What 10 Habits Say About Your Health?

Living to a ripe old age doesn't happen by accident. The way one eats, thinks and takes necessary precautions is how we can make the odds of living a longer healthier life more feasible. There are lots of things we cannot help, but there are a lot of things we can help. Listen to my tips and follow through with them and you will feel better and likely live healthier and longer.

1. Smoking stinks. If you smoke, quit today. If you live with a smoker, get them to quit. Cancer from smoke does not discriminate between first and second hand smoke. The information we see on TV, read in magazines and cancer statistics should be enough reason to want you to quit. But if you are still smoking, start on a program or Nicolette gum, Nicotine patch, there are so many things on the market that can help you quit. If your partner smokes too, it's important to stop together. You have to take the temptation out of the house, the car, the office, wherever you need to smoke. The benefits of quitting smoking is enormous: you have more money in your pocket, your breath smells better, food tastes better, your lungs and heart will be able to recover from years of damaging smoke. There are so many caseinogens in cigarettes that whether it's first hand or second hand smoke, it's all cancer causing. Give it a break!

2. Read Labels...Avoid Hydrogenation...Protect Yourself. Remove any foods that have "hydrogenated", or ", partially hydrogenated" oils. These ingredients are deadly and cause us to be fat! Fatty Acids are necessary to maintain normal brain cells and functions as well as maintaining a healthy nervous system. Fatty acids also help our immune system. Soybean and vegetable oils are heated at high heats to become solids. These hydrogenated oils are cheaper replacements or substitutes for butter. Because these oils turn to Trans fats when they are heated, they become poisonous to the human body. It is like ingesting cyanide or arsenic. Deep fried foods as in French fries and fried chicken are cooked in partially hydrogenated oils which is deadly. Americans have become fat and have become a nation with the highest rate of heart disease and diabetes in the world. Remove saturated fats from your diets. Read all labels before you buy. Foods that have partially hydrogenated oil makes you eat more because it cannot penetrate good cells; instead it builds fat cells that surround good cells. Corn syrup is also a killer for your body. Partially hydrogenated oils screw up your bodies ingestion of necessary fatty acids to support the good cells. What you should eat is fish, olives, nuts and egg yolks for good fatty acids. It's it everything you love, cookies, chips, cakes, even some health food bars have hydrogenated oils.

3. Get your sleep. Sleep is the only time you get "you" time and the only time your mind rests, your body recharges and your stress becomes under control. Depriving yourself of sleep is deadly. You are a better person after you have gotten a good night of sleep. Also, the longer you are awake the more your body may crave food as an alternative. Don't do it. Go to sleep at the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning. Figure out how rested or tired you are when you do wake up in the morning, so you know how many hours of sleep you really need. You might need more than you are getting, so be honest to yourself and TiVo the late night shows to get those extra zzz's. You will feel refreshed and ready for anything with a good night's sleep. Your heart will also thank you for the needed rest.

4. Make health appointments for yourself. With each milestone we seem to need new screenings added to our regular annual tests. Don't procrastinate... make your doctors' appointments, because doctor's offices are busy and are scheduling out appointments 2-9 months in advance for routine tests. So, make your dentist appointments every 6 months and take advantage of post card reminders and pre-scheduled appointments that some offices offer. Get your check up annually and then for women schedule the annual Pap test and mammogram at the same time each year. Guys you have your prostate exam's starting at age 40 or sooner if you have a family history, same goes for everyone with the colonoscopy exam, usually done every 5 years starting with age 40 if you have a family history or age 50 if you don't. Don't forget the eye exams annually to test for glaucoma.

5. Could you lose some weight, maybe 10 pounds? Chances are we work so much that we don't leave room for very much physical activity each day. We might have that spare tire around our middle and our clothes fit snuggly but we don't know how that got like that. Having a goal to lose at least 10 pounds will improve your stress level; make you more confident because your clothes will fit again and your heart will be healthier because the strain of the extra weight will be gone.

6. Take your daily multivitamin without fail! If you take prescription drugs, make sure you take them daily when you are suppose to with a full glass of water, no juice. When possible have the doctor give you enough for a 3, 6 or 9 month supply so your pharmacy puts you on a schedule and automatically fills them up for you each month and calls you when they are ready for pick up.

7. Do you have unexplained symptoms? Do you get migraines' or headaches often? Do you have a funny rash that won't go away? Is there a strange growth or funny looking mole or bump on your body? Don't ignore them. Call the doctor and make an appointment. You don't have a medical degree and 'googling' the symptoms on WebMD aren't enough to diagnose what's going on with your body. Get checked out and get answers. Take charge of your health. If you feel you need a cat scan or a biopsy and your doctor doesn't suggest it, then ask for it. It's your body and you need to feel confident that everything is being done to figure out the problem. Leave no doubt. Get a second opinion if you are not happy with the doctor's diagnosis. Be it good news or bad news; get different opinions if you deem it to be necessary. You have to be satisfied with the answers you get.

8. Be accountable for what you put in your mouth. If you are gaining weight but don't know how it happened, start writing it down. We tend to put things in our mouths unconsciously sometimes. We go to big box stores and go isle to isle eating samples they put out; we snack as we are making our breakfast, lunch and maybe even dinner, and maybe even a snack before bed time. There are so many opportunities to put food in our mouths, but we need to be more accountable for what we put in them. Write down everything you eat in a pocket sized note pad or somewhere that is easy for you to keep it up to date. When you get a moment, calculate calories that go with each entry in your log. This is the only way to really take ownership of what you eat.

9. Get some exercise each day. If you can't do it all in one session, then split the sessions up and do half in the morning before work and the other half at lunch time or after work. Get a pedometer. Move your body at least ½ hour each day. You need to walk at least 10,000 steps every day to lower risk of heart disease for both men and women. A pedometer will help to know how many steps you are doing. Keep it on you when you exercise, that counts toward your 10,000 steps!

10. Brush your teeth and tongue at least 3 times a day to minimize gum disease, colds, bad breath and other ailments. Our mouths need to be healthy in order to carry on normal activity. We eat, kiss, speak, drink, cough and lick stamps with our mouths. We expose it to so many germs that we ingest them which could cause problems to our whole bodies. If we keep our teeth and mouths clean we will be healthier.