A COMPLETE GUIDE TO HEALTHY LIVING

Most of us have a general understanding of what it means to be healthy. Eating well, resting well, and exercising are all things that immediately come to mind when thinking about the concept of health. However, not many of us were given the whole picture growing up. How does one operate in life to be healthy, happy, and fulfilled?

This foundational knowledge, which is really the basis for everything in our life, is not discussed in the detail that it should be within our early-stage education. For many of us, our health just becomes something to put on the back-burner of our priority list because we are busy people and we have busy people things to attend to. Jobs, finances, family obligations; the priority list adds up.

However, when you think about it, your health is akin to the base operating system of your life.

People are never in a static state. For example, when you are tired or hungry, you will think, act, and behave differently compared to when you are well-nourished and rested. Your personality is completely different. How you interact with the world is different. Eventually, if you engrain the habit of eating poor quality foods and negating quality rest, this pattern will completely change the trajectory of your life.

So how does one optimize how they interact with the world? This is what I will be discussing in this post. The 6 foundational principles. Nutrition, sleep, hydration, breathing, thinking, and movement. All of these principles play a crucial role in how we feel day-to-day.

No amount of left-brain logic, jargon, or philosophical concepts can replace the reality of how the body is influencing our experience of consciousness.

NUTRITION

The importance of nutrition must not be underestimated, fundamentally it is what we consume that is utilized to build and repair our bodies. Ultimately, nutrition has a profound effect on our mental/emotional function. Food is producing, interacting, and influencing our hormones and neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are how energy is conducted through your nervous system. So logically nutrient deficiency will lead to hormonal and neurotransmitter deficiency; which essentially means the brain is not receiving the energy it requires for optimal functioning. Oftentimes, you can find people on all kinds of pharmaceutical drugs who haven't even made the connection that the lack of eating a healthy whole food diet may be contributing to their issues.

It seems that every month there is a new trending diet that promises to work for everybody. However, when we get down to it, everyone has unique genetic differences that require unique nutrition. Genetics, exercise, stress, and various lifestyle factors all influence our nutritional requirements. For most of us, forcing ourselves to stick to some cookie-cutter diet will never be optimal.

Metabolic typing is essentially a nutritional philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness of people's nutritional requirements. I have a blog discussing this concept in more depth here.

Besides the macro and micronutrient breakdown of how one eats. The quality of the food itself must be considered. Are you eating commercially farmed meats and produce? Are you aware of how the numerous fungicides, pesticides, and rodenticides are impacting the soil and the crops themselves? How these chemicals are interacting with your physiology? If you are unaware, it is in your best interest to inform yourself. I explain the benefits of organic farming, organic foods, as well as the effects of commercial farming practices here.

SLEEP

Sleep, as I am sure most of you know, is free. It also happens to be the most healing anabolic process a human can naturally be in. Sleep is regulated by our body’s internal clock. Otherwise known as the circadian cycle which is essentially a 24-hour cycle that regulates hormone release, digestion, wakefulness, body temperature, and sleep. This natural cycle is synced to the rising and setting of the sun. We use light as a major indicator of what stage the body is in within this larger circadian cycle.

For the most part, humans are naturally wired to sleep by 10:30 pm at the latest. There are multiple stages of sleep that each focus on repairing different functions of our physiology at night. Missing the quality rest in any one of these recovery stages, either physical or mental repair, has some not-so-optimal effects.

Most people need around 8 hours of sleep a night for adequate growth and repair. The negative effects of a lack of sleep are too numerous to discuss in this article; I discuss ways to optimize sleep within this post, as well as what is likely to happen if one tries to cheat the body's natural circadian rhythm.

HYDRATION

There are chemicals in our food, water, air, furniture, the carpet you walk on, and the clothes you wear. This is just a reality in today’s world! The liver is working endlessly to eliminate any foreign toxin or chemical that is potentially harmful to the body, so why not help your liver out! The saying "the best solution for pollution is dilution" is quite applicable here. How much clean quality water are you drinking daily? Everybody knows that drinking adequate water is important, yet many of us opt for coffee, tea, or sports drinks.

Our bodies are undergoing billions of chemical reactions just to maintain normal function, all of which are water-dependent. Drinking 1/2 your body weight (lbs) in ounces of clean, filtered water is what we should all be aiming for. The most basic step one can take to increase their energy is to simply drink more clean quality water.

As far as filtration systems, Berkey water filters, reverse osmosis machines, or water distillers are all good options. It should be noted that if you use a water distiller, minerals should be added back into the end product. Celtic sea salt, Himalayan pink salt, or mineral drops are all effective at re-mineralizing the water.

BREATH

How long can you survive without breathing? We can last months without food, days without water, but only minutes without oxygen. Oxygen plays a critical role in cellular respiration, liberating nutrient compounds, as well as regulating the acid/alkaline balance within our bodies.

Unfortunately, many people have faulty breathing mechanics. Shallow breathing is very common and can be a symptom of many different issues, however usually being overly active in the sympathetic nervous system, the "fight or flight" branch of the autonomic nervous system is the culprit. Being overly stressed! Stress is the norm for today's extremely productive world. Incorrect breathing mechanics are highly related to mental/emotional problems.

Proper breathing mechanics should be 2/3's as deep and diaphragmatic, and 1/3 as higher up within the chest/lungs. Simply taking a moment throughout the day, placing your hands on your diaphragm and chest, and taking a few deep breaths can help create a new breathing pattern when done consistently.

THOUGHT

If you really consider it, how is something created? If you are sitting inside your house, look around. Everything you look at was first thought or act of imagination within a human's mind. The layout of your house, the kitchen table, your clothes, even your haircut.

Take for example the movement to sit down. First, you had the thought that you would like to sit. You then physically moved your body to sit down in the chair. Chances are you will repeat this pattern again at some point in the future.

The fundamental pattern of creation is thought, word, then deed. And deeds done repeatedly are called habits. Have you noticed any “bad” habits within your own life? Like most of us, chances are you do or have had some negative habits at one point or another. Thoughts are the seed of creation for everything in your life.

To use an analogy, this is why it is so important to tend to your mind similar to a garden. We must regularly water the good thoughts and pull out the weeds of negative thoughts. How many people take pride in the appearance of their actual garden, yet neglect their own mind? Simply just becoming mindful of how we think about and approach life can be extremely beneficial, it certainty has in my own experience.

Another interesting concept is called the Law of Facilitation.

The law states that:

"When an impulse has passed once through a certain set of neurons to the exclusion of others, it will tend to take the same course on a future occasion, and each time it transverses this path the resistance in the path will be smaller"

What this is essentially saying is that the more you PAY attention to a negative thought or concept in your mind, the easier it will be for that neurological pathway to be facilitated again. So if you are constantly ruminating on things that you do not want, that exact thought pattern will become easier and easier to transverse. On the flip side, the more you PAY attention to positive thoughts, the easier that neurological pathway will be facilitated.

What you may also find is that your body and emotions actually mirror your thoughts. If you see someone walking around with a depressed posture, looking down at the ground. Chances are that person is not thinking very positively. However, usually, someone who is positive and smiling will walk around with a tall upright posture, open to the world.

To quote Paul Chek, "Our psychology often times becomes our physiology, and paradoxically our physiology often becomes our psychology". What Paul is saying here is essentially that your body and your mind feed off of each other. It is a two-way street. Correcting your posture can improve your thoughts, correcting your thoughts can improve your posture. Vice-versa.

MOVEMENT

Movement for many of us is often neglected. Again, usually because of a perceived lack of time. I can almost guarantee you that your perceived lack of time is an illusion. If you cannot find the time for structured exercise every day, simply take the stairs instead of the elevator, or take a break from the computer every 30 minutes and walk outside for 5.

The benefits of exercise are well-known, however many people's perception of exercise is akin to a chore, or a tedious task that we feel we must check off our to-do list. This is partly due to most people not understanding how to tailor exercise for their own individual preferences. Copying what the fittest guy in your gym is doing will not be enjoyable or sustainable for most.

The key is to learn how to structure movement as a form of play, something that is actually enjoyable. This allows one to stay consistent in the long-term, receive all the benefits of exercise, prevent injury, and actually look forward to exercising! This is an area where working with a coach can be of massive benefit.

I discuss this concept and explain the importance of functional training here.

Exercise can be overdone or underdone. The key is to figure out what works for you. Generally, a person needs at least 20-30 minutes a day of active movement or exercise.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

For anyone wishing to actualize sustained improvements in their life, I highly recommend working on these 6 foundational principles. What I think you will find is that there really is no single supplement, exercise routine, idea, or "magic bullet" that can lead to sustained improvements. Building a solid foundation and taking a holistic perspective is what leads to the real results.

Furthermore, these foundational principles can be managed with the 4 Doctor model which is a useful way to balance the various areas of your life.

A lot of the coaching process I use with clients is based on these 6 foundational principles. Again, working with a coach is always beneficial for those that are truly interested in optimizing their health, fitness, and lifestyle.

My coaching services can be found here.

These principles may seem simple at a first glance, however, the reality is that building healthy habits around these lifestyle principles is absolutely necessary to reach your health and fitness goals and maintain your progress in the long run.