Are you where you want to be in terms of your health?
Are you happy when you look in the mirror?
Do you feel healthy and energized?
If you answered yes to these 3 questions, GREAT! You may already be doing everything that you need to, and you may not need to waste your time reading this. However, if you cannot answer yes to all 3 of these, the next 10 days will help you change that!
My goal is not to point out everything that you are doing wrong, make you feel bad about yourself and guilt you into getting healthy. My goal is to help you gradually make changes and create new habits over the next 10 days. It is important to understand that your journey for a healthy life does not end at the end of that 10 days. It begins with the next 10 days. Good health is a lifetime decision. That does not mean that you are doomed to a life of eating nothing but vegetables and drinking water. It does mean that you are going to be eating more healthy foods, less junk, exercising, reducing your stress, sleeping better, and more.
There are some habits that you have created throughout your lifetime that may in fact be killing you. Yes, there are the obvious ones like smoking and drinking excessive alcohol. I am going to help you find less obvious habits that may be impacting your current health, along with your potential life expectancy.
Before we get started, you need to make a decision. How badly do you want this? How badly do you want to be happy with your health? Is this something that you are going to commit to? If you are serious about getting healthy, you need to treat it that way. I am going to take you through some changes that you may not like. Chances are that you are going to make excuses about why you can’t or don’t need to make certain changes. Don’t make excuses, make a commitment. Some days are going to easy, some are going to be hard. 1 day you may have a 2 minute read with a few pointers, another may have a 10 minute workout for you to do.
Find your why. Why do you want to be healthier? Personally, I have a beautiful wife and amazing son that I would like to live a long, healthy life with. I want to see my future children grow up and have a father that can run around and play games with them. I want to be able to play with my future grandchildren. I have 4 nieces that I want to see grow up. What about you? Find your why and you will find it easier to commit. Find your why and write it down where you can see it every single day.
Are you ready?
Day 1 – The Key Ingredient to Start Transforming Your Health
I know a lot of people that promote a lot of healthy products, from vitamins and other supplements to workout programs and various machines to help you live healthier. Which of these is the key to starting your health journey? NONE! The key to starting your transformation is water. Yes, you have heard it before. You need to drink water! What you are about to read is meant to guide you through the first week of your transformation. The foundation that is puts in place is the basis for your health transformation. I am going to do my best to give you the information that you need without overwhelming you with too much. Read through today’s lesson, take the action step at the end, and get ready for your first week of a journey that is designed to leave you healthier and happier.
First off, what many people don’t want you to know is that water beneficial in treating many ailments that people spend A LOT of money to treat. Here are some of the great things that water does for your body.
- It increases the efficiency of your immune system. That means that it will help you fight of sickness. Sounds like a great benefit, right?
- Water prevents clogging of arteries in the heart and brain. So wait a second, drinking enough water can reduce your risk of heart disease and strokes? Powerful!
- Water is the main lubricant for your joints. Drinking enough water can reduce your risk of arthritis and back pain!
- Water plays a MAJOR role in brain function, and many believe that it can even help with attention, fighting the effects of attention deficit disorder (ADD). They say that more and more people these days have ADD. Could that be related to the fact that we drink more and more soda and other drinks and not enough water?
- Another is……wait……….I forget………OH YEA, memory loss! You get that, how I pretended to forget………OK, I try. Anyways, drinking the right amount of water can help prevent degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and more.
- I’ll save the one that people seem to care most about for last. Water affects our appearance. It helps keep our skin smooth, gives us a healthy glow, and can reduce the effects of aging.
Think about how much money is spent on treating all of these conditions each year. Imagine if they could be reduced significantly, or even just a little simply by drinking more water.
There is a small problem though. Water isn’t what it used to be. We look at all of the advancements that we have made in technology and industry and praise how far we have come. I look at it and wonder why we need half of it, especially when the side effects of creating it are killing us. One of the biggest ways is in our water. There are very few pure water sources left in this world. Most of the water is contaminated with things that you would never knowingly put into your body. There was a government test done to see what was found in our nation’s drinking water. They found over 2,000 chemicals. These are chemicals that our municipal treatment plants neither detect nor remove before the water is delivered to us. We drink that same water.
Between pesticides, cosmetic and toiletry products, and the chlorine that the government claims is helping, but often does harm, it is no wonder illnesses are through the roof. Many of the chemicals found have been associated with cancer, birth defects, miscarriages and much, much more. I could spend a long time talking about the problem, or I can suggest a solution. Get a water purifier! There are very affordable options, and then there are many very expensive options. My thoughts on this are that anything is better than nothing.
Check Out Water Purifiers Here
I personally use a pitcher filter. It is an inexpensive option that does not cost a lot for the money. There are machines out that create reverse osmosis water or distilled water. Both are very effective with cleaning the water. The drawback is that they also remove the healthy minerals from the water. Also, they are expensive! If you do not have a purifier, pick up a cheap carbon filter purifier for $20 somewhere. It is a cheap option that will make a big difference.
What about bottles water?
The sad truth is that bottled water is simply what the name says it is, bottled. People believe that all bottled water is pure, coming from the springs of a mountain somewhere that the pollution somehow doesn’t get to. The EPA is responsible for monitoring the tap water that we drink. When it comes to bottled water, the FDA takes over, and it is far less regulated that the tap water. Bottled water can actually contain fecal bacteria and still be legal to sell. These companies are not even required to tell you where the water comes from. If you picked up a bottle of water and it said, “From the Detroit River”, would you drink it? That is one of Aquafina’s sources. In fact, 2 of the biggest names in bottled water, Aquafina and Dasani are simply selling you reprocessed tap water.
OK, what was the point of all of this? Get some type of water purifier for your home, and start drinking more water. How much? A quick rule of thumb is take your body weight in pounds, divide it by 2, and that is how many ounces of water you should be drinking each day. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, you should be drinking 100 ounces of water. I personally way about 170 pounds, so I should be drinking about 85 ounces each day. There are different thoughts on when you should be drinking it, but I will keep it simple. Spread it out throughout the day. Drink 8-16 ounces at a time various times throughout the day. If you are working out, be sure to be sipping water throughout your workout.
If you are one of those people that really needs structure to stay on task, try this timetable that I came across in The Seven Pillars of Health, by Don Colbert.
Drink 8-16 ounces about 30 minutes before breakfast.
Drink 8-16 ounces roughly 2 hours after breakfast.
Drink 8-16 ounces about 2 hours after lunch.
Drink 8-16 ounces about 2 hours after dinner
Drink 8-16 ounces before bed
You should also be drinking 4-8 ounces with your meals. If you prefer something with flavor with your meals, have a cup of coffee, tea or juice with breakfast, coffee, tea, juice or milk with lunch, and tea, juice or milk with dinner.
For many people, this chart does not add up to the amount of water that they should be drinking. If not, drink a little more 10-30 minutes before meals. This will not only help you increase the amount of water that you are taking in, but by drinking it before you eat it will help you feel full sooner, which is great if you are trying to lose weight. Also, many of the foods that you eat (especially fruits and vegetables), contain water.
DO NOT go crazy trying to get the number exact. This is a guide. If you are a little short or over, no big deal. What I am hoping will happen is that, as you start drinking more water, you will start drinking less of the things that are harming you, such as soda.
I will not get into the science behind it, but yes, you can drink too much water, so don’t go getting crazy with it. Stick to the rule of thumb above and you should start seeing benefits within a week or 2.
ACTION STEP – I do not expect you to suddenly start drinking water, lots of it, and nothing else. In the next few days you will learn more about what to and not to drink and why. For now, I want you to commit to drinking 2 – 3 glasses of water today. If you already drink a lot of water, try to follow the timetable above the best that you can for a day.
Hopefully as the week goes on you will have a week with lots of water, some milk, coffee and tea, and minimal soda. Let’s see what the week brings!
