7 Healthy Habits to Start Incorporating In Your Life Today

These are 7 simple changes that will have big dividends for your health.  I invite you to start by adding one a day.  By the end of the week you will have added 7 excellent health and well being boosts.  Check with your doctor if you have exercise or diet restrictions. 1.  Meditate five minutes 2x day.  When you first wake up and before falling asleep at night.  While laying in bed close your eyes half smiling, follow your breath for 5 minutes.  Focus on the air going in through your nose on the in breath and the air going out from your nose on the out breath.  Sounds simple?  It is! 2.  Take the stairs instead of the escalator or the elevator.  Think, "Each stair is a step for health."  I take my own advice.  I live in a building with no elevator.  66 stairs each time I leave my home.  I think of it as unintentional exercise.  3.  Get moving for 30 minutes every day.  I find walking to be the easiest to incorporate.  You can do this in increments.  If you want to change it up. Here's some more ideas, dance while watching tv.  If you have a Wii try one of the exercise games for it.  Go for a bike ride.  Whatever you like to do that gets you moving!  4.  Pass up the soda.  Not even diet soda.  Start drinking iced water.  At home, iced water with orange slices or lime chunks are nice.  Cucumber slices and mint if you don't like citrus.  Even in restaurants don't get soda.  If you really don't want to do this cold turkey, switch to iced tea when you go to restaurants, but don't use artificial sweetener. 5.  Pass up refined sugar.  Do not use artificial sweetener.  Why not artificial sweetener?  It's so much sweeter than sugar and will make you crave sugar more.  If that's not reason enough for you, what is artificial sweetener anyway?  Replace sugar and artificial sweeteners with agave or stevia.  Coffee and tea use cinnamon, ginger or clove or spice to your taste instead. 6.  Rethink your snacks.  Add walnuts (if your not allergic) excellent source of omega 3, a handful makes you less hungry.  Eat dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.  Dark chocolate has good for you flavonoids and much less sugar than milk chocolate.  Add steam pasteurized almonds and cut up dried figs, and you have an amazing trail mix. If you don't like figs substitute raisins and you still have an amazing trail mix.  No more processed trail mix.   You can also add cashews, pistachios to your trail mix.  Just avoid processed -- roasted and salted nuts. 7.  Floss every day.  Brushing your teeth for 2 minutes in the a.m and at night is very important but not enough.  Floss every day.  Plaque is not only yucky it can cause health problems as well.  If you were too tired to both floss and brush in the evening which do you think would be better for you?  Did you answer: floss.  If you did you're right.  Start making these simple changes today to improve your health and wellness.