10 Tips To Take Back Control Of Your Health And Get On The Path To Wellness

The most valuable and prized possession is our health. Without our health, we wouldn’t be able to achieve the things we want to in our life, go places we want to go and do things we want to do.Over the last few decades, as more and more junk food places have opened and lots of artificially enhanced products created, more and more people have turned to them and forgotten about their bodies. These poor habits along with their living standards have created an increase in illness and lack of peak performance in the body. Due to all of this, we have literally lost control of what goes on in our body and in our health.

For many years, I have been interested in healthy living and getting my body back into its natural state and how it should function. I prefer to focus on ‘prevention’ rather than cure and wellness over illness.

Here are ten tips to take back control of your health and get on the path to wellness:

1. Know your reasons. If you’re looking to get healthier, fitter and look younger, then you’ve got to know your reasons as to why you want to become more healthy. If you’re familiar with any work in personal development, you may have heard of Tony Robbins and his work which states that no matter what goal you set, the more reasons you have for achieving it, the more you’ll convince yourself of wanting to achieve it and you’ll go out and get it. Why do you want to get more healthy now and not before in your life? What has caused this change? And how committed are you?
2. Create your wellness plan. Once you know you actually do want to invest time, energy and resources into taking back control of your health and getting on the path of wellness. Creating your plan requires you to know what you’d like your body and health to look, feel and be like in about 1-5 years time and then breaking down that vision into monthly goals of nutrition, exercise and anything else needed to get you there.
3. Get rid of your negative influences. Have you ever tried to improve one part of your life but find that no matter how hard you try, it may not seem to work? It’s usually because you haven’t cleared out the negative energies or things that are conflicting with it. For example, if you find eating crisps and shortbread biscuits a negative thing when you’re trying to get healthy but are still eating it, you’re really inhibiting how well your body could do. Make a list of things that you are tolerating in your life, things you know you shouldn’t do or have but are still doing it. And slowly cut down and get rid of it.
4. Drink lots of water. During the course of our sleep, we lose a lot of water during our breathing and so its important that when you get up, you have a big glass of water. The vitality our cells gets from water is very important and useful and will keep our body working in correct order. Without water, our cells starts to wilt just like plants without water.
5. Eat lots of water-rich content. Our body is made up of about 70% of water just like our planet and so naturally we should consume enough water to keep our body hydrated and enough to recycle our body’s capacity every so often. Consume lots of water-rich fruits and vegetables every day. I make a fresh juice every morning with a selection of fruits, and I also try to have at least two big bowls of salad a day – one at lunch, one at dinner. The simple sugars from fruits are important nutrients and vitamins for our body.
6. Rest well. Without sleep, our body’s clock loses its rhythm and starts to dysfunction, causing poor habits. Rest well and consistently each day. Try to keep your timings consistent so your body can set its routine. If you can’t sleep early, get some blindfolds, ear plugs, soothing music, or whatever you need.
7. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. This article wouldn’t be truthful if I didn’t include exercise and fitness in it. If you don’t exercise, seriously consider the impacts on your body. Exercise gets your body moving, your blood circulating and your energy in motion. If you work at home or or in an office, get up every 30 minutes and walk around. If you have a staircase nearby, run up and down it several times a day. If you can get out for a walk, I highly recommend it for at least 10 minutes once in a day. The great thing is that you can break up your 30 minutes exercise a day into 2-3 segments so you can exercise wherever you are.
8. Eat your food slower. The Slow Food Movement talks about eating your food slower to aid digestion, heighten the cooking and eating experience and really enjoying your food. I’m in favor for this because of what it can do to your body’s digestive system. Research shows that eating slower can make you more fuller and thus you eat less. Read more about this here on Zen Habits.
9. Don’t overeat. Only eat till you are satisfied. Don’t overeat or over-full yourself. Eat with content and till your stomach is satisfied. You can always go and eat something healthy later – and that’s better than overeating.
10. Keep a food journal. One of the best ways to ensure you keep healthy and stay on track is to keep a food journal and become really aware what you eat. Write down what you eat and drink at every meal time and in between, as well as what exercises you do and when. It’s a great momentum-building tool as well.

So there you have it – ten ways to take back control of your health and get on the path to wellness. If you’re serious about this, you’ll take on five of the more in one or another in your life. For those whose health is currently not as important, try to incorporate at least one of these.

Getting healthy, becoming fitter and looking more younger is all supposed to be fun, so ensure you keep the fun and excitement in your progress.