Good Diet, Enough Sleep, & Moderate Exercise - The Secrets to a Healthy Life

It's a sad fact that 99% of people know they should be taking more exercise but most continually put it off until the next day. The thing is tomorrow never comes. If you actually forced your self to take some positive action you would notice a feel good factor almost straight away. This would spur you on to continuing your regime.You don't need to train like a professional athlete to enjoy the benefits of leading a healthier lifestyle.

Three or four 30 minute sessions a week will male a real difference to your health and your outlook. If you don't like jogging then there is always cycling or a gym class.There is no need to feel self conscious as before long your confidence will sky rocket and you will wonder why you didn't take some action years ago.

The one meal I would never forget is breakfast. When you wake up in the morning it is the longest that your body has been without food and to not eat then is like getting in the car in the morning and driving to work with the petrol warning light on. Just eat a balanced and try not to eat too much of one type of food. Try to ensure you eat 5 pieces of fruit and veg a day. Nature was very kind to us and actually color coded these for us. Try and eat a selection of colors, greens, reds, oranges etc to ensure you eat a good selection.

There is no need to cut out all the foods you enjoy. Feel free to treat yourself every once in a while otherwise you may find that a healthy lifestyle is no fun at all and give up. In simple terms to be more healthy you need to ensure you have enough sleep, eat a balances diet (including breakfast) and work out three of four times a week.

Deep Sleep - One of the Missing Links to a Happy, Healthy Life

What does deep sleep do that other states of sleep do not? That is a revealing question.

During the deepest stages of sleep our brain and nervous system going into a state of massive recuperation. And, perhaps just as importantly many vital hormones are released. Human growth hormone, often purported to be the fountain of youth is secreted in deep sleep. So what happens if we don't reach deep sleep, or stage 4 sleep as it's often called? Well, quite simply these hormones are not fully secreted. And, we age. Have you ever looked at someone who was 35 and they looked 50? Have you ever looked at someone that was 50 and they looked 35? If we take the time to stop and look around we will see that chronological age and the body's appearance often don't "synch up". Could deep sleep be a contributing factor? Almost undoubtedly so.

Now, let's discuss some ways to increase our chances achieving deep sleep on a daily basis and becoming that person, that at 70 or 50 or 89 just doesn't look or act their age. This is possible for all of us if we apply ourselves.

One of the first methods to use is exercise. Daily physical exercise triggers deeper sleep states at night, this has been proven many times in studies. So walk, run, do strength training, swim, whatever, but do something frequently.

Eating much of your daily calories during the morning and daytime hours will help you sleep deeper. Eating a large dinner or eating late at night is not recommended. Think of it this way, the more digestion the body has to do at night the less the body and brain will be able to rest.

Meditation and things like yoga will put us on a much easier path to achieving deep sleep, both of these activities burn out stress hormones (like cortisol) and excess mental chatter, allowing for deeper sleep.

And lastly, the occasional short fast (going for a few days without solid food) massively increases deep sleep and growth hormone production. From a purely evolutionary and genetic stand point our bodies were designed to go through short periods of fasting, it has been suggested that the fact that food is always (perhaps unnaturally) available these days throws our bodies "off". Don't overlook deep sleep, it's critical.