We don’t have to give up the things we enjoy in order to live a healthier lifestyle. There are countless ways that we can improve and enhance the quality of our lives and promote better health.

The purpose of the Healthy Lifestyle Upgrades Series is to share information, tips, and ideas that will inspire people to live a healthier lifestyle. I really want to emphasize that even the smallest and simplest adjustments to our lifestyles can make a world of difference to our health and well-being.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what your situation is, there are always things you can do to create a healthier life for you and your family.

The key concept to remember when making healthy lifestyle upgrades is optimization. In other words, “How can you take what you’re doing and make it better (for you)?”

Below, I’ve listed a few ideas to consider as you think about this question and how you can start making healthy lifestyle upgrades today!

Things to Consider When Making Healthy Lifestyle Upgrades

(1) Live a Naturalistic Lifestyle. I believe that the more naturally we can live the healthier we can be. When we make the effort to avoid and/or reduce the amount of toxins and chemicals that we expose ourselves to we can establish a cleaner, safer, and healthier lifestyle for ourselves (family, pets, and planet too).

Ways to Support a Naturalistic Way of Life Include:

• Choosing Organic and/0r Locally Grown Foods. We can avoid and/or reduce our exposure to toxic health threatening chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, antibiotics, hormones, etc. found in conventional foods. Buy organic and locally grown foods whenever possible. Homegrown and wild foods are even better!
• Preparing Meals at Home. Use fresh, whole foods to create nutritiously delicious meals. Establishing a whole food diet allows us to be in control of the quality, quantity, and types of ingredients we eat, as well as avoid and/or limit our consumption of artificial chemical food additives, preservatives, flavors, colorings, etc. found in packaged, processed, and fast foods.
• Clean Up Your Personal Environment. We may not have much control over our exposure to environmental toxins and pollutants, but we can reduce the level of toxicity within our personal environment(s). For example, we can opt for organic and natural household cleaning and personal care products. We can do things like get a water filter, air purifier, shower dechlorinator, etc.

(2) Substitutions & Alternatives. You’ll find that there are healthier substitutions and natural alternatives for just about anything and everything. For example, to avoid the consumption of the chemicals, pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, etc. found in conventional beef, you could opt for grass-fed beef. Or maybe you’re looking for a healthier substitute for butter. Why not try coconut oil?

(3) Optimize Regular & Daily Habits. Finding ways to optimize habits and things that we do on a regular and/or daily basis is significant. Over time, small changes do add up! For instance, when you realize your toothpaste has fluoride in it, a toxic substance that causes health related conditions such as bone diseases, you’ll most likely want to purchase a fluoride free toothpaste or find some sort of natural alternative (free of fluoride). Or maybe you’ve just learned that your daily cup of coffee is loaded with harmful mycotoxins and is highly acidic, which can cause health discomforts such as headaches, nausea, heartburn, anxiety, nervousness, gastrointestinal issues, etc. Does this mean that you have to stop drinking coffee? No. It just means that you need to upgrade. In this case, switching to a low acidity, organic brand of coffee would be a better choice.

(4) Read Ingredients Labels on Food & Non-Food Items.This is important because many of the foods and products that we purchase have strange chemical ingredients. So, if you don’t know what an ingredient is or how to pronounce it, it’s probably best to avoid it. Even foods and products labelled “organic” or “all natural” can have questionable ingredients. So don’t be fooled by tactful marketing propaganda!

That concludes this post. I just wanted to give everyone an idea of what this series is all about. Hopefully you didn’t find it overwhelming. And if you did, please don’t!

Once you start making healthy lifestyle upgrades, you’ll begin to see endless ways that you can optimize and enhance your lifestyle!

Stay tuned!

Best of Health,
Shahné