Health and Safety Tips for the Holidays

Give the gift of health and safety to yourself and others by following these holiday health tips. Sing along to these tips in The 12 Ways to Health Holiday Song, listen to them in a holiday health podcast, and send the song to your friends and family in a holiday health e-card.

1. Wash hands often to keep yourself from spreading germs and getting sick.

2. Bundle up and stay dry to keep warm.

3. Manage stress. Keep a check on over-commitment and over-spending.

4. Don't drink and drive. Don't let anyone else drink and drive.

5. Be smoke-free. Avoid smoking and second-hand smoke.

6. Fasten seat belts while driving or riding in a motor vehicle. Always buckle your child in the car using a child safety seat, booster seat, or seat belt according to the child's height, weight, and age.

7. Get exams and screenings. Ask your health care provider what exams and tests you need to help find diseases and conditions early or before they start.

8. Get your vaccinations. Vaccinations help prevent diseases and save lives.

9. Monitor the children. Keep dangerous toys, food, and household items out of their reach. Make sure toys are used properly.

10. Practice fire safety. Most residential fires occur during the winter months. Never leave fireplaces, stoves, or candles unattended.

11. Prepare food safely. Remember four simple steps: wash hands and surfaces often, avoid cross-contamination, cook foods to proper temperatures, and refrigerate promptly.

12. Eat healthy, and get moving. Limit your portion sizes and foods high in fat and sugar. Get at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most, preferably all, days of the week.

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7 Common Sense Health Guidelines

Healthy living leads to looking and feeling great. If you're confused about how to go about it, here are 7 simple healthy living common sense guidelines.

Looking and feeling great is the result of healthy living. Do you believe that?

Maybe, like most people, you're confused about how to take care of your health. Ads, commercials and constantly being bombarded with medical advice can make us forget simple healthy living common sense guidelines. Here's the problem.

We're victims of a common destructive belief system.

The common belief today is to use caffeine for energy, mood drugs and junk food to feel good, doctors and insurance for health care and plastic surgery to look good.
What ever happened to healthy living?

Are you tired of being controlled by this crazy common belief system? If you've had it with all this nonsense, you're ready for common sense health.

Here are 7 guidelines that will help you look and feel your best – naturally.

1. Eat healthy. Natural good quality food is the perfect fuel for the human body. But that's not what the vast majority are eating. Coke, fries and fast food cheeseburgers make up the most common lunch in America. And it's destroying us. Avoid the garbage and begin eating healthier. Your body will thank you in many ways.

2. Drink water. There are many popular drinks that act like poison to your body. Colas, coffee and alcohol have no useful purpose in a healthy diet. Your body is 60% water that has to be replenished daily. Drink more pure simple water – it's your fountain of youth.

3. Get daily exercise. It's natural for humans to exercise. But our modern lifestyle doesn't support physical activity. Most people sit or stand all day at a job, then sit in the car to drive home, to sit all night in front of the TV or computer. It's essential to find a way to squeeze at least a half-hour a day of exercise into your busy schedule.

4. Reduce stress. A certain amount of stress is good – as in exercise. Actually, exercise is stress that relieves stress. But most of the self-imposed stress in your life makes you feel overwhelmed, upset, used and abused. Relax. Let some of it go.

5. Be responsible for your health. Nobody cares as much about your well being as you. No matter what the "health-care" slogans say, doctors are trained in cutting and poisoning out sickness, not in nutrition and prevention. So don't "ask your doctor" unless absolutely necessary. If you want to be healthy, take responsibility for your own health.

6. Manage your thoughts. The human mind is a power tool. But we use it mainly against ourselves, wasting our thoughts on worry, fear, blame, shame and resentment. Start using the infinite power of your mind to envision and support a healthier you.

7. Enjoy your life right now. Living longer would be great – if you're happy and healthy. If not, why bother. Your own health and happiness is your responsibility. As Abraham Lincoln said, "Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." So make up your mind to be happy. And go for it!

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How to Obtain Optimal Health

By: Monique Hawkins
You should already know that nutrition is very important to your quality of life. If you want to have a healthy life and lifestyle, you will need to have a healthy diet with proper nutrition. You might hear all the time that your nutrition greatly affects the way you live and your quality of life but have you ever really thought about why? Do you really understand why it is so important?

If you really want to take the steps to live the long life that you deserve and to be as healthy as possible and enjoy those years, than you need to learn all you can about the importance of optimal nutrition. What you eat really affects your body and health.

1. What is optimal nutrition?
2. What nutrients do you need to be healthy?
3. What foods give you these nutrients?

Importance of Optimal Nutrition
Optimal nutrition is very important to your overall health and fitness. Studies have shown that people can actually live longer if they have healthy nutrition. It is proven that there is a link between optimal nutrition and long life and long term health.

If you take a look at society, you will notice an increasingly large number of people that are overweight and obese. You will also see problems such as poor teeth and acne, dry, brittle skin, dry hair and other problems. You will find many people on medications for headache, stomach problems, acid reflux, constipation, heart disease, high blood pressure and more. What may be more alarming than the high amount of medications is the fact that most people receive very little information about what is actually causing their disease or condition. Instead, they get a pill.

What many people never know is that what they are eating (or not eating) can be causing these health problems. You also need to understand that you will have to make changes and adjustments to your intake over the years and stages of your life. Just like toddlers need a different diet from teenagers, you also need to alter your diet as you continue through all of life's stages. Understanding what is best for you through each stage of your life is the best way to remain in optimal health.

Micro and Macronutrients
Many people hear that they need proper nutrition but just what does that mean exactly? What nutrients do you need to be healthy? Optimal nutrition will include a variety of different micronutrients and macronutrients. Micronutrients include certain vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Macronutrients include carbohydrates, proteins and fats that make up the foods you eat.

There is too often a lot of myth surrounding the nutrients, our bodies and how we use these nutrients. This is why it is very important that you get all the facts when planning to change your lifestyle and diet. Many people are suffering from malnutrition and may not even know it. Many overweight individuals may be suffering from malnutrition. Just because you are eating does not mean you are eating the right things.

Micronutrients are the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that your body needs to be healthy. The specific ones and amounts of each will depend on your body, sex, age and other factors. Every person is different so there is not one set plan that works for everyone. You need to learn what works for you. As you change, grow older, etc. this will change again and you will continue to have to adjust this.

Macronutrients are the carbs, proteins and fats that you get from foods. The amounts of these that you need will vary as well. This is where many myths come in about what you should or should not eat. The facts are that too much of anyone can be bad and not enough can be bad. It's all about finding a balance. This means those "All-Carb" or "No Carb" diets that are so popular on the market are really not the best thing for you.

What you choose to ingest in your body has a big impact on your overall health and your general well-being. People now eat more fast foods and frozen dinners and other quick meals that are not very nutritious at all. Some of these foods even have additives in them that can make them addictive so that you want more and more. People typically eat out of hunger and many of these foods do not work to satisfy your hunger leaving you wanting more or something else. Yet, they still have many calories and fat and other things that your body does not need.

Make the Committment
If you are serious in obtaining optimal health to the best of your ability, then take a look at your lifestyle in general. Are you eating the right foods? Are you exercising? Are you getting plenty of fresh air on a daily basis? Do you have positive relationships? If you find yourself answering "no" to these questions, then make the commitment to change. Talk with your family, friends, or a nutritionist. Check to see if there are support groups in your area related to health and lifestyle changes. Look into joining your local gym. Do your research and then purchase the right nutritional supplements that will help you achieve your goals.

If you at least try to make a change in one area, more are sure to follow! You are now on your way to optimal health.
Author Bio
Monique Hawkins is an Associate with USANA Health Sciences. One of her passions is encouraging and supporting others to obtain optimal health and wellness. Visit her USANA website at www.whyusana.com/mhawkins and her new music box website at www.my-music-box.com
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Healthy Life

One of the most important aspects of healthy life and prosperous life is understanding "risk." By this I mean knowing how to understand and analyze situations in life that affect health. Being able to accurately weigh benefits and risks when making health decisions is very important! Too often decisions are based on incomplete or inaccurate information and this is a huge mistake with significant consequences!
Failure to accurately assess risk keeps people locked in all kinds of unhealthy situations including poor eating and exercise habits (lifestyle), relationships and jobs. Sometimes people are just afraid to step out and make a change. They see "risk" in making a change when the REAL risk comes from NOT making a change. From my perspective, living with the stress, unhappiness and frustration of indecision and poor health is the greatest risk of all, and one that is definitely not worth taking!

Accessing "risk" is nothing more than collecting information, weighing the alternatives and then making appropriate decisions based on the information.
Some risks to our health are more "real" than others. For example, it is common knowledge that obesity is associated with a wide variety of health problems. On the other hand, there are some health risks that are so remote we rarely think about them. On a practical level, eating highly processed foods and avoiding a daily dose of fresh fruits and vegetables is rarely considered serious. But, as too many have already discovered, the long range consequences of this practice are real and devastating.
Failure to accurately assess risk limits us in many ways. We imagine the "risk" of talking with our children about drugs, dating or sex and we put off having the "talk," even though the risks of NOT talking are infinitely greater. Fear of flying and public speaking are two more "risks" affecting millions of people. But practically speaking, these fears are unfounded. People ride in cars every day, even though cars are far more dangerous than commercial aircraft! It's a failure to accurately assess risk, and it limits our health, prosperity and pleasure in life.
The goods news is that failure to accurately access risk is reversible! The effects of those decisions to eat inappropriately or NOT to exercise are, as the common expression goes, "do-overs." We can effect positive change in our lives by following a few simple steps to accurately access risk:
1. Accurately define your present situation and access your health "risks". Are you eating a healthy diet? Are you getting enough exercise and good quality sleep? What are the consequences if you DON'T change? Weigh the benefits of healthier living vs the potential risks such as increased cost, inconvenience or discomfort.
2. What do you stand to gain if you change your present circumstances? Assess the "up-side" potential. Too often we look only at the "downside" risk and forget the benefits. What good things might happen if you take the risk and win?
3. Limit the "down-side" if you happen to make a wrong decision. Don't continue down a path if it does not produce results. This is especially important when following weight loss programs. If the pounds are not coming off or if the weight loss is only temporary, find a new program! You not only want to lose weight, but want to sustain the weight loss for as long as possible. Take steps to ensure this will happen. Clear, concise, realistic objectives will definitely help.
4. Reduce your risk by being smart! Understand the situation and seek the advice of experts in the field of health and nutrition. This includes finding and forming partnerships to receive support and get good advice.
5. Have a fall-back position. If the decision you make fails to produce the desired results, be prepared to take a long, hard look at the circumstances and be prepared to change what you are doing.
Everything in life involves some element of risk. Driving your car, meeting someone new, crossing the street...but we do them every day. Winners in life are willing to accept the risk and continue on their way! Get involved, be smart about how you play the game, come prepared for a few failures along the way, but don't quite. You will reap the benefits for your effort and live a happier and healthier life. I like to remember the words of the great Winston Churchill when he said, "Never, never, never give up!"

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