Healthy Vegetable Salad

With the New Year here and winter in full swing, it’s a great time to focus on strategies to be even more diligent about our health and wellness. Strain and stress over the holidays and winter can take a toll on our happiness and health. My goal is to share top tips that have proven to help yield prevention and protection benefits during the winter and throughout the year. This blog is dedicated to Ed (age 96) who is one of my most dedicated, diligent, and disciplined coaching clients.

It is important to remember the actions, beliefs, and habits we do on a daily basis plus what we put in our mouth are the key factors that determine our quality of life and well being. What we choose to consume is one of the biggest influencers for our long term health. Remember to choose wisely what you drink and eat because short term unhealthy behaviors can lead to long term unhappy and harmful consequences.

Winter Health Words with Wisdom

Making great choices and decisions in our daily behaviors and habits sets us up to be happy and healthy. As we begin another new year it is very important to focus on giving our body and brain a little extra tender loving care (TLC). When there is less sunshine, more cold weather stress, and more time confined indoors it is important to focus a little extra energy on manifesting wellness and seeking words with wisdom.

  • Avoiding additives, artificial flavorings, chemicals, corn syrup, GMO (canola, corn, soy, sugar), High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS), herbicides, pesticides, plastics, preservatives, and synthetic ingredients are essential to staying healthy. Learn to read all labels and buy non-GMO and organic foods. Eat more foods that grow naturally with sustainable methods and less food that is mechanically man-made.
  • Calcium bentonite clay and activated charcoal in water consumed after waking and brushing are great ways to cleanse the digestive tract. Avoid consuming food, supplements, and vitamins for one hour. It is OK to drink warm tea and water.
  • Avoid cold drinks and drink warm teas every day.  Chai, ginger, green, herbal, superfood greens, spiced cinnamon, clove, and turmeric teas have medicinal benefits. Add a pinch of baking soda and sulfur (MSM) to the water. Healing herbal teas include: pine bark and needles, yaupon, Cat’s Claw, Pau d’Arco, dandelion, juniper berries, sage, neem, nettles, jackass bitters, Chaga, reishi mushroom, rosehips, saw palmetto and ginseng.
  • Find a high quality natural whole food source of Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E and take them twice a day. Fresh foods are always our first choice and source.
  • Consume a balance of high-quality Omega essential fats in foods like avocado, coconut, flax, hemp, olives, nuts, and seeds. Eat extra virgin coconut oil, flaxseed or olive oil daily. (A minimum of one teaspoon per fifty pounds of body weight.)
  • Essential oil diffusers with eucalyptus, lavender, lemon or orange oil are great ways to enhance our home and workspace. Learn how to apply essential oils to your skin daily. (Frankincense, lavender, lime, myrrh, patchouli, peppermint, tea tree have amazing therapeutic properties.)
  • Alkalizing ingredients like baking soda, Emergen C, and greens powders in a glass of water are helpful to alkalize and energize.
  • Sunshine is a free and powerful immune enhancer. Most people have a Vitamin D deficiency in the winter and require supplementing.
  • Far infrared heating pads and saunas are beneficial all winter and even all year.
  • Intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating have many benefits. Eating only 2 meals a day between 11:00 and 6:00 trains our body to burn fat for fuel. No food or liquids after 6 -7 PM helps with our digestion, metabolism, and sleep. Late drinking and eating are very problematic.
  • Natural kimchi and sauerkraut provide prebiotics and probiotics to help our microbiome be healthy. Digestive enzymes like papaya and pineapple are also helpful.
  • Fresh herbs and spices like basil, black pepper, cayenne, clove, cilantro, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, ginseng, horseradish,  mustard, nettles, oregano, parsley, rosemary, turmeric, and wasabi have many health benefits. Spices can help control bacteria, fungus, mold, pathogens, parasites, and viruses.
  • Avoid most cheese, dairy, or milk that cause mucus and phlegm. Avoid the majority of bagel, bread, cake, cereal, cookie, cracker, flour, pasta, pizza, and wheat products that often contain unhealthy additives and roundup herbicide. Consider organic sprouted grain and seed products instead.
  • Organic plant-based diets (at least 95%) can be best to help fuel our body and cleanse, detox and heal. Consume chia, hemp, quinoa, and lightly sauteed cruciferous and cooked root vegetables. Also, fresh berries, fruit, and greens daily. Choose your grains carefully. Nuts and seeds are nutrient-dense foods packed with enzymes, minerals, trace elements, and vitamins.
  • Organic beef, chicken, eggs, and fish (small and wild-caught) in small amounts are OK. Avoid bacon or pork.
  • Avoid fear, violence, and war shows. Comedy and romance that help us feel happy and laugh are beneficial.
  • Minimize alcohol, beer, and wine. Many people drink excessively during the winter. Set abstinence periods during the year.
  • Humming and singing songs daily is a great way to create more happiness and joy. Classical and healing music have powerful benefits.
  • Epsom salt foot baths are beneficial. Apply CBD and lavender oil to any spot of skin that looks bruised, irritated, red, or unhealthy.
  • Avoid hot tubs and most pools because chlorine damages lung and skin tissue.
  • Exercise, meditation, and yoga help our body and mind stay fit, healthy and resilient. These are easy and fast ways to produce endorphins and reduce stress.
  • Frequent fun in the sun helps our body recharge, repair, restore and revitalize. Even an hour on our arms, face, and legs helps.
  • Minimize ElectroMagnetic Radiation (EMR) exposure and turn the WiFi off at night and when not being used. Keep electronic devices out of the bedroom.
  • Walking barefoot on a beach, grass or in nature and being grounded at night while sleeping can help enhance our health. Google “earthing.”
  • “Early to bed and early to rise makes us healthy wealthy and wise” is a famous quote and words with wisdom. Lavender essential oil and magnesium one hour before bed can help improve our sleep. Could going to bed by 9:00 PM help your circadian rhythms and wellbeing? Yes!
  • Old fashion bone broth or veggie broth soups with greens and vegetables are delicious and nutritious. Make more meals with mushrooms which have many nutritional benefits. Miso soup with mushrooms, onions, and seaweed are delicious and nutritious.
  • Eat wild foods like aloe, burdock, cacao, cactus, cassava, chayote, dandelion, jicama, maca, mustang grapes, seaweed, taro, and yucca.
  • Create a vision board with your goals, plans and vision for a happy and healthy 2020 and beyond.
  • Update and upgrade your network, peer group, reading material, and role models as you set higher standards for your life.

Passion for People & Planet

The passion and purpose of Morningstar NEWS is to condense hours of research down to two minutes of education, information and inspiration for a healthy lifestyle and mindset. Remember, what we choose to put into our mouth will determine our long term health and wellbeing… choose wisely. What will you do to make your self-care a higher priority in 2020 and beyond?

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