Your New Habits for Health and Longevity

As I mentioned in my previous post, there were so many great discoveries I made over the course of this 6 week cleanse.  Things that are beneficial and delicious enough that I'm permanently changing my diet to include them.  Eating right is certainly cheaper than buying a bunch of supplements, and it's definitely cheaper than battling a medical condition.

Foods to enjoy daily:

• At least 1 serving each of superfoods + cruciferous veggies every day
• A smoothie for breakfast, or chopped fruit (low sugar - granny smith apples, berries, melon, grapefruit) with raw oats or homemade granola, raw almonds, 1 Tbsp. essential seed mix (3 parts flax seeds to 1 part each sesame, pumpkin + hemp seeds - raw, ground) + maca powder
• Afternoon snack of raw, sprouted crackers or store-bought organic rice crackers with supergreens mix
• A glass of rejuvelac (great as a wine substitute with dinner)
• Hot lemon water in the morning 

Healthy practices to perform daily:

• Don't eat 3 hours before bedtime (giving yourself a 12-16 hour break of not eating) so your body can heal itself and not simply work to digest food.  Check out the great interview on "Forum". 
• Drink 8 glasses of water
• Reduce stress - spend more time outdoors and try to meditate for at least 10 minutes every day when you first wake
• Take 10 minutes of your morning (or at the beginning of your workout) to do 2 sets of Sun Salutations.  Hatha style - holding each pose for 30 seconds.  It's a great way to stretch your muscles, loosen joints, and set your intention for the day.
• Exercise 30-60 minutes 5x a week - Yoga is particularly good, or other aerobic activity 
• Get 8 hours of sleep every night  
• Eat slowly and chew thoroughly
• Eat smaller portions

 

Healthy changes to make in your environment:

• Switch to natural cleaners - it's easy to make them yourself
• Beware of electromagnetic pollution - don't keep your phone on your body
• Clean your air - open windows to clear out carbon dioxide build-up

Healthy changes to your way of thinking:

• Don't eat foods that are out of season.  Not sure, check out this handy guide.
• Eliminate all GMO foods and preservatives
• Lower your intake of carbs + potatoes
• Try going veg or flexitarian.  Here are a couple good cookbooks by chef Peter Berley to get you started - veg + flex)
• Cut back on the coffee + alcohol
• This one's critical - Eat less sugar!  Lightly sweeten with alternatives like dates, honey, orange juice, brown rice syrup, sucanat or stevia.

Healthy food substitutes:

• Instead of chips, try rice or raw crackers with supergreens mix or raw nut cheese
• Instead of a candy bar, try carob-almond milk or raw walnut-cacao dreamy bars
• Instead of a cookie, try an apple with raw almond butter, or bake some healthy cookies like these sesame-oat-cranberry cookies
• Instead of that afternoon mocha or latte, try a decaf, sugar-free chai.  Or better still, switch to green tehttp://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/benefit_of_drinking_green_teaa.
• Instead of ice cream, try easy kiwi sorbet

Now that you're armed with more information, suggestions, and recipes than you'll probably ever need, I hope that you'll use it as a guide to create your own new habits for health and longevity.  Here's to YOU!


To all the non-foodie cleansers - Thank you for your patience these past 6 weeks.  Though it may have seemed like a major digression from my usual topics, your health (which is strongly linked your diet) is directly related to your overall happiness, and being the best YOU you can be.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...