1. Don't skip breakfast! Breakfast is a foundation builder for your whole day. Children and adults alike will benefit from eating breakfast. In a review of 47 studies looking at the importance of breakfast, the evidence showed that eating breakfast may improve cognitive function related to memory, test grades, and school attendance. Breakfast eaters also get a jump start on healthy metabolism.
2. Eat every three hours. Focus on vegetables and whole grains, vegetables, legumes, fresh fruits, and lean proteins. Eating several small meals throughout the day rather than a few larger meals with support healthy metabolism, balanced blood sugar and sustained energy levels throughout the day.
3. Drink plenty of filtered or purified water daily. Begin with 8 ounces upon rising in the morning and then make sure to get in another 56 ounces minimum throughout the rest of the day. If you have a physical job or are exercising a lot, you will want to add at least another 16 ounces to that.
4. Speaking of exercise, only exercise on the days that you eat. What? Yes, that means every day for those of us who like to eat every day. Forty-five minutes to an hour is ideal, but if you only have 10 minutes, make sure you do intervals to really get your heart, muscles, and metabolism engaged.
5. Avoid artificial flavors, sweeteners, and colorings. We don't really know what these do in our bodies – what we do know is that we don't need them.
6. Journal daily. Keep track of what you eat, how you move, and how you feel. This will help you get clear and stay on track.
7. Avoid trans fats and overly salted and processed foods. This would likely to include baked goods, chips, cookies and cakes, muffins (commercially made), and high-salt lunch meats.
8. Drink Green tea. Green tea extract increases the burning of calories and fat via increased thermogenesis. Not only that but green tea contains powerful antioxidants that may help prevent certain cancers.
9. Practice Yoga. Yoga has certainly gone mainstream in the United States over the last five years. The benefits of different yoga practices have been alleged to improve flexibility, performance, stress reduction, weight management, better sleep, and disease prevention. Yoga has been promoted as complementary therapy for many health concerns including coronary heart disease, depression, anxiety disorders, asthma, musculoskeletal problems and many more. Yoga is considered to be a health system, offering the practitioner multiple benefits.
10. Slow down and focus on smaller portions. Studies show that when we take our time eating we tend to eat less. And going along with this is exercising portion control. If you are at a restaurant, ask if you can have a "to go" container right when they serve your meal. This way you can save half for later, especially since restaurant portions tend to be a little out of control.
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