Wednesday, May 17, 2017

5 Small Ways to Improve Your Health


Getting healthy doesn't have to take a huge effort. A person's health is determined by the sum of countless little factors, and changing even a few of them can have a surprisingly large impact. Since each individual factor is only a small part of your life, you don't even need to make a big sacrifice to improve your health.


Cut Liquid Calories
The human body is not very good at dealing with calories that come from liquids. They don't trigger the satiation response that makes you feel full in the same way that solid foods do, so it's very easy to consume too many calories if some of them are coming from liquids. This can lead to weight gain and excessive sugar consumption, both of which are terrible for your health. Even cutting a small amount of soda or alcohol out of your diet can make a big difference in the long term. To make the transition easier, try to replace soda with flavored seltzer water, which will feel similar in your mouth but have few or no calories.


Switch to Vapor Cigarettes
Smoking is a dangerous habit, but it's also very hard to break. Quitting takes a massive effort, but it's possible to get many of the benefits of quitting by switching over to an e-cigarette starter kit or a vapor model. These alternatives give you most of the sensation of smoking, but they lack the toxins and contamination that can be found in conventional cigarettes. They also rely on vapor instead of smoke, which inflicts much less stress on your throat and lungs. The transition will still take some work, but it's something that most smokers can manage without too much trouble, and the health improvements are more than worth the effort.


Sleep More
Very few people get as much sleep as they need to stay healthy. Most people need between six and eight hours a night, and getting less can make it hard to think clearly, react quickly, and make good choices. It's hard to budget extra time for sleeping, but you can also get more rest each night by falling asleep quickly. To do so, make sure that you don't consume any caffeine in the afternoon or evening, and try to avoid exposure to artificial lighting for a few hours before you go to bed.


Bike More, Drive Less
Very few things can improve a person's health as much as exercise, and the best way to get more exercise is to turn it into a routine. That can mean scheduling regular trips to the gym, but it doesn't need special planning. Instead, try to avoid taking car when you need to make a short trip. Walking or biking will take a little bit longer, but it adds an easy source of regular exercise into your life. It also saves money, because bicycles don't need gasoline to function. Remember that you don't need to retire your car entirely. Just ten or fifteen minutes on a bike every day will get big results.


Use Smaller Dishes

Overeating is one of the most significant health problems in the developed world, but you can resist temptation by tricking your brain. Humans use several different tools to decide when they should feel full, including visual cues. They know that a meal fits on a plate or a bowl, so they should feel full once they have emptied it. That means that you can trick your brain into feeling full sooner by using smaller plates. You need to make the change to smaller dishes gradually to make this work, but in the long term if can be a very powerful tool.

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