Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference

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When we turn our attention to the subject of health, simply put, our bodies were not meant to live in the fast-paced, stressful world we live in.

This is a reason why so many people are affected by health issues; our bodies simply cannot keep up!

We can however make small, manageable tweaks to our daily routines to incorporate really simple, healthy habits that help to look after our minds and maintain our bodies so we can look and feel our best. It’s not rocket science but sometimes we don’t even realise that it needn’t take much to start seeing and feeling some real positive changes.

So here’s some ideas you can begin to implement as of today, it’s true that small changes really can make a big difference, to how we feel mentally, and look physically!

Dietary Changes

Let’s start here: diet. It’s perhaps the most obvious but maybe that’s because it needs to be. Your body requires particular nutrients to rebuild itself. It requires certain enzymes, vitamins and minerals to ensure that the rebuilding process is done properly. If we are not getting the vital nutrients we need our entire system will not be functioning optimally and we can suffer both physically and mentally because of it. When it comes to the health and appearance of your skin and hair, there are a few small steps you can take right now to improve them. If we take the subject of skin, it repairs itself at a pretty rapid pace, so you can expect to see improvements within a month of adding the following to your diet:

Vitamin/Mineral Supplement: Begin immediately by adding a good multi- vitamin/multi-mineral supplement to your daily diet.

Antioxidants: Add an antioxidant supplement (A, E, C, selenium or equivalent). This is a sure fire way of getting those vital nutrients in if we’re lacking them in our daily food intake. Of course ideally, we would be getting the biggest amount of goodness from the foods and drinks we’re ingesting, including the suggestions below

Smoothies: These really are our friends. Quick and simple, they can be our morning grab and go as we take in a huge amount of benefits in one delicious hit. You can load your smoothie with any and all the healthy things that you love. Fruit, leafy greens, seeds, nut butters, green powders, vegan protein, you can even just drop your vitamins straight into your smoothie and know you’re getting a nutrient packed, super healthy morning treat for your breakfast.

Snacks: It is so easy to get to the end of the day and realise that you have made your way through more snacks than you could shake a stick at; chocolate, crisps, biscuits. But why do we do this? A lot of the time its due to 1 of 3 things… you’re actually just bored and it’s a good distraction; you’re dehydrated which makes you feel hungry or the food you’re eating is either not enough or it’s not actually feeding your body in the way it should be, so your body keeps sending the signal it needs more quantity.. when actually it just needs more quality! With these things in mind, of course it’s okay to snack, as long as you feel good with what you’re eating and it gives your body the energy it requires. Try swapping some of the more sugar laden ‘treat’ snacks with something that will improve your brain function, give you an energy boost and can also help your skin look great in the process! Nuts; brazils, walnuts and almonds, all fantastic for our mind and body, they deliver a punch of good fat and healthy oils (more to come on that) and they taste creamy and delicious. Next, avocado; cut in half, squeeze over lemon juice, add salt and pepper and dive straight in with a spoon, so good! Again, good fats and healthy oils which are fantastic for the look and feel of our skin. Humus and veggies; peppers, cucumbers, celery, even apple, slice them and dip them, always a winning snack! Vitamin packed, keeps you going and tastes great. Banana and nut butter.. filling, packed with so much nutrients and big boost of energy, just an all round yes.

Oils: Replace your salad dressing with olive oil, and change your cooking oil to coconut oil or avocado oil. (Polyunsaturated fats like rapeseed and soybean oil commonly used today; they oxidize at a lower temperature – this means that they throw off free radicals at body temperature, which cause cellular damage and accelerate aging.)

Vegetables: If you aren’t already, add at least one serving of dark leafy green vegetables, one serving of yellow vegetables and one of dark red vegetables per day. This will add important enzymes, phytonutrients and minerals. The easiest way to do this is to insist on one large salad of romaine and RIPE tomato with carrots to nibble on the side – and don’t forget to use olive oil for dressing. A squeeze of lemon goes nicely with this, and the combination of olive oil and lemon helps balance liver enzyme function as well.

Hydration

Your body requires adequate water to move nutrients and enzymes throughout the body, to keep organs functioning optimally and to keep elimination frequent by flushing all those unwanted toxins and waste. But do you get confused about how much water we actually need? The rule of thumb is to drink at least half your weight in ounces. So, if you weigh 100 pounds, you should drink at least 50 ounces of water per day. In kilos you multiply your weight by 0.033, so if you’re 60kg you drink 2 litres. But don’t let that stop you from drinking more.. the more the better! It really will help to keep the skin plump, hydrated and clear.

Sleep

Ahhh the good old Zzzz’s! We all need these! But do we realise the importance of sleep and do we actually make sure that our body is getting the time for the rest and repair it needs?

Adequate sleep is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Your body spends most of your sleeping hours regenerating itself, rebuilding cells, balancing hormone levels and brain chemicals. Getting enough sleep will not only help you look good, it will help you feel good as well. Neurochemicals that control mood and pain levels are produced during sleep, which is why so many chronic pain patients are actually found to have an underlying sleep disorder. With the right amount of sleep it can help with so many things including reducing our stress levels, helping us to have more patience, think more clearly, make better decisions for ourselves and also it gives us the energy to want to look after ourselves and our bodies in more caring ways.

Adequate Sleep: Lets start this small change with making a conscious habit of getting enough sleep. This might mean calling in the self discipline and starting to turn off the screens earlier than normal, sacrificing the usual late night in front of the tv and replacing it with getting turned in and tucked up a couple of hours earlier. You could start a sort of challenge with yourself and see if you could try it out for a week or 2 or maybe even a month and notice the difference you feel when you start getting enough sleep on a regular basis. Most experts claim seven to nine hours per day is the required amount. Some experts say that setting the total amount of sleep to coincide with the natural 90 minutes per sleep cycle is best. This would mean either 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep per night. Five cycles would mean 7.5 hours, six cycles would be nine hours of sleep. Try experimenting, see what amount of sleep actually makes you feel best, do what works for you.

Napping: Make a habit of grabbing naps. Popular to contrary opinion, humans were actually meant to take naps. That’s why those of us who are permitted to live according to our normal biological cycle (babies, small children and the elderly) take naps. Humans are designed to nap during the afternoon. Current studies show a natural rise and fall of hormones that indicate a programmed “nap” time in the afternoon. That famous mid-afternoon slump isn’t just lack of sleep at night, a heavy lunch, or stress – it’s your instincts kicking in and telling you to take some down-time. Take a nap during the weekend or your free days if you can. Instead of sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday, get up at your normal time and then take a nap in the early afternoon. It doesn’t need to be a long nap, a simple twenty minute “cat nap” will do just fine! Your body will thank you for it, so will your mind. And hey, if all you end up doing is resting in a comfy spot with your eyes closed and just slowing your mind down, that’ll only produce positive effects too.

We hope you’ve benefited from reading this article. Yes we know all of these things, but we often don’t live by them, or fall into bad habits too easily. So even if there’s just one thing you pick from this post, perhaps swapping a packet of crisps for a handful of nuts, or try going to bed an hour earlier, then our job is done, and we hope that those small changes lead to big differences in your life too.