Quality and Quantity
In our fast-food society, the restaurants entice us to "super size" our order with a larger side and drink. Thus we consume more unhealthy fats, oils, and calories. Unfortunately we routinely avoid the healthier and lighter menu items.
Instead of food being fried, healthier cooking methods are baked, boiled, grilled, broiled, steamed, or poached. Most restaurants, even the fast-food ones, offer one or more of these choices. Try drinking water with lemon or juice instead of soft drinks or sweet tea with your meals.
Gradually reduce the portions day by day including dessert portions. Work toward eliminating dessert at most meals. As your eat less regularly, the stomach will tend to contract and you will feel full eating smaller portions. Give yourself time to enjoy the meal and savor the flavor and make things easier on your digestive track. A lot of us get into the habit of speed eating, thereby stuffing ourselves before the stomach has time to signal the brain that we are full.
Other things to avoid as much as possible include sugar, artificial sweeteners, excessive caffine, and soft drinks (even the diet drinks). Sugar has no health benefit except for the psuedo energy boost and that can be unhealthy over time. One ounce of sugar lowers the body's immune system functions by 50%! With all the germs and toxins our bodies are bombarded with every day, a fully functioning immune system is vital.
One of the most, if not the most, detriments to our health that we have been sold a bill of goods on is soft drinks. What the soft drink manufacturers don't make public is the amount of phosphates in soft drinks. Phosphates tend to leech calcium from the bones and deposit it in other body parts resulting in bone spurs, kidney stones, and gall stones to name a few. Diet drinks have a minute effect on weight loss but the artificial sweeteners that replace the sugar can be as much of a health risk as sugar.
Exercise
Even couch potatoes can get a moderate amount of exercise indoors with a stationary bicycle, stair stepper, weights, or aerobics. A multi-use machine like the one advertised by Chuck Norris is a space saver as well. It is common knowledge that exercise burns calories, tones and builds muscle, and benefits the psychological as well as the physical makeup.
Vitamins and Supplements
A good quality multi-vitamin and mineral daily tablet should be the foundation of any health regimen. More and more research is finding that vitamins, minerals, and herbs can produce the same or better results as medication with none of the side effects of prescription or over-the-counter medications. A vitamin and herb guide can be found online and from mail order catalogs of vitamin shops.
Intestinal Health
More attention is being focused on intestinal health with the advertising being done for intestinal detoxification and cleansers. What the advertisers don't mention is the ingredients in the products and that the same results can be obtained from fruits, vegetables, grains, and other foods. Intestinal health is vitally important since the rest of the body gets nutrients that pass through the wall of the intestines.
