11 Easy Changes For a Healthier You

All the small things add up to create your life; to determine your happiness, and give you health.  Here are 11 things you can start doing today to make a better life.  Please Like, Follow, or Subscribe if you enjoy this or other content on this site.

1. Deodorant – Make the simple change to natural, aluminum free deodorant.  Several “natural” brands make some, and Arm & Hammer even has a line called Essentials.  It turns out clogging up your underarm pores with aluminum and other chemicals isn’t that great for you.  Who would of thought?
2. Butter – Ditch the margarine and vegetable oils and use butter, especially organic grass-fed butter. Yes, its good for you! Refer to my old post for more info…Butter.
3. Fast Food – Avoid fast food, or at least be wise if you need to grab a quick bite.  There are options that are better than others.  Even in a hurry, you can get food that is relatively unprocessed, and actually healthy (paleo/primal).  Examples: Bowl or Salad at Chipotle or similar restaurant.  Salad at most fast food joints; choose the one with the least sugar/grains/corn on top.  Panera is a great place for this.  You can order a salad, and request olive oil and lemon for your dressing.
4. Vitamins – Start taking some vitamins and supplements.  Buy a bottle here and there, and soon you’ll have a whole pantry of health supplements.  Wanting to improve a certain aspect of your health? Well theres probably something you can add into your diet to help.  A few off the top of my head that would be good for almost anyone in any situation: Magnesium, Vit D, Vit C, B Vitamins, Turmeric, Garlic, Probiotics, Krill Oil, Zinc, CoQ10, Niacin.  As always do your own research and use your own brains.  I am not a state approved advice giver.
5. Shampoos – Ditch the chemical based body products.  Soaps, shampoos, conditioners – Just like the deodorant, there are plenty of alternatives these days.  Its a no brainer.  Get clean.  Avoid the chemicals.  And they’re not even that much more expensive.
6. Fluoride – No, Fluoride is not good for you.  Through some very bad and misguided science and policy it has pervaded many aspects of our lives today.  But it is not necessary for teeth or bone health and is sort of a poison to your body over the long run.  Two biggest things you can do – Get a fluoride-free toothpaste.  Tom’s makes one.  And don’t drink your tap water.  Get the big water cooler style water or at least the 2.5 gallon spring waters from the grocery.  Or, invest in a reverse osmosis filtration system for your tap water.
7. Bacon – Eat bacon.  Yes, its also good for you!  But, stick to all natural, uncured, nitrate & nitrite free bacon.  Have a piece in the morning, put it on salads, whatever you want.
8. Flu Shot – Don’t get the flu shot.  I won’t try to sell you on not vaccinating entirely right now.  But, not getting the flu shot is a good first step.  It doesn’t protect against the flu.  Pretty commonly, people actually get the flu right after getting the shot.  Your body is a marvelous thing.  It has the tools to stay healthy and fight illnesses.  Year after year, pumping your body full of chemicals, mercury, formaldehyde, sugar, etc. doesn’t help in that process of actually making you healthier.  In typical allopathic medicine fashion, it attempts to manipulate one acute thing, but in doing so, misses the whole point of total health and makes you more unhealthy in the long run.  As an alternative, just stay healthy.  Eat well, exercise, take supplements, get lots of sleep.  You’ll probably fight off illness before you even notice a symptom.  If you do get sick, immediately fill yourself with vitamin C, healthy food, and sleep.  Despite the government’s wise advice, you can have more than 100 mg of Vitamin C a day.  I regularly take 1000 mg.  When you’re sick, take much more, spread throughout the day.  Here are a couple resources on this…Vitamin C and…Fix the 24 Hour Flu Naturally
9. Vitamin K2/MK7 – This vitamin deserves its own entry.  Everyone should be taking this.  Its not available in most of the foods we eat in the US, unless you tend to eat fermented soybeans on a regular basis.  And you don’t find it in most multivitamins.  Look for the particular type of K2, called MK7.  This is one of the missing nutrients in our modern lives.  Will help maintain or grow bone density, remineralize teeth (reverse cavities), and plays a key role in keeping your arteries clear of buildup and calcification, by routing bone nutrients to your bones, and away from your heart.
10. Lighting – Get into a lighting routine. Sleep is another hidden cause of many health issues.  Here’s one tip to get quality, restful sleep. This is an easy one because our bodies are made to do it.  We naturally produce melatonin at night, IF our brains think it is night.  Bright lights, particularly blue spectrum lights, phone screens, etc. trick the brain and make it think its daytime, so melatonin production doesn’t turn on.  Solution: At night, an hour or two before bed avoid screens, keep lights dim, even use candles instead of electric lamps.  Fire light doesn’t disturb melatonin production.  In the morning you can grab the phone, turn the bright lights on and get moving.
11. Eat Real Food! – Finally, and not such a small or easy thing, but an important one.  Eat paleo, primal, raw, all natural, real food. Everyday the science is coming around.  It is simply what is healthy for our bodies.  The government food pyramid, doctor recommended, TV advertised, avoid butter, and load up on bread diets of the last 50 years have been an utter disaster.  And other attempts at health are not that much better.  Dig into the research on your own. You might be surprised.  Look HERE for an intro, or Mark’s Daily Apple.