Even if you look and feel great, there are always steps you can take, every day, to improve your body and mind. It takes constant work to improve your life, even when you have achieved what you believe is your personal best.

So with that said, we all can use some healthy living tips to ensure that we are the best we can be every day.

Healthy Living Tips to Improve Your Body and Mind

It doesn’t matter if you are in perfect shape - or you have created your own unique “shape” over the years - there are always simple strategies that will continue to improve how you look, feel and think. After all, without constantly improving your body and mind, you won’t be able to reach greater heights and experience new things.

The most essential mental and physical health tip is to enjoy quality sleep. Getting enough sleep will boost your health and productivity, and it will rejuvenate your body and mind. Some people may believe that sleep is overrated, but study after study has shown that those who get at least eight hours of sleep look and feel better than those who don’t. It can be tempting to skimp on the number of hours of sleep you get, but it isn’t worth it. Skipping sleep takes a toll on your brain’s ability to function, your appearance, and on your overall long-term health. So do yourself a favor and skip the late night talk shows and midnight snacks tonight!

There’s another easier-said-than-done tip that I’m sure you’ve heard many times before. Any guesses? Exercise, of course! Whether you are trying to lose weight or you’re at your target weight, it can be tempting to skip exercise. No matter how you slice it, it’s not going to do you any good. Not only does exercise help you look good, but it also helps you feel good. Exercise releases endorphins that make you feel good from top to bottom and stress literally drips off you!

It can be difficult to incorporate these healthy living tips into your life, but there is one tool that ties everything together: the power of positive self-talk. You can use positive affirmations to help remind you of your healthy living goals. Affirmations are short statements that encourage you to sharpen your mind and body while conquering your goals and improving on your weaknesses. Affirmations can help you focus on creating and maintaining the healthy body and mind you desire because it gives you the motivation you need to focus on your most important asset - you!

Some examples of affirmations include, “It is okay for me to take care of myself first,” or, “I am healthy and deserve the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.” You can use these simple positive statements throughout the day to stay motivated and focused. After all, we all need some motivation from time to time.

When you implement these strategies in your life, you’ll begin to realize just how easy it can be to lead a healthy lifestyle, especially once you have gained the right set of tools in your self-improvement toolbox!

When you implement these strategies in your life, you’ll begin to realize just how easy it can be to lead a healthy lifestyle, especially once you have gained the right set of tools in your self-improvement toolbox!

Food allergies or sensitivities can trigger brain fog and forgetfulness in a number of ways. A food particle may leak from the digestive system into the bloodstream without being fully digested, and the immune system sees this harmless food particle as a potential invader.

White blood cells, blood vessels, and even distant organs, such as the adrenal glands,respond to the intrusion by releasing a torrent of biochemicals, including histamines, which produce allergic symptoms. An allergic reaction and its brain symptoms can occur within minutes or hours of eating the offending food, as the chemicals build up in the brain and cause inflammation.

Allergies to foods can trigger a variety of other symptoms, such as headache, sinus congestion, runny nose, cramping, diarrhea, and skin eruptions. Lesser known reactions include edema, sore throat, heart palpitations, anxiety, fatigue, mood swings, joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraine. Many people who have food allergies can eat the food to which they are allergic, but no more than once every three days—this is called a rotation diet.

Most people think of “allergy” as a violent reaction to something: face swelling up, throat swelling shut, breaking out in hives, etc.  There are many lesser symptoms that also have a heavy impact on the overall quality of your life, however.

Personally, after eating wheat I feel sleepy and lethargic - my entire life I’ve felt like napping after a meal.  This changed when I eliminated wheat from my diet - no easy thing because I LOVE wheat (and anything you feel that way about probably isn’t good for you - think of how an alcoholic feels about a beer).  Consumption of sugar tends to cause me to feel highly irritable and later depressed.  I’ve eliminated sugar (as much as possible - Ben and Jerry are evil dudes and honey too.  Agave nectar is now the preferred sweetener, with no side effects I’ve noticed.

Consult a physician, if necessary, but simply pay attention to how you feel and what you feel after you eat certain foods.  You might be surprised at how much your life is affected by what you eat - physically AND mentally.

You return from a much-needed week’s vacation in the tropics where you didn’t take your laptop. You are relaxed, suntanned, and your wife’s hero for making a hat out of palm fronds and ordering dinner in broken Tahitian. There is no way this serene and blissful feeling is going to wear off, even after going back to the grind at the office next week. You vow to rise above it, remember the tranquil waves of paradise, no matter how stressful the situation around you. And you do, until about noon your first day back at work.

The greatest hidden enemy of memory and quality longevity is chronic stress. High anxiety and stress levels often creep up on us without our awareness. Many of us lead tense and hurried lives, where even the mental and physical benefits of occasional rest and recreation disappear quickly and leave us as stressed out as before. Everyone has a different baseline stress level, depending on personality style, coping skills, degree of self-awareness, and other factors.

I regularly listen to the Totally Tranquil program by Holothink.  This program is designed to bring your brainwave activity into an alpha state - alert, yet relaxed, similar to watching television or getting into an engrossing novel.  It’s a great experience - try a free demo of Totally Tranquil.

If you say that “Your thoughts have a great deal of influence over your sense of health and well-being”, you’d get no argument from me.

This is a terrific video from Byron Katie where she works with someone dealing with allergy problems - this is some pretty deep stuff. Enjoy.

Just like a diesel engine that will not run on unleaded gasoline, our bodies cannot run optimally without feeding it the proper fuel. Nutrition is as important to our wellness as is drinking clean water and breathing unpolluted air. Most fitness professionals know this, and many of them dedicate their lives to eating clean, which in part means eliminating foods that are processed, overly-refined and calorie dense. The emphasis is on fresh and local produce, lean protein and complex carbohydrates. High-fat and sugar-laden foods are avoided, as is alcohol.

There are many reasons why you should take care when choosing the food you put into your body. Besides eliminating saturated fats in order to maintain a healthy body weight, there is also the issue of getting enough nutrients and avoiding unhealthy food additives. The goal of optimal nutrition is to get all you need from your food, without having to supplement with vitamins. Think about what’s in the food you usually eat. Processed foods will be filled with man-made chemicals, many of which have been linked to thyroid disease, diabetes, and even muscular dystrophy.

For optimum wellness, choose foods that have been touched as little as possible by man. This means choosing fresh fruit and vegetables, whole or unrefined carbohydrates, hormone-free meats and dairy, and natural sugars such as honey, stevia or my favorite - agave nectar. Foods from an organic or wild environment are best, and be sure to avoid trans-fats (fats listed as partially hydrogenated). Choosing your food-fuel this way will help eliminate added chemicals and preservatives, while allowing your body to receive all the nutrients Mother Nature’s bounty has to offer.

At the same time, carry this same concept into other areas of your life by considering the quality of your daily activities and experiences.  Do you spend time with positive, productive people regularly?  Or do you find yourself surrounded by negative, judgmental people who leave you feeling drained?

Are you fulfilled by your work, or do you spend much of your day feeling bored and uninspired?  Do you make time for creative pursuits, spiritual connection and personal development on a regular basis?  Or are you so busy taking care of everyone else’s needs that you neglect your own?

Just like poor quality food results in physical deficiencies, constant pressure and dissatisfaction from our life experiences will deplete us mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

The greatest challenge is knowing where to start to improve the quality of our lives.  It’s overwhelming to contemplate improving our diets, changing careers, creating a new spiritual practice and more - but we don’t have to do it all at once!

Start by reviewing how you feel about the major parts of your life: physical health, mental attitude, relationships with your spouse and family, social connections, career path, financial situation, and spiritual practice.  How satisfied are you with these areas?  Rate them on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being very satisfied and one being not satisfied at all.

With any area that rated high for dissatisfaction, consider just one thing you can do to help improve it.  It might be as simple as reducing your sugar intake, making one new friend, applying for a better job, telling your spouse you love him or her, and so on.

Small changes can add up to big results if done consistently over time.  As you begin to “clean up” one area of your life, don’t be surprised if you suddenly feel inspired to do more simply because it makes you feel so good to be making positive changes.  However, try to avoid taking on too much at once because burning yourself out is one sure way to fall back into old habits.  Simply take it one step at a time, one day at a time and before long you should see some wonderful changes taking place before your eyes.

This topic is far more controversial than I ever could have imagined: food.

It rates up there with politics and religion for “topics to avoid at any social function”.

Yes, food.

Not in the way you’re probably accostomed to - as in, “That new Italian restaurant is excellent.”

No, I’m talking about clean food.

Fresh, nutrient-dense, RAW food.

As you may know my wife is a physician and she loves experimenting with diets to see how we feel. Forget the research, the propaganda to sell books, and the agendas of food growers. We want the truth.

NOTE: For us, diet is about feeling optimal - mentally and physically.  It’s never been about weight-loss.  Weight-loss is just a side effect of what we’re doing.  Weight-gain has also been a side-effect of a few diets we’ve tried and a sure sign it’s not a good thing.

I became a bloated whale on “The Makers Diet” - a diet with lots of meat and butter and all the good stuff we’d like to believe we really need.  NOT!

I became more acutely aware of how different foods made me feel on the “Eat Right for Your Blood Type” diet.

We tried a lot of diets and sometimes I felt better, but I never felt great. I never felt as good as I hoped or thought I could until we tried the “raw diet”.

It’s been transformational in how I feel, what I do, and how I relate to food. After eating 100% raw food for a period of time, even something as seemingly harmless as a little salad dressing (that’s been cooked in processing) makes me sick.

Headache, foggy-thinking, flu-like symptoms.

Essentially, cooked food is addictive food. And that’s why people fight so hard at the mere suggestion that it isn’t good for you. Ever seen an alcoholic or drug addict fight for and defend their addictions? Even to the point of saying “everyone else has the problem - not me!”

It’s the same with this food thing. Simply showing up to lunch with my raw juice seems to offend some people. Hey folks, eat whatever you like - but I want to feel my best and please don’t mind me if that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Really, I’m going to do what I’m going to do because that’s what works for me and I’ve tried a lot of different avenues.  I’m not here to sell anything to anyone - there is no agenda.

I could write a book about the experiences, questions, objections, etc, that come up on this subject. Others have done a plenty good job of that already - I just want to give you something important to think about today.

Objection #1:

How do you get enough protein?

Have you ever noticed the largest, strongest animals on this planet are herbivores? Protein isn’t a problem WHEN YOU DON’T COOK YOUR FOOD. Cooking food causes a chemical reaction that denatures - or changes - naturally occurring proteins into something else.

Haven’t you ever wondered WHY food needs to be supplemented and fortified?  It’s because after it’s been  cooked (ie, processed) there isn’t much nutritional value aside from fat and calories left.

Objection #2:

Don’t you get sick from not cooking your food?

Never, not even once - for me or anyone else in my family.  And we’ve been doing this for four years now. I have had food poisoning at least a half-dozen times in my life from eating cooked food though.

Objection #3:

Isn’t it hard to sit there and watch everyone else eat?

Yes, and no. I’ve gone through the process of eating raw, then cheating by eating something cooked many times. Each time it’s like hitting myself on the head with a hammer - it hurts. And I tell myself, “I will never eat that again”. Of course, I do on occassion still - but I’ve learned to associate “feeling like hell with eating that smell”.

It is much less difficult now to choose feeling good over a temporary satisfaction. And the funny thing is, the cleaner I am with my diet the more I actually like things that are green! (Hey, this is a guy who wouldn’t eat more than 5-6 vegetables about 10 years ago - I’ve come a long way and I feel great).

Objection #4:

This is a mainly a guy thing, just like the protein question. “Dude, I don’t want to get emaciated looking.”

Listen, if you take all the fat off your body (much of it is really toxic holding) then you are what you are - most people aren’t nearly as big as they look without the fat they carry around. You still have to work your body if you want to be strong and fit looking - but you’ll have a lot more energy to just naturally do it. There are times I cannot NOT workout.

Like I said in the beginning, this diet thing is like preaching politics and religion. I try not to do it - but at the same time I feel so much better than I used to that I’d be doing you a disservice to not share this with you.

Going from where you are to being 100% raw in your diet is a big step - the easiest way I found to approach this is with raw juices. You’ll begin to acquire a taste for your new diet and you’ll notice the immediate increase in energy (which comes partly from having nutrient-dense, “live” food in you and partly from not heavily taxing your digestive system with things like wheat, meat, dairy products and etc - I could give you a list of reasons I refuse to eat those things that are directly related to how lousy they make me feel and always did - I just didn’t realize it at the time).

One last thing . . . after Tara and I had Aric last October we got off our diet - I was the cook! That meant whatever was easy … after 2 months on this “standard American diet” we both felt so awful we couldn’t stand it ONE MORE DAY.

On December 20th we re-committed to our raw diet (HAPPILY) and we’ve both lost in the over 20 pounds. I’ve gone from 198 lbs (my all-time high) to 176 lbs and if I might say, the most fit looking 40-year-old dude at the pool.

Meditation is more often associated with states of deep relaxation, but it can also be an effective way to rejuvenate yourself and boost your energy.  Fatigue and sluggishness often result from a constant flow of negative, chaotic and stressful thoughts through our minds.  We may not even be aware when these types of thoughts begin taking over our focus – we just know we suddenly feel like we’ve got a thousand-pound weight sitting on our shoulders and we have no energy to attend to our normal activities.

The following steps will walk you through a simple process for releasing negative thoughts and boosting your energy through meditation:

1)    First, purge the negative stuff.

There are a couple of ways to do this.  You can either write out your dominant thoughts on a sheet of paper and tear it up, or simply close your eyes and imagine the top of your head opening up (or your chest is good too) and all negative thoughts flying out and disappearing.  Spend as long as you like on this step of the process, but for most people a few minutes should be plenty.

2)    Shift to more positive thoughts.

Once you’ve allowed the negative thoughts to leave your mind, it’s a good idea to consciously work on adopting more positive thoughts – otherwise, negative thoughts will just come creeping back in.

Here are a few ways you can do this:

First, think of something or someone that makes you feel happy.  Think of your spouse, children, best friend, beloved parents – even your pet.  Go over the reasons you love them in your mind, or recall a funny story that makes you feel uplifted.  Allow yourself to feel the good feelings as much as possible and if any unwanted feelings come up, then just notice them and let them go.

Another option is to engage in some positive self-talk and build yourself up with encouraging words - in other words, could you give yourself some approval?  (Of course you can!)  One unfortunate side effect of negative, chaotic thinking is that we’re usually picking on our self without even realizing it, which makes us feel even worse.  Turn that tendency around by mentally or verbally listing the things you love about yourself (or the things you COULD love about yourself).  Think about your skills, talents, achievements, positive characteristics, and so on.  Feel good about yourself and you’ll find yourself feeling good about everything else too!

If neither of those options work for you, think about what does make you feel good.  Spend a few minutes thinking about something that makes you feel happy or excited.  It doesn’t matter what you focus on, as long as it shifts you into a positive state of mind and emotion.

3)    Give yourself a boost.

Those first two steps alone will go a long way in reducing fatigue and irritability, but you can take it a step further by generating some great energy to rejuvenate yourself.  If possible, stand up and slowly stretch your entire body.  Reach as high as you can toward the ceiling and imagine your legs stretching down with your feet planted firmly on the floor.  Imagine a current of energy running up from the earth into your feet, up your legs and buzzing through your entire body.  See this energy burning off any lingering fatigue and feel yourself filling with limitless energy and motivation.  Smile and say aloud, “I feel fantastic!”  Take a few deep breaths to clear your mind and ground yourself, then continue on with your normal activities.

These steps are incredibly helpful in a pinch, but they can be even more effective if you do them on a daily basis.  Start each morning with this type of activity and you’ll quickly find that you have an abundance of energy to carry you through the day.

Meditation can be challenging for many people - zen monks spend years in solitude to master the skill!  I love this program called Deep Zen Meditation and recommend you give it a try.  Meditation can have a profound impact on your life if you practice it regularly.