Being healthy means having a healthy heart and a body
that functions properly. Healthy living means working to
avoid high cholesterol, high blood pressure, being
overweight, and smoking. These are some of the leading
contributors to heart disease, chronic illness and disease
etc. It is important to work towards having a healthy heart,
especially since heart disease is the leading cause of death
for men and women in America.
The good news is that high cholesterol, high blood
pressure, and being overweight can be can be significantly
reduced, and often times eliminated by making changes in
our health habits. One of the biggest places to change is
our diets, but there is more to it than that; other factors
include reducing stress, getting enough rest, exercise and
sunshine. However, changing our diets and getting more
physical activity are two of the most important things we
can to do improve our long-term health.
The bad news is that most of us won't take the necessary
steps to improve our hearts and increase our health. Why?
Well, it is very difficult to get ourselves to change our
health habits. Most people are not ready to make changesin their lifestyle, so they either dismiss or avoid the
information that points to this need for change because it
feels too overwhelming to do. Or they jump in head first
before becoming adequately prepared and end up failing
or getting discouraged.
With the ever-increasing ease of getting unhealthy foods vs
healthy, succeeding at changing to a healthier diet is
becoming harder and harder. For healthy living, take the
following steps:
1. Recognize that there is a problem. If you do not know
what the problem is, you can't do anything about it. So,
figure out why you aren't eating a more nutritious diet. Is it
ease? Is it the taste? What is it?
2. Make a decision to change. Here we need to convince
ourselves of the importance of making the change. If you
do not realize how important change is, you won't have
enough motivation to do it. So do your own research, and
recognize the effects of your food choices.
3. Prepare. Having a good plan that addresses the
obstacles of making the change is the only way to success.
For example, decide now what you are going to do when
you get a craving for sweets, or when you are in a hurry
and your options are fast food, vending machine, or starve.
If you make the decision now, before you are faced with
the challenge, you are more likely to make the smart
choice, like order a salad or hold the mayonnaise, than an
emotional one, like getting a double bacon cheeseburger,
large fry, milkshake, and large caffeinated soda.
4. Take action. This means implementing your plan,
whether that is having healthy snacks on hand, eliminating
processed and refined foods, or simply supplementing the
gaps in your nutrition in your diet.
5. Maintain the changes you have made. It may take a few
years before your changes become automatic and a normal
part of your life, but taking small steps and working at not
just starting change, but maintaining it, is crucial.
For a healthy body and heart it is imperative that you load
up on nutrient rich foods rather than caloric rich. The
problem with the modern Western diet is that caloric intake
is the main focus rather than the nutrient density of the
foods we choose. The foods with the highest nutrient
density are the leafy green plants. Such plants provide our
bodies with more of the vitamins and minerals needed than
do any other food type. One of the best of this group is the
leaves, and other components of the Moringa oleifera tree.
It is rich in many vitamins including vitamin A, B, B1, B2, B3,
B5, B6, B12, C, D, E, Folate, Biotin, and more. It also
contains the much needed minerals Calcium and Iron, as
well as Chloride, Chromium, Copper, Flourine, Potassium,
and others to name a few. This plant has all 8 essential
amino acids, and many others. By way of nutrient density,
and bioavailability of said nutrients, it is one of the best
plants you can implement into your daily diet. For a
convenient easy way to utilize this plant in your daily life,
without having to alter your entire lifestyle, try Zija, the all
natural health beverage made from the nutrient rich
Moringa tree.
