuel for the body. It is also fuel for the spirit and helps bind people together. We have started exploring the social ritual that cooking and eating really are. We cook as a family, allowing everyone to participate, from planning to shopping to cooking, and we frequently share our meals with friends and family. We take time to cook and take time to eat, rather than making mealtimes a rushed affair or a television dinner. Along with the financial impact of all the changes we have made, this helps us appreciate the gift of life, the gift of transmission of life through what we are eating, and the gift of people in our lives.

Google for Frugal Eating

There are many recipe tools on the internet that let you search for recipes based on ingredients. We use the recipes filter on the sidebar tools on Google Search since we find it the most useful. We have found unusual recipes from different cuisines using this tool. Apart from an ingredients option, it also allows you to filter results by the amount of time taken to prepare the dish.

There are a few other principles that we have adopted as part of our frugal but healthy eating plan that this article would be incomplete without. One of them is to buy vegetables by the colors. We try and include all the different colors of veggies since this ensures that all nutrients are covered for. We have also started exercising portion control and have eliminated wasting what we serve ourselves. And finally, we have started keeping leftovers in clear view in the refrigerator, to shelves, in front, and in the center. This makes sure that they get used up first rather than slowly drift to the back of the fridge only to be rediscovered and trashed.

This steps have helped us eat healthier, save money, enjoy our meals, come closer as a family, and appreciate food in a whole new way. Try them out yourself, and you will be amazed at how it impact the quality of your family’s life. Do remember to let me know how it turns out in the comments.

*******************************

Subhorup Dasgupta is a Hyderabad based writer and artist who blogs at Subho’s Jejune Diet about minimalism, frugality and ethical living. He believes that the present crisis of civilization can only be addressed by adopting value-based and sustainable lifestyle and devotes his time to help people achieve this.

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Are you exercising enough?

For most people, the answer to that question is “no” – especially at this time of year, during the holidays. Exercise might not feel like your top priority right now. But keeping active is crucial for good physical and mental health.

Even if you don’t need to lose weight, exercise is important. It will give you a greater sense of vitality: you’ll feel better in your body. You’ll see this in physical effects like greater flexibility, and mental ones like greater wellbeing. There is even evidence to suggest that depression is reduced dramatically by exercise.

There are two key types of exercise that you can do:

• Strength-training
• Cardiovascular

When you do strength-training, your weight will be redistributed – giving you a more desirable shape. This happens through building muscles (and losing fat in other areas). For instance, if you’re a man, you will be able to broaden your shoulders by chest and shoulder exercises.

Cardiovascular exercise (like jogging or cycling) lowers cholesterol, reduces blood pressure, and improves your mood. It also helps you to lose fat, which reduces the size of your fat cells – helping your newly-defined muscles to show.

How You Can Find Time to Exercise

Exercise represents something that’s important but not necessarily urgent. If you don’t exercise, it won’t normally cause problems right away – but over time, it can lead to serious illness.

It’s essential to force important-but-not-urgent items into your schedule. That might mean you exercise:

• First thing in the morning
• Immediately when you get home
• During your lunch hour or another scheduled break

Build exercise into the rhythm of your life until it becomes a habit.

About three weeks ago, I took a cruise from Boston to Halifax to Maine. Along with a friend, I went to the gym every single day. Despite eating very rich meals (and even partaking in a chocolate buffet!) I came back without having gained a single pound, because I’d kept up my exercise routine.

Use Your Body

Instead of thinking about “exercise”, think of how you can “use your body”. You could:

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Park at the far end of the car park
• Do some yoga before work
• Take a five-minute walk to clear your mind

… anything that keeps you active.

If you can, work on your goal as part of a community, perhaps alongside colleagues. Many offices will have a weight-loss challenges and regular weigh-ins together. They may even have a personal trainer come in a couple of days a week and run exercise classes at work.

Don’t wait until the New Year to start being more active. Begin today.

Bio: Barry Demp is a business and personal coach in Michigan. He writes about professional and personal development on his website – click here to read his Four Simple Tips for Healthy Eating During the Holidays.

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So many people live life in a constant state of anguish in their relationship. Either they don’t like their partner or they don’t like them enough. Everyone can improve their relationship to make it more satisfying. Yet, most people don’t.

It’s most likely because they don’t realize how significant love is in life. Love can improve your life in so many ways that we can’t possibly list them all here. However, I have chosen the top 5 reasons how love can greatly enhance your life in hopes that it may persuade people to finally take action on their relationship and make it one that they truly want and deserve.

#1 Love Energizes You

Think back to when you first met the love of your life. Just for a few moments, put yourself back in that time. How did you feel? Elated? Walking on air? Did you feel like you could do anything and everything? Now, think about what if you could have that feeling all the time. That feeling you had was being in love with your partner. Finding that love again could bring that incredible feeling back and give you that love for life that you had once before.

#2 Calms You

When you come home, do you instantly release yourself into your partner’s arms? No? Well, wouldn’t that feel nice? Just imagine if after a long grueling day, the both of you could come home and take comfort in each other, knowing that whatever happened during the day is now over and you can now relax with the one person who wasn’t part of all that mess during the day.

#3 Makes You a Better Person

Having love inside of you enables you to share it with others. This will show in your behavior as you open doors for strangers or hold them open for them. It shows as you stand in line and someone cuts you off and all you do is say, “It’s okay, you must be in a hurry today.” rather than the usual curse word. When you are in love, others benefit from it just as much as you do and that is something to be proud of because it makes you a better human being.

#4 Helps You Solve Problems

Life isn’t easy and there are many challenges along the way. When you truly love someone, you trust them completely to help you with problems. This can be a relief when your suck and don’t have a clue which way to go. Two heads are always better than one and when you love your partner, you’ll always have that other head on your side.

#5 Live Longer

Being in love will mean that you want to take care of yourself so you can be your best for your partner. You may exercise more, you may not want to get sick as much because it’ll mean not being about to spend time with them, and it also means that you’ll take precautions to protect yourself from an early death. Love also has physiological effects since it’s a natural stress reducer, which prevents many chronic stress related diseases, such as heart disease.

How much do you love your partner? It’s time to pay more attention to this area of your life. The New Year is coming upon us. Make a resolution to renew your relationship. Everyone needs someone that they can love and lean on in life – bring that wonderful feeling back into your life.

Marcelina Hardy is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain. If you need help with relationship problems so that you can get to a point in your relationship where you can love again, please visit Relationship Repair. I am an experienced relationship coach with a passion to help individuals and couples overcome relationship problems and improve their relationships.

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Diets do not work. Period.

They often eliminate whole food groups (which is unhealthy and dangerous) or they eliminate your favorite foods (which makes them hard to stick to!)

You can’t live on a restrictive diet for the rest of your life. You need to create a diet that’s going to fit your lifestyle, not force yourself to adopt a whole new lifestyle for your diet.

You can eat chocolate, ice cream, pizza, etc … and still lose weight.

It’s all about moderation and watching portion sizes. If you eat half a gallon of ice cream at a sitting, you will gain weight; if you eat half a cup, you’ll still be satisfied – but you won’t gain weight.

Taking Small Steps Toward Healthier Eating

Do not try to go cold turkey and cut out everything that you consider “bad”. Instead, make gradual changes.

1. Start out by eating smaller portions, period. Take three or four fewer bites; gradually work down to a half-cup instead of a two-cup serving of ice-cream.
2. Measure your portion into a (small) dish instead of eating out of a bag of chips or box of cookies –a cup or half cup dish is a good size. If you need to, take a measuring cup or use scales to work out exactly what you’re eating. The worst thing you can do is to eat directly from the bag or the box of cookies or tub of ice-cream.
3. Out of sight, out of mind! Put food containers away once you’ve got your serving.
4. Experiment to find out what works for you. Many people find that individual servings help them to control their portion sizes – but some may find that they prefer to buy one large container and weigh out the portions themselves.
5. Use a food diary to record what you’re eating: this helps you to learn what works for you and what doesn’t.

Eating Out – And Eating Healthy

When you’re eating out, you can make your meal much healthier by:

• Asking for sauces or dressings on the side.
• Asking for a smaller portion – or get a “to-go” box straight away and put half the meal into it.
• Sharing an entree with a partner.
• Avoiding eating lots of free bread.

Decide what the most important part of the meal is, to you. If you love the cheesecake but aren’t fussed about fries, leave the fries. If you want dessert, have it, but have a small portion or share.

Enjoying Treats

Practice moderation rather than deprivation. If there’s a birthday cake in the office, have a small portion: allow yourself a taste of it. That’s not going to kill you or add a dress size.

If you struggle to eat healthy at work, bring your own snacks so that you’ve got a treat that you’re controlling. Simply trying to resist can cause more problems: you’re more likely to give up on your diet.

Don’t tell yourself that something is forbidden: you only make it more desirable.

Make conscious choices about what you will and won’t eat. If you only have homemade fudge at Christmas-time, then eat it and enjoy it – but don’t indulge in all the other foods that you can have year-round, like chocolates and chips.

Ditch the diet, stop depriving yourself, and start eating in a sustainable, healthy and enjoyable way instead.

Patricia Setzer is the author of How to Eat Healthy for Life (Without Giving Up the Foods You Love), available in ebook form for just $9.99. You can click here to find out all about it here.

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Whether you enjoy relaxing by the beach, skiing down the slopes or testing your golf game, it’s important to make time occasionally to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Easier said than done, right? With appointments, deadlines, and demands of your time, it’s easy to forget what it means to take a breather. To avoid total burnout, take the following simple steps to get peace of mind so you can really unwind:
1. Step Away From the Technology
For some of us, our iPhones and Blackberrys are like members of the family. You play your games on them, you do business on them and heck, sometimes you even talk on them. But to truly unwind and de-stress, it’s important to step away from the things that can tether you to your commitments and obligations. Silence your phone, or even better yet, turn it off so that you don’t have to be distracted by alerts and notifications when you’re trying to get some much-needed R&R.

2. Volunteer Your Time
There’s nothing like engaging in an activity you really care about to help clear your mind and re-charge the batteries. Whether you want to volunteer at a soup kitchen or help socialize adoptable pets, there are few things that can have a greater impact, while also helping you along the way. It’s often low-stress and can help remind you to prioritize what’s really important in your life.
3. Crank Up the Volume
Did you know that listening to music can actually increase blood flow? Whether you’re into Kenny Chesney or Kenny G, just listening to your favorite music can help improve your mood and clear your mind. Programs like iTunes, Spotify and Pandora make getting your favorite tunes (even those from way back when) easy and affordable. Better yet, get up and move around, and enjoy a mini dance party in your living room. It’ll get your blood pumping, and you’ll feel refreshed and able to relax.

4. Write it Down
Have a million and one thoughts running through your head? If so, putting all of those ideas and worries on a piece of paper may help you sort through them and push past those that are preventing you from unwinding. Which ones can be addressed right now? Which ones are out of your control? Think it through, and when you’re done, toss the piece of paper in the trash. Tell yourself you’ve given those issues as much time as they’re worth, and that it’s time to move forward.

5. Get in Touch With Nature
When was the last time you went for a walk without purpose? Like a mini dance party, getting some fresh air, especially in an area with lots of foliage, can be invigorating and a chance to reflect on the simpler things in life. If you have a dog, take him or her with you, and get the added benefit of exercising them as well. Animals are thought to have a calming influence, so it’ll be mutually beneficial and also a great way to get a little peace of mind.

This post is written by Erica Moss. Erica is the social media outreach coordinator for the Masters in Nursing program at Georgetown University, which has one of the nation’s leading FNP programs. Outside of work, Erica is an avid dog lover who loves photography and meeting new people.

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Do you struggle to eat healthy?

If you’re like most people, you probably give in to the temptation of ice cream, chips, cookies and fast food more often than you’d like.

After you give in to those temptations, you feel guilty. So you eat healthy for a few days—maybe a week, even. Then your self-control lets you down again and you finish a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s in one sitting.

The cycle repeats itself. I’m guessing that you can relate at least partially to this?

For me, my weakness is dessert. I could eat dessert at every meal, every day. Chocolates, cakes, puddings, brownies—you name the dessert and I’ll eat it.

I’ve since won my epic battle with desserts, so I’d like to share with you what I’ve learned.

The Root Cause

The root cause of our lack of discipline when it comes to food is this: We associate food with our emotional state.

Feeling happy? It’s time for delicious food. Feeling sad? It’s time for even more delicious food.

Whether it’s time to celebrate or time to grieve, we find a reason to eat. If you want to take complete control over your eating habits, you need to create some distance between your diet and your emotions.

Once you do this, eating right will no longer pose such a daunting challenge to you.

I’ve discovered the three key decisions you have to make if you want to establish this emotional separation:

1. Decide to be normal, not average.

It’s average to eat a lot of junk food, to be overweight, and to be at risk for diabetes and heart disease.

But is that normal? No!

It’s normal to eat right, to be lean, and not to have any chronic health problems.

All of us want to be normal. We just need to raise our standards of what we consider normal. Don’t let the people around you tell you what “normal” is.

“Average” is relative. “Normal” isn’t. Don’t confuse what is average with what is normal. That’s the first step to overcoming your unhealthy eating habits.

2. Decide that your diet is a mini-representation of your life.

Whenever you put food into your mouth, you’re either getting stronger and healthier, or weaker and flabbier. There’s very little middle ground.

Eat broccoli and chicken breast, and you’re becoming stronger. Eat pizza and Doritos, and you’re becoming weaker.

In a similar way, whenever you choose to spend your time in a certain way, you’re either growing as an individual or you’re regressing.

When you attend an educational seminar, you’re learning and growing. But when you spend an entire afternoon reading a trashy magazine, you’re regressing.

Once you start seeing the food you eat as a mini-representation of your life, your dietary habits take on new meaning and significance. Food isn’t just food anymore. It’s a tool you can use to grow as a person.

When you eat healthy, you’re choosing to become more disciplined and focused. You’re choosing to become a person of greater character.

Start thinking about food this way and I guarantee that you’ll find it easier to eat right.

3. Decide that you want health more than you want pleasure.

If you want to change your behavior, it boils down to desire. Which do you desire more: the long-term health benefits of eating right, or the temporary pleasure of eating junk food?

It’s more effective to focus on increasing your desire for health, rather than on decreasing your desire for pleasure.

To make eating healthy more appealing, I invite you to answer the following questions:

• Do you want to have a good quality of life, especially in old age?
• Do you want to feel more energetic?
• Do you want to lose body fat?
• Do you want to fall sick less often?
• Do you want to avoid suffering from chronic health problems?

I’m sure you answered “yes” to all of those questions.

We’re driven by our desires. Cultivate a burning desire to be healthy, and you won’t have a problem saying “no” to unhealthy food.

–

I didn’t write this post for your information. I wrote it for your action.

Will you make these three simple decisions today and take charge of your unhealthy eating habits?

Daniel Wong is passionate about helping young adults to maximize their education, career and life. He is the author of The Happy Student, which will be published by Morgan James Publishing by early 2012. You can read his blog at Living Large and find him on Twitter.

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The comments section of a previous PickTheBrain post inspired me.   The post itself contained some great information about how to be more productive when you’re on a “night owl” schedule, including telling people to “Schedule Around Your Energy Cycle”.  But it’s the comments from this post where I think we can all learn the most important lesson on this topic.

For better sleep consistently, we need to listen to our bodies.  When I read comments like “maybe I’m just meant to be a night owl”, or “I’m constantly trying to figure out what the heck I am – night owl/early bird…”, it made me realize something.  We’re always categorizing and labeling.  Sometimes it helps.  But, when it comes to this topic (and many others) it can be dangerously disruptive.

Sleep is a dynamic process.  And, our body clocks do change over time.  Most of us are very naturally predisposed towards “night owl” behavior through our teens and into our 20’s.  Then, as we continue to age, our body clock continues to shift earlier.  This is why a 20 year old might not feel tired until midnight, but grandma and grandpa had their early bird dinner at 4:30 and have been sleeping since 8.

Here’s where this can get dangerous:  Joe TwentySomething is posting comments like “I can never get to bed before 1 AM, I guess I’m just a night-owl”.  Of course, he now believes this.  Unfortunately, over the next few years, his body clock may undergo a massive shift.  His “natural bedtime” may advance by 2-3 hours.  But, Joe’s belief is now hard-wired.

So, as Joe approaches 30, his belief about never being able to go to sleep before 1 AM is still true (to him).  His body wants to go to sleep at 10:30, but Joe won’t listen.  In his head, Joe “knows” that going to bed that early is fruitless; he’ll just toss and turn, right.  So, he works late, eats late, watches Conan, and gets ready for bed at 1.

What he doesn’t realize is that his body wanted to go to sleep over 2 hours ago.  When Joe ignored that signal, his body went into “emergency mode”, and flushed him with adrenaline to keep him awake.  After all, if he’s ignoring a clear signal from his body, there must be an emergency to deal with, so the body reacts accordingly.  Just like an “overtired” toddler, Joe is now wired.

And, that’s when his head hits the pillow, and his brain won’t shut off.  It bounces from here to there, from one thought to the next.  And, Joe doesn’t fall asleep until 2:30…four full hours after his body wanted to go to sleep.  In the morning, Joe is beat, so he turns to coffee.  “I just couldn’t fall asleep last night”, he thinks.

After a few months/years of this pattern, Joe will start to develop a new belief.  Unfortunately, that new belief is unlikely to be “Hey, I need to go to sleep earlier”.  It’s more likely to be “I guess I just have insomnia”.  Yikes!  A new label and one that is very difficult to shake!

People cling to their “insomnia” label like a teddy bear.  It becomes a part of them, a part of who they are.  They try pills, prescriptions, anything external is worth a try.  They always ask the same thing, “Will this help ME?  With my insomnia?”

In many cases people would rather defend their identity and their label than actually solve the problem they’re experiencing.

I know PickTheBrain is a community comprised of a different caliber of people, so we can be very direct about this.  The sooner you let go of the labels and are willing to change your beliefs, it’s amazing how fast can change anything.  Whether it’s sleep patterns, diet, relationships, anything.  Be willing to deal with what really exists, rather than what you labeled something to be yesterday, last week, or 8 years ago.

Maybe you can think of other situations where reality might shift, rendering our labels useless (or worse, disruptively inaccurate)?   When you see something in your life that isn’t working the way you think it should, go back to your beliefs and reevaluate.  Sometimes, a small shift can make all the difference.

And, by the way, you’ve probably realized everything is easier when you’re well rested.  So, as you continue on your journey, always protect your sleep.  It’s a tremendous investment in your health, outlook, and productivity.

Sean Folkson is the founder of TheSleepGuy.com, and NightFood: Nutrition for Better Sleep.  To try NightFood for yourself, go to http://www.NightFood.com and request a risk-free sample.

Photo Credit: Paul Sapiano

Everyone is constantly telling you what to do, from your parents to your friends to the media. Unfortunately hardly anyone tells you that you should be living a healthy life. Don’t be surprised when too much stress, junk food and little exercise take their toll on your body.

Keep the following quote in mind the next time you catch yourself indulging in unhealthy habits.

“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” – Edward Stanley

That being said…here are 10 simple, effective ways that you can apply right now to live a much healthier life:

1- Stop Drinking Alcohol

Alcohol in general is one of the worst things for your body. It damages your organs, drains your energy and contributes to your increase in weight.

Modern society almost expects us to drink, especially when we’re with friends or go out for the night. Drinking becomes a habit from as early as college, when your free nights are spent partying and getting wasted. This bad habit can stick with you for many years after college, and can have a serious effect on your overall health.

Ideally it would be best to cut out alcohol from your life completely, but I know how hard it can be to quit cold turkey.

Start gradually and cut down to 2 beers or glasses of wine per week.

2- Stop smoking

Peer pressure and stress are two of the biggest reasons why people start smoking in the first place, usually not out of free will.

Smoking has absolutely zero health benefits. By smoking you’re not only damaging your own health, but also the health of others around you. And on top of that it’s a pretty expensive habit (I’m talking about just the cost of cigarettes, not even factoring in the future health costs you will probably incur from excessive smoking).

Try to cut down your smoking gradually by reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke each day. Your goal is to stop smoking entirely in order to live a healthier life. If you smoke because you’re stressed, find another way to relieve that stress (E.g. Exercise or EFT)

3- Eat Fruit And Vegetables Daily

This may sound like the most obvious advice you can think of, but how many people do you know that actually follow it? Do you even follow it?

There is just too much processed and junk food easily available, and with the lack of time and high stress levels it’s just too easy to forget adding fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily diet.

Try to eat at least 3 servings of fruits or vegetables every day. The easiest is to east a piece of fruit as a snack between meals and add some veggies to every meal.

4-Replace Fast Food With Home-Cooked Meals

As I mentioned above, it’s far to easy to get caught in the trap of eating takeaways on a daily basis. I personally caught myself stuck in this habit for a couple of months, ordering pizza, Chinese or McDonald’s every day of the week.

Not only is eating fast food in this manner bad for your long-term health, you can immediately feel how it makes you sluggish and leaves you with little energy throughout the day. Your body needs REAL FOOD.

Cooking takes a little effort, but it’s much more enjoyable and usually costs less than take-outs. You can learn to cook easy healthy dinner recipes in just 10 minutes.

5- Exercise Daily

Do at least 30 minutes of exercise every day (whether it be walking, climbing the stairs or mowing the lawn).

It’s too easy to get caught up in work and the stress of life to remember to exercise every day, especially because you often don’t have the energy to do it after a long day’s work. It may sound contradictory, but exercising actually gives you more energy throughout the day.

If you don’t feel like joining a gym, just take a walk outside, go swimming or do something fun like aerobics, dance classes or tennis.

6- Drink More Water

It’s recommended that you drink at least 8 full glasses of water per day.

I actually know quite a few people who don’t even drink one full glass of water per day. Their liquid intake consists of coffee, tea, soda and alcohol. Of course these drinks contain water, but they contain harmful toxins to the body like sugars, caffeine, acids, artificial flavorants and much more.

Try to cut down on other drinks (except freshly squeezed juices) and replace them with water.

Another useful tip: Drink a full glass of water immediately when you wake up in the morning. It’ll make you feel much better throughout the whole day.

7- Breathe Deeply

Take at least 5 minutes every day to inhale and exhale deeply. Outside in the fresh air would be best.

When you take these 5 minutes, allow yourself to forget about everything around you. Forget your worries, troubles and responsibilities. Concentrate on the process of breathing. Count every breath you take and inhale as much air as can fit into your lungs.

8- Smile More

Stress is one of the worst things for your health, and when you’re stressed…you don’t smile.

Make it a habit to smile as much as you can, on a daily basis. Positivity is contagious, and you never know who’s day you might brighten with your smile. Yup, that’s right, smiling is beneficial for you AND those around you.

9- Leave Your Work At The Office

Don’t take your work home with you.

I know it’s difficult to do, but try to make a clear distinction between work and free time. That way you don’t have too much stress in your life and you can use the time you have free to relax and get the most out of life, instead of being stressed out 24/7.

10-End Negative Relationships

One of the biggest influences on your physical health is your emotional well-being. There will be times for everyone where you find yourself in a relationship (friendship, romantic relationship or work relationship) that is emotionally draining.

You’re being taken advantage of or being used. Maybe you’re giving and not getting back. Maybe the relationship is mutually destructive. Either way…you need to put an end to the negative relationships in your life.

The sooner you cut out the emotional drain, the quicker you’ll feel a relief both mentally and physically. Don’t allow other people to make you miserable and unhealthy.

I’m convinces that if you apply the 10 ways to live healthier that I’ve listed above and there is no doubt that you will become healthier, have more energy and feel happier.

Diggy is the author of one of the top personal development blogs on the web, where he helps people find happiness and success. If you’re looking for more financial freedom, you may also be interested in Diggy’s free tutorial – how to start an online business.

There are many myths and misunderstandings attached to healthy diet and weight loss. Let us discuss them here in some details:

Eggs raise cholesterol levels:

As we all know, high cholesterol levels are associated with cardiovascular disease. Eggs and especially the yolk are high in cholesterol. This has led to the conclusion that eggs can be detrimental to heart’s health. This, however, is actually a myth. Most of the cholesterol is produced by the liver and we get only 25% from food. What is more, saturated fat consumption affects cholesterol levels much more than dietary cholesterol, especially the “bad” LDL-cholesterol. Eggs are not high in saturated fat and thus they may be part of a healthy diet, without raising cardiovascular risk.

Coffee causes dehydration:

Studies show that coffee, if consumed in moderation, does not cause further fluid loss. Caffeine can be a diuretic in quantities greater than 250mg a day (one cup of coffee only contains about 75mg of caffeine).
There are foods that burn fat:

We often hear about various foods that have the ability to burn fat. Ginseng, green tea, grapefruit, chili and many herbs have been linked with the process of fat burning. The truth is that even though there are some studies showing that some of these foods can increase our metabolic rate, this increase is so small that it actually makes almost no difference. It could be argued that even a small increase in metabolism, through the consumption of large quantities of green tea or ginseng could contribute to weight loss. Unfortunately, this is a myth because your body actually adapts to these changes and thus after a while any metabolic advantage will be lost.

The same principle applies to the consumption of protein. Although studies show that our body spends larger amounts of energy to metabolize protein compared to carbohydrates or fat, in practice it makes no difference.  Specifically, the cost of thermogenesis is about 25% for protein, 10-12% carbohydrates and only 3-5 for fat %. So, it could be reasonably argued that by consuming 1000 calories only from protein, you could lose weight more quickly than if you consumed 1,000 calories from carbohydrates. The problem is that our body has adaptive mechanisms and quickly balances these thermogenic differences. This means that there are no magic potions or miracle foods and that the only thing that really counts is the total amount of calories we consume and not their source.

It is possible to lose only belly fat:

I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the truth is that there is no way to lose fat locally. Existing data show that spot reduction exercises or various other techniques (creams, belts, sauna, etc.) are not based in reality. These techniques don’t seem to be effective. Creams can not penetrate the fatty tissue and exercise can train the muscles, but won’t burn the fat that is located above the muscle. Various adipose tissue biopsies have been done to see whether abdominal exercises actually reduce the percentage of fat in the abdomen. The conclusion was that there is no selective reduction of the size of fat cells in abdominal region.

Frequent meals boost your metabolism:

The issue of meal frequency is a diet dogma that simply refuses to die. Although there is evidence since 1997 that 3 meals per day are an equally good choice as 6 meals per day, 14 years later, this old dogma is still here. A recent study published in the British journal of Nutrition examined whether frequent meals help fat loss. The study compared 2 diets that created the same calorie deficit. The first consisted of 3 meals and 3 snacks and the other consisted of 3 main meals. At the end of 8 weeks, weight loss was similar for both diets. What is more, the secretion of ghrelin (hunger hormone) was identical for the 2 groups, suggesting that there was no difference between 3 and 6 meals in the regulation of appetite when the calories were the same. In conclusion, eating frequent meals is not the only solution to fat loss. This scientific finding is very important for people who simply can’t consume 6 meals every day, because of their job or their lifestyle in general.

Kate Cotros writes for the Diet Myths And Facts, a blog focused on revealing the truth about various diet and nutrition myths. She seeks to help others lose weight and regain their lost self-esteem.

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