Attaining Holistic Health in Spite of the Busy Schedule

Are you physically fit? Do you have inner peace in you? Or are you even emotionally stable? If your answer to these three questions is yes, then probably your holistic health is of good status. But what exactly do we mean by holistic health?

Holistic health is the over all wellness of an individual. It covers the physical, emotional, psychological and as well as spiritual well-being of a person. In short, it is the totality of an individual's health and wellness.

Today, people tend to overlook a lot of things due to their fast-paced life. It seems like everything is now created to cope up with people's lifestyle. A very good example of which is the so-called fast food chains. They are so abundant nowadays that you can see them in almost every street or corner you pass by on.

The society had already been warned about the risks of eating foods from Mc Donald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the likes because of its harmful effects on the body which can lead to different kinds of diseases such as obesity, heart and kidney problems and so on. In spite of the warning, people still opt to eat such foods due to lack of time. Little do they know that they are putting their health and even life at stake.

Exercise is another thing that we need to consider. Most of us neglect its importance to our health and wellness. We're all preoccupied with our jobs and other commitments so we have no time to spare an hour or even 30-minutes for exercise. We rather choose to purchase those fast and effective slimming pills and tablets from the advertisements because it is effortless yet very effective. But are we being wise about our decision?

Slimming pill companies lure its consumers because of the promising effect on losing weight. It makes us lose 3 to 5 pounds per week but is it really healthy? According to dieticians, the maximum recommended weight loss, in a per week basis, is only 2 pounds. Losing too much pounds in a week alters the physiology of our body systems which can be detrimental to our health.

We lack quality time with our partners because of our hectic schedules. This is the reason why broken relationships like divorce and annulments are quite common in our society. As we all know, unsuccessful relationships can lead to emotional and sometimes psychological instability to an individual which can be manifested through despair and even depression.

Being busy does not mean that we have to put aside our health and wellness already. There are still some simple ways in which we can do in order for us to achieve a good holistic health. Here are some of them:

First, we can wake up at least 20 minutes earlier than the usual to prepare foods which will last till dinner time. There are a lot of easy to cook and to prepare foods which are very nutritious like sandwiches, salads and so on. By doing this, you will not be tempted to eat in fast-food chains anymore.

Second, there are still numerous exercises in which you can do while accomplishing your jobs and commitments at the same time. For starters, you can take the stairs instead of the elevators. You can also walk short-distance places instead of driving or taking a cab to get there. Remember that exercising not only makes us physically fit but it also contributes to the positive mental health of an individual which in turn makes us holistically healthy.

Five to ten minutes break every two hours or so wouldn't hurt for you to call your significant other and say "How are you doing?" and "I love you" in order to maintain a harmonious relationship with each other. You can also surprise your partner every now and then even if there is no occasion at all.

Living healthy is a continuous process. Focus, determination and self-control plays an important part in achieving holistic health. Every action has its own consequence so be smart in every decision making. You are the boss of your own body. Your good health and success all depends on you. There is no better day to start living a healthy life than today.

And truthfully, have you not been able to stick to your planned routines for exercise and healthier eating? Is it possible that before you can do these other things, you need a little help, more energy to do the other things you know are good for you? Are you punishing yourself because you can't do them--trying to whip yourself into your discipline?

There is one very simple thing you can do is to go to sleep early enough and get a proper night's rest. There is a lot of information about this. But one reason it is so important is because it's while you are sleeping that your body's adult stem cells can go to work in repairing your body. And recently, thanks to a new patented natural supplement, you can now get some extra help in supporting the release of your adult stem cells from your own bone marrow.

With both of these, you will have a head start, and will have some good support in being able to fulfill your other goals in terms of a healthy life-style.

Yvonne Garcia is the publisher and author of numerous websites and blogs, many on health. The topic of stem cells and stem cell nutrition is the latest. topic on her website Stem Cell Nutrition

What Is Holistic Health?

People of all ages are concerned about their health - how they feel, how they look, disease prevention, as well as quality of life. Unfortunately, the majority of society has been brainwashed to believe in the concept of eating less fat, excessive exercise, Botox injections or pharmaceutical drugs as the answer to attain Health, Vitality, Longevity and Fat Loss.

How can you achieve complete wellness, naturally without the gimmicks and artificial fixes? Winning Formulas for Health, Vitality, Longevity and Fat Loss are a multi-dimensional state of well-being - a holistic approach which integrates all aspects of wellness encompassing body, mental, emotional, environmental, community and spiritual health.

Holistic health is a lifestyle that requires you to be an active participant taking control and responsibility of various aspects of your life such as:

• A sensible exercise program

• Complementary supplementation

• Eating wholesome, organic foods

• Emotional and mental well-being

• Hormonal balance

• Optimal digestion

• Peace of mind and happiness

• Periodic detoxification

• Positive thoughts and belief system

• Quality relationships

• Restful sleep

• Spiritual connection and awareness

• Stress management, relaxation, meditation and breathing

Holistic health is a natural expression and harmony of life. It consists of peace of mind, happiness and complete well-being on all levels - physical, emotional, intellectual, mental and spiritual. It is an evolution, balance and integration of these aspects. You are made up of spirit, mind and body. If there is a problem in one of these areas, it will affect the others as well.

Practicing principles of holistic health can alleviate many health conditions including degenerative diseases, chronic stress and lifestyle disorders, hormonal imbalances, elevated cholesterol, hypertension, glandular weakness, gut dysfunction and a lowered functioning immune system.

Holistic health is not portrayed by the individual with a bronzed tan, a chiseled six-pack abdomen eating 800 calories per day. Nor is it the person who jogs twenty-five miles per week, the latest celebrity diet or the individual that has undergone one plastic surgery after another.

The truth is that no amount of exercise or cosmetic surgery will reshape your physique without attention to your lifestyle, emotions and healthy nutrition. Most diets set you up to fail. They work against your natural biochemistry and program your body to store fat.

Diets and weight loss gimmicks lead to a damaged metabolism. People who maintain their natural weight range usually have a healthy relationship with food, viewing it as nourishment. They enjoy food and eating without feelings of guilt, anxiety or obsession.

The American population has been misinformed regarding what it takes to lose weight, attain the ultimate physique and live a healthy lifestyle.

A key component of wellness is self-acceptance. Many believe that at age forty their mind, sight, hearing, libido, joints and physique are on the decline and degeneration is bound to happen. Even worse, society has become dependent upon pharmaceuticals, stimulants or processed foods for maintenance of the most basic human functions.

Addictions to alcohol, sugar and other artificial stimulants are used by many. These deplete you of energy, wreak havoc on your health and leave you more exhausted on deeper levels. All addictions stem from inner emotional conflict.

Ninety percent of all diseases could be avoided with attention to these four components: stress management, sunlight, nutrition and exercise.

Unfortunately, medical schools teach upcoming doctors little, if any, about nutrition, wellness or prevention of disease. Instead, doctors are taught how to prescribe toxic pharmaceutical drugs, making doctors the third leading cause of death. The Rx drug acts as a band-aid. After a period of time, it worsens or reappears in another form. Each patent medicine has a list of side effects that often make matters worse. Eventually, more drugs are needed to deal with them leading to biochemistry disruption and eventually death.

Holistic health addresses the entire person and their lifestyle. It focuses on prevention, health maintenance, high-level wellness and longevity. You are an active participant in the healing process of your life versus a passive recipient.

If you want to accelerate aging and shorten your life span, do what most Americans are already doing (avoid exercise, eat a large percentage of their diets from fast foods, soda and junk foods, consume white four and white sugar, avoid supplements and instead take prescription drugs which prematurely age the liver, pancreas, kidneys and other organs).

WINNING FORMULAS FOR HEALTH, VITALITY, LONGEVITY AND FAT LOSS

Water: Drink plenty of water. Every metabolic process that occurs in your body needs water to complete. Trying to lose body fat, alleviate constipation, headaches or low back pain? Drink more water. The formula for you individually is to take your body weight and multiply by 7 and this will give you the number of ounces of water to consume every day. Add a pinch of Celtic sea salt for better absorption and cellular hydration. Adding lemon to your water inhibits the growth of kidney stones, creates an alkaline environment and is nourishing for your liver.

Moderate exercise: The body MUST move on a daily basis to remain healthy, vital and young. The intensity and frequency of your exercise plan depends on your level of fitness and overall health. Unfortunately, most people tend to either under-exercise or over-exercise.

Performing excessive cardiovascular exercise has a huge influence on a woman's hormone levels. You can deplete your sex hormones simply by overdoing cardio exercise. Often this affects women faster than men, and the effects are magnified as a woman approaches her 40s and nears menopause. The constant revving-up and slowing down of a woman's metabolism from years of aerobic activity has adverse hormonal implications. Many people think that cardiovascular exercise is the ideal exercise because they feel more refreshed and energized afterwards. This is only because the adrenal glands have been over-stimulated and have secreted enough adrenaline and cortisol.

Numerous studies have shown that aerobic exercise does not promote the growth of muscle. In fact, cardio exercise actually blocks muscle growth and can also reduce your muscle mass, which makes it an inefficient way of staying lean.

I am not alone in opposing aerobic exercise. Three of the top leaders in the world of health and fitness, Paul Chek, founder of the CHEK Institute, Dr. Diana Schwarzbein, M.D., who studies the hormonal effects of exercise, and Charles Poliquin, an Olympic strength coach who studies the correlation between body fat and imbalanced hormones, all advise against cardiovascular exercise because it produces high levels of stress on the body, depletes your sex hormones and can lead to excess fat around the midsection.

The average woman does endless hours of cardio/aerobics, no strength training, starves herself, focuses on the number on the scale and wonders why her body isn't changing for all the effort and time she spends.

My Winning Formula to build muscle and lower your fat stores is to lift weights regularly, at least two to three times a week for 45-50 minutes at a time utilizing a full-body strength training program.

Nutrition: Eat whole, unprocessed foods, preferably organic. Commercially farmed animals are pumped with growth stimulating hormones, antibiotics, as well as other drugs. Organic foods not only provide higher density nutrients needed to detoxify the body. Check out http://www.ewg.org for a list of foods with the highest and lowest pesticide content.

Take the time to prepare meals yourself rather than relying on fast foods. You are what you eat. Make sure you eat breakfast everyday that includes a lean, quality protein source. When planning your meals, think PVFC (protein, veggie, healthy fat, carbohydrate) when planning your meals.

Your body requires meals with a high nutritional value as opposed to fast food or crap foods, which are VOID of nutritional value. It actually costs your body nutrients to digest and process fast food. If you do not provide your body with the nutrients it needs for proper functioning, it will degenerate and set you up for a host of health problems. DO NOT underestimate the value of wholesome nutrition. Food is a drug. You are what you eat.

Eliminate toxins: We're exposed to toxins from food additives and preservatives, dry cleaners, pesticides and chemicals. The average American has 116 synthetic compounds in his/her body according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Reduce intake of processed foods, sugars, dairy, caffeine and alcohol. Completely eliminate any product with high-fructose corn syrup and/or partially hydrogenated trans fats.

What you need to realize is this - if you want to change your body shape, all toxins brought into your body through your food have to be processed by your liver. Toxins are stored in your fat cells. It's difficult to lost body fat if you're on toxic overload and your liver is congested.

Sleep: Sleep may very well be the 'fountain of youth.' Studies from the National Institute of Health show that between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. your body undergoes physical regeneration and between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. mental and emotional regeneration occurs. The closer you can adhere to getting to bed by 10:30 p.m. and rising by 6:00 a.m., the more your body and mind can rest and recover. If you consistently stay up past 10:30 p.m., you are destined to have imbalances between your stress hormones (they will be high) and your growth and repair hormones (they will be low).

Manage stress: Stress is like dark chocolate - a little is okay, but a lot will kill you. Stress has been een linked to almost every major disease as well as weight gain and obesity. When you're strd out, your body is in a constant flood of cortisol, the stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands. This causes a steady breakdown of the body systems leading to premature aging, excess belly fat, degeneration and eventually disease.

Rest may take the form of meditation, a twenty minute, a hot relaxing bubble bath with Epsom salts and lavender, restorative yoga or reading something spiritual or uplifting. Look at your relationships, look at your bills, look at your daily schedule and commit yourself to eliminating anything that is not improving the quality of your life. Manage your "to-do" list, set boundaries, volunteering, pets, listening to classical music, spend time in nature or at the ocean are other stress busters.

Breathe: Deep breathing is the source of all energy in your body. It releases endorphins that create feelings of happiness. Deep breathing revitalizes and energizes every cell in your body. Without sufficient oxygen, cells begin to die and energy is not sufficiently produced. Spend five minutes of solitude practicing deep, full breathing into your belly every day. An example would be to inhale 4 counts, hold 4 counts, exhale 8 counts and hold 4 counts. You will notice a huge difference in your energy, mood and clarity.

Spiritual connection: Your intention to connect on a soul level is vital for balance and harmony. The manner in which you may choose your spiritual connection may include any of the following: surrounding yourself with like-minded spiritual friends, prayer, reading something spiritual, meditation and/or solitude in nature.

A healthy functioning digestive system: You could be eating the best food on the planet, yet if your digestive system isn't working properly, you won't absorb, assimilate, metabolize and eliminate food molecules correctly. Many health conditions and disease stem from a malfunctioning digestive system. Seventy percent of your immune system is located in your digestive tract.

Tips to improve your digestion:

1. Drink two glasses of water with the juice of a lemon 15 minutes before each meal. Drinking during mealtime dilutes hydrochloric acid concentrations in the stomach and weakens digestion.

2. Chew your food until it is liquefied.

3. Consider digestive enzymes and HCl.

4. Never eat while stressed! Don't watch the news, have stressful conversations, listen to chaotic music, eat in a hurry or read stressful information while eating.

Have goals: Set realistic and achieva Set realistic and achievable shorite them down. Doing so ensures you have made a major commitment toward achieving them and are far more likely to follow your plan.

Keep a positive outlook. This is much more important than you can imagine. Chronic stress accelerates aging and encourages disease. People who feel happier have on average, lower levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, which is linked with hypertension and type II diabetes.

Negative emotional and mental overload taxes your health and creates imbalances and disease. Changing your thinking can change your brain's neurochemistry. A positive attitude can keep you healthy, happy and alive well into old age. Staying in a state of gratitude is another WINNING FORMULA against the potentially deadly effects of stress. Every day make a list of 10 things that you are grateful for. This will shift your energy immediately. You'll feel better and less stressed. Focus on positive outcomes and desired actions. Positive emotional states are linked to prolonged life expectancy.

Expect the best!

Copyright c 2009 Paula Owens

PAULA OWENS
www.PaulaOwens.com

Paula Owens is the author of THE POWER OF 4. She is a natural health practitioner, nutritionist, fitness expert and weight loss coach with over 20 years of experience known for helping people look good, feel great and attain results faster - naturally. She holds a Masters degree in Holistic Nutrition, a Bachelors degree in Kinesiology and numerous professional health and fitness certifications. She is the creator of "21 Days to a Leaner, Healthier You," an online weight loss and exercise program. Visit Paula at www.PaulaOwens.com

Your Holistic Health Pyramid

Holistic health embraces optimum functioning in five key areas of well-being. These are spiritual, emotional, relationships, health and fitness and finances/career. Depletion in any one area pulls down the holistic health of the entire person, because each area of our life relates and is interdependent on the others to some intrinsic extent.

Let's have some fun now:

On an A4 size sheet of paper draw a three equal-sided pyramid. Now draw four equi-distant horizontal lines inside the pyramid. In the top section write 'spiritual'. Underneath that, and filling each subsequent space, write emotional, relationships, health and fitness, and finally on the lowest level, put finances and career. Now you have a visual of your holistic health portfolio. You can set out to examine each level to see your present position of wellness or need. Where you find you would most like to adjust and upgrade, choose that level to work on first.

Ask simple questions to assess where you are in relation to each specific level. These are just some sample questions you can ask as you explore each level of your holistic health pyramid. The aim is to broaden your understanding and uplift your self-esteem and expertise at each level of your pyramid.

For spirituality you might ask: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here?

Is understanding my deeply spiritual aspects a priority for me now? Would expanding my experience and understanding of myself spiritually, empower me to move ahead in the other levels? Which specific spiritual experience will I pursue and try to understand more fully? How can I develop and expand my consciousness in this area of spirituality?

Move on to the emotional level. Do you pay heed to your intuition? Do you allow your feelings to show you your deepest desires? Do you suppress your emotions through fear of becoming vulnerable? How do you feel about who you think you are? Go even deeper and get real with your questions.

On to relationships. Who do you want to be, as you interact with other people? Do you seek personal validation through what others think of you? How empowered does this make you feel? Do you try to give rather than take in your relationships? Again, go deeper and get real with your questions.

With health and fitness, you will know more easily where you stand. Through your body you interact with this physical world. How important is it that you keep your body in optimum shape and fitness? Do you eat fresh and healthy foods that fuel your body for optimum vitality or do you choose heavy, lifeless foods that weigh you down?

Finally, finances and career. Explore what money and career mean to you in terms of self appreciation and self identity rather than in dollar amounts. Do you need money to feel valuable? How much do you charge for your services? Is this your true worth? Think deeply about the control money has over your life. You may choose to loosen its grip.

Life is fundamentally a game, and you are here to experience all the drama and excitement, the fun and challenges of that game. It's about meeting each challenge as it comes along and enjoying the thrill of the game experience. Create your life for balance and true holistic health and therefore holistic wealth, and discover within, your own magnificent self.

Marie Barrett is an author and teacher of dynamic spirituality. Through her book, Holistic Wealth, A Guide to Creative and Joyful Living, and many other writings, she teaches how to integrate spirituality into every area of your life, to create a happy and joy-filled experience. http://www.holisticwealthcreation.com. See her blog at http://www.holisticwealthcreation.com/blog.