Life Is For Living: 5 Healthy Habits to Live By: Suggestions to Change Your Life and Kick Old Habits

If you are looking for ways to kick your old, tired habits have a read of my suggestions on how you could change your life, develop healthy habits to live by and jumpstart your day. Yup, all in one shot.

1. Meditate (20 mins.)

When you wake in the morning and after you empty your bladder, get back into bed. Get comfy in whatever position that suits. Place one hand on your stomach and one on your chest, and feel the rise and fall of your breath. Become aware of your breath. Flow with it as it moves in and out of your body.

Feel your entire body come alive from your feet to the top of your head. Remain in this state for twenty minutes. On your "return", you will be clear-eyed and focussed and feel refreshed.

Ideas may come to you during or after your meditation. Write them down because they will slip away and act on them immediately.

2. Stretch (10 mins.)

(a)When you get out of bed, have a good stretch with your arms outstretched above your head. Do some side stretches with one arm sliding down to your calf and the other arm over your head, pointing in the same direction. You will be stiff at first. Do the best you can and stretch ten times on each side.

(b)Bend over and touch your toes or as far as you can reach without bending your knees. Take a deep breath in and out as you bend over. It will relax your abdominal muscles which might get tight and painful, and help you to stretch further. Do this ten times.

(c)Try to stand on your toes and reach to the sky. Push one outstretched arm up with fingers reaching for the sky. Relax but don't lower your arm and reach high with the other arm. Continue this alternating movement establishing a nice up and down rythym. Do it ten times for each arm.

(d)This is a classic Ayurvedic (Indian) exercise to loosen up your hip joints and encourage flexibility in this area. Stand with your legs wide apart. If you are not comfortable and feel unbalanced, bring your legs closer together.

Forearms should be resting on your hips with palms facing the floor. Circle your hips clockwise as wide as you can for one minute. Do not move your feet. Then circle them counter-clockwise for another minute. If you can't do it for a full minute, that's okay. You will get there.

Stretching wakes up your body. and you might start yawning. That means you're evacuating stale energy.

3. Drink Water

Drink a glass of water first thing each and every morning. It flushes down the remaining food eaten the night before from your oesophagus (gullet) and encourages a bowel movement within an hour. This is very normal.

Note: If you do not urinate copiously in the morning after you get out of bed, you are dehydrated. If it smells strong, you are not drinking enough water. If it's brown, same problem. Drink at least three litres every day. It flushes toxins from your organs and rehydrates your body. Water is essential for the proper functioning of your colon.

Drink a large glass of water between meals and one hour after every meal. If you don't "go" every day and after every meal, you are constipated. If your child doesn't either, that child is constipated.

Emptying your bowel before eating breakfast is an excellent habit to cultivate. Your body needs the time to evacuate the waste that's already in there before starting a new digestion cycle. Your body will thank you for it by working more efficiently and excreting toxins more effectively.

4. Break Your Fast

It is essential to have a morning meal. I never subscribed to breakfast after I left home but I have changed over the years. Now, I eat only when hungry.

I usually break my fast between 10 and 11AM after exercise and meditation, with either two glasses of freshly made green protein juice, a natural seed protein drink, bananas, 2 weetabix with rice, almond or soy milk with a few drops of Stevia (a South American plant extract), or a bowl of sprouted, cooked lentils with pumpkin seed oil and a tisane, or rice cakes and nut butter etc.

The point is that breakfast could be anything as long as it is nutritious (protein) and devoid of artificial sweeteners. All sugar is chemically produced nowadays - the worst are the artificial sweeteners that Coca Cola and others say is not sugar because it's "light". The only thing light is the way soda manufacturers rip you off.

The fact is that sugar spikes your blood sugar levels then drops you down hard an hour later. That is why you binge on sweet stuff and guzzle light sodas - to keep the high. I know because I am a recovering sugar addict.

If you are not a breakfast person like me, and I still make sure I eat something in the morning, have a bowl of fresh fruit, a bunch of bananas or make a smoothie. Fresh fruits, green drinks or vegetable milk fruit smoothies are the way to go for breakfast.

And you get all your fibre, minerals and trace elements to boost your central nervous system. You could never overdose on fresh fruit but stay away from the acid ones like apples, pineapples etc. in the morning.

Breakfast is meant to be light and easy to digest (2 - 4 hours). Smoothies are extremely nutritious, tasty and filling. Make enough to fill a thermos to take with you for a 10AM snack. It will carry you through until lunch time.

Use fruits in season for your smoothies and always add bananas to make them rich and filling, or take the bananas with you to snack on. Experiment and write down the combinations you like, and repeat.

Note: Cow's milk is toxic to humans and is meant for calves only. Use silk soy milk watered down if it's too rich or another vegetable milk, like almond milk, if you want a milky taste.

5. Oxygenate Your Body - Exercise

Start a daily exercise routine. You could do the usual run, treadmill, jump rope, DVD aerobics, one-hour walk, etc. or get yourself a one-person trampoline and do five minutes every morning before you shower.

Repeat in the evening. Because it's small, it stores easily. I keep mine open and leaning against the wall in the corridor.

These activities are part of everyday spirituality reconnecting you to who you really are inside. They make you feel energized, bright, awake and focussed. One added benefit is that your excess weight will start melting away, naturally and without effort. The lighter you feel, the more vigorous you will become.

I would love to hear what healthy habits you have made in your life, how you kicked your old habits, and what you think about my suggestions.

Additional suggestions for developing healthy habits…

Zen Habits - An Evening Routine - taking it in another direction. Organize yourself the night before.
Open Loops - 6 Ways to Jumpstart Your Day - includes useful suggestions for those of you who have a problem waking up and bash the alarm clock for ten minutes more! By the way, that usually a sign that you went to bed too late.
Ten Ways to Jumpstart Your Day - a very well-written article with excellent suggestions and I do most of them. Like expressing gratitude, visualisation, massaging your thymus (breastbone), etc.
Docstoc - For those of you who feel up to it, here's a women's fitness page on DocStoc with excellent instructions, warmups, workouts and photos on How to jumpstart your day with exercise.
Bellaonline - high fibre foods. Good, practical information.
Living Community's How to live to 100 - I don't subscribe to getting at least 6 hours sleep or sticking to your habits or living like the 7th Day Adventist! We don't have to be religious to practice a particular way of life! Our bodies need at least 8 hours sleep. 6 hours would work for you if you normally wake feeling rested. If not... you will become sleep deprived and eventually become ill.
Dr Oz and Roizen's RealAge - How to eat smart, what to look for and recipes galore. My favourite reference site. No BS just the truth about eating and food backed by solid facts. And How to adjust your waist brakes.