Here’s To A Healthier, Happier, and More Prosperous 2010!
Posted by admin on December 31st, 2009
I have written about this before but thought it would be worthwhile to rehash the importance of healthy living. What’s the point of making a ton of money if you sacrificed your health in the process and are unable to enjoy the fruits of your labor with your family and friends?
So, here are some ways to improve your healthy living for 2010:
- Sleep hygiene is the most important thing…specifically the consistency with getting enough sleep. Most research suggests that if you fix either the time you wake up or fix the time you go to sleep, and then let the other time naturally take care of itself, your body will end up adjusting to right around eight hours.
- As you get older, getting sun becomes ever so important. That means year-round, especially in the wintertime, trying to get sun. The body makes vitamin D from sun exposure, and vitamin D is critical in a whole bunch of things – fighting cancer, regulating your mood, allowing you to sleep easily at night, and a whole host of other important processes.
- Movement is the next thing. You can call it exercise if you want, but it’s really important to move. The ability to move really defines humanity in many respects… the fact that you can express movement and can get up and walk and jog or swim or bicycle. It’s critical for your health, too. Just doing something, whatever it is, whatever you can do. Whether it’s stretching in the morning or evening, or walking 20 minutes every day. Whatever you can do that’s simple, easy, and doesn’t cost much will absolutely benefit you. There are chemicals released throughout the body that regulate mood as well as cancer-fighting chemicals. Blood pressure-helping chemicals that release from the large joints in your body, like the hips, knees, and shoulders. So by moving those things, you’ll feel better and live longer, and that’s been studied and looked at over and over again.
- I love massages. Although it’s expensive to go out and have someone massage you and pay for a professional massage, there are inexpensive alternatives with great benefits. This has incredibly powerful benefits in relaxing, getting rid of aches and pains, and flushing toxins from parts of your body as well.
- Next up is eating fruit because there are a lot of micronutrients in fruits, especially fruits that have colors in their skin. As more and more research comes out on fruits, we’re finding that they are better and better for you – fighting cancers, lowering blood pressure, getting rid of joint pain, all these things that seem to become more worrisome as you get older.
- I have started to meditate this year and have found it to be very beneficial. Just spending time sitting quietly, breathing, concentrating on your spirituality has incredible health benefits. Benefits for heart disease, blood pressure, even your ability to use oxygen, which is one of the measures of fitness. They all improve with meditation.
- Aromatherapy is something I am going to experiment with in 2010. By that, I mean getting some pleasant and fun and nice aromas in your life and around you, especially in the winter, when we spend so much time indoors. Scents can just be so powerful and have such an effect on your mood and well being. Smells like fresh-cut flowers, cocoa, cinnamon, fresh-baked breads, even onions cooking, are fantastic, and it can be quite soothing to surround yourself with them when the mood strikes you, even if it means doing something as simple as throwing some onions in a pan.
- Next up on the list is aspirin. I have read in several publications the benefits of taking one tablet, which is about 325 milligrams, once a week. Aspirin’s known to reduce the risk of colon cancer and heart disease for people taking it more regularly than once a week. But the benefits of it last about seven to 10 days. So I figure you are probably getting most of the benefit by taking just one a week. And the cost to take one year of aspirin is a couple bucks, so I’ve done that for a long time. I would check with a doctor first before doing this.
- Drinking one or two glasses of wine each day if you’re an average-size male, or one glass – which is four to six ounces – if you’re an average-size female, can provide tremendous health benefits. The health benefits of drinking wine and even alcohol are undoubted in the medical literature. And yet, there’s this whole push against alcohol and drinking alcohol and the risks that can come from alcoholism and drunk driving. Now that’s not what I’m advocating. Moderation is the key here. Often, I will have a glass of wine before dinner. No one as yet has really teased out exactly what produces the benefits, but they are certainly there – everything from arthritic diseases to heart disease to cancer to Alzheimer’s, you name it. There’s very, very powerful research on that. The red wines tend to have a lot more of the antioxidants, the polyphenols as they’re called, that give it the red color. But the research shows white wines, or even moderate alcohol consumption in general, can provide health benefits.
- The last item on this list is don’t share drinking glasses, mugs, cups, forks, spoons, or knives with people. Obviously it’s not quite as important with your spouse or children or someone who’s living in the same household as you, simply because you’re already so close that it probably doesn’t matter as much. But it’s a great general rule to follow. I’ve always contended that one of the major reasons people get so sick this time of the year – besides the lack of sleep and sun exposure – is that people are shaking hands more frequently, touching their mouths, eating the foods at holiday parties, sharing food and drinks. “Here try this wine.” “Try this food.” And it just spreads bugs like crazy.
Hopefully, you have found my postings to be of use. I plan to continue writing and finding ways to profit in the current market. If you have followed my advice, you should have done pretty good year with our precious metals and large global dominating blue chip stock picks. I think these will continue to do well in 2010.
So, have a happy new year, be safe tonight, and see ya in 2010!!!
-Samir
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