January 5, 2017 general

Don’t beat yourself up. Ambition and positive thinking are great, but unrealistic goals set us up for failure. Below are six New Year’s resolutions that are easy to follow. And yet they can give our health a good boost or at the very least lay a nice foundation for other more challenging promises that we make ourselves. (Hmm, like going to the gym every day or cutting out all desserts?)

1. Fill a pitcher with filtered water in the morning. Set a timer / computer reminder / phone alarm to remind you every hour to drink a glass of that water. If the daily goal is something like ½ ounce for every pound of body weight, you can figure out how big that glass needs to be.
2. The same reminder source can serve to make sure you get up, stretch and move at least a couple of minutes hourly. (It is now widely accepted that being sedentary is a major health risk.) If twice a day you can do 15 minutes of real exercise so much the better.
3. While you are up, take a few relaxing deep breaths. Not only does that help reduce the accumulating stress, a little extra oxygen is good for your immune system.
4. At the end of the day, whatever type of work you do (including management of the home), make a to-do list for the next day. That way you can let go of those things and not have them cluttering your mind when you are trying to unwind or sleep.
5. Do something good every day for your intestinal team. The science reviewed in my book, The Probiotic Cure, shows that these friendly bacteria are crucial to virtually every function of the body. They are so very fundamental to good health that I recommend, in addition to eating fermented foods, a probiotic supplement. Ohhira’s is the only one that contains prebiotics (the food the bacteria eat), probiotics (the microorganisms) and postbiotics (all the beneficial substances that the bacteria have been busy making during their 3 years of fermentation).
6. Listen to Healthy by Nature every week because our experts give us more ways to take charge of our health. For example, in case you’d like to lose some fat, this week Dr. Frank King will teach us how homeopathic medicine can help. If you are not available on Saturday morning, at this link you can find other ways to listen such as podcasts and archives.

If you are all fired up to make more changes in 2017, check out the information in our Library—for example: The ABC’s of Healthy Eating, 16 Reasons to Exercise plus Tips, and 24 Stress Reduction Ideas.