In my previous article, I talked about the numerous health practices, which in my opinion don’t matter in the big picture. In some cases, they may even be detrimental.

Too often, we seek short-term or “miraculous” solutions. But it’s the accumulation of regular health practices that matter most.

Here are my top items:

– Eat plant-based! There is no need to include animal products in your diet. Excessive animal protein and saturated fat intake leads to all kinds of deadly diseases. All animal products are a culprit, including eggs and fish.

– Stay hydrated with high water content foods (i.e. fresh fruits). Also, don’t forget to feed your pets (dogs and cats) foods with a high water content. They also need it to thrive and avoid disease.

– Eliminate ALL oils, including olive oil. There’s never a good reason to consume pure fat in its refined form, no matter how often it’s marketed as a health food! Get your omega 3s from whole foods, like avocados or hemp seeds.

– Cut the fat! Too much fat in the diet causes insulin resistance. It lowers your health and vitality, and causes candida and other health problems. Limit quantities of avocado, nuts, seeds and other whole food sources of fat to no more than 15% of total calories. Fat is fat, whether raw or cooked!

– Minimise salt and sodium in food. Eating a raw, or mostly raw, diet is ideal because most of our calories come from eating fresh fruit, which massively reduces salt intake.

– Optimize your sleep. Eating a correct diet will result in better health, but I must emphasise it is the body, not the food, that creates health. Sleep is essential to life and is the condition under which the brain generates nerve energy, which is used to conduct all the activities of the body, including healing, which is why it is so important to always get enough rest.

– Identify stressors in your life and eliminate them! Stress is a killer, and probably the biggest cause of disease after diet. Some stress is necessary and vital to our existence as a behavioural adjustment to change. All living creatures experience short-term, physical stress regularly. Finding food, reproducing, adapting to weather changes, and growth are examples of common, short-term stress situations. This type of stress is natural. When these stressful situations become long-term, however, they result in harm.

– Start a manageable exercise program. Exercise is a necessity! Studies have shown that when we skip even just TWO days of exercise, there is a noticeable and measurable decline in health, especially in your insulin sensitivity (the ability of insulin to carry sugar to the cells). For exercise to work, it has to be fun! Pick any exercise you like, and remember that doing *something* beats doing nothing every time.

– Fast! Fasting is not a cure in the sense of a “magic pill” or a treatment in which an external agent is supposed to do all the work. Fasting is a state in which the body can do its own healing and often better than in any other condition.

– Avoid the use of drugs and exposure to environmental toxins. This includes alcohol, nicotine, other recreational drugs, and over-the-counter and prescriptions drugs whenever possible.

– Express your creativity and talents doing something you love (it doesn’t have to be for a living).

– Have meaningful relationships and an active social life.

– Practice mindfulness meditation. It’s up to you whether you choose to enter into a full state of meditation or not. In my case, I have found that even closing my eyes and relaxing in a meditation posture for at least 20 minutes does wonderful things to my nervous system.

– Smile. It seems like a lot of people have stopped making jokes these days. Jokes are bonding… have fun!

– Finally, remember that perfection doesn’t exist. You can’t achieve this whole list 100% of the time. Do the best you can. Be a learner.

*This piece is adapted from an article written by Frederic Patenaude.

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