We all want to live a long, happy, healthy and wealthy life. Unfortunately, we can also quite often make life choices which are not conducive to that. We can take our bodies, minds and bank balances for granted. We can make poor choices in our diet, our lifestyle and our investments. We can be rash and reckless, failing to account for the ways in which the decisions that we make today can have a rippling effect that reaches way into the future.
When we’re young especially, we can take our bodies for granted, stuffing them with junk food and focusing only on the areas of exercise that will lead to an aesthetically pleasing body rather than sculpting a healthy one. If you want a body and mind that are healthy and conducive to the kind of informed yet intuitive decision making that leads to good financial health, here are some things you’ll need to do in 2019 and beyond…
Eat your way to brain health
It’s sad to see the lengths that people will go to in order to lose excess weight and get a leaner, prettier body. It’s around this time of year that workplaces are flooded with people on various dubious juice cleanses and tea cleanses that require them to drop their caloric intake right down and essentially starve their way to a slimmer body.
Not only will any results they get be fleeting (you can’t sustain a diet of a thousand calories a day forever, and when you up your calories to a normal level you’re apt to put all that weight right back on), these “cleanses” come with a wealth of side effects including loss of cognitive function, poor memory, irritability and emotional volatility.
Why should we deprive the body of the essential nutrients it needs for us to be at our best, just for the sake of losing some body fat? By the way, if you’re looking for some much healthier fat loss tips, check out this post right here.
We should eat a healthy diet not just because it helps to keep our bodies trim and toned but because it keeps our minds agile and ageless. As we get older we can become much more vulnerable to forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. While great strides have been made in Lewy body dementia treatment, prevention is always the best cure. The foods you eat now can protect your brain health well into old age.
For a healthy and agile mind, make sure that every plate contains a healthy combination of the following;
- Nuts and seeds (especially pumpkin seeds)
- Berries (especially blueberries)
- Turmeric (has a range of brain healthy properties including managing serotonin levels and helping new brain cells to grow)
- Broccoli
- Dark chocolate
- Oily fish
- Eggs
- Citrus fruits
Keep eating plenty of these foods and drinking lots of water and you’ll find that you retain a keen mind with a steel trap memory. And hey, if your body gets slimmer and more toned as a result, so much the better!
Related: Check Out These Superfoods That’ll Fuel Your Brain
Get up earlier
Do you ever feel that your busy lifestyle is keeping you from being the best that you can be? That there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for you to do your meal prep, hit the gym or go for a jog, and do the reading you need to get a better understanding of the financial markets or unlock the next stage in your job or career? If only someone would sneak and extra hour or two into the day. The solution is clear… Get up earlier.
The idea of getting up at 5am may seem utterly ludicrous in the current season when the winter mornings are cold, dark and forbidding. Nonetheless, getting up earlier can get your day off to a far more productive start. You can cook a more nutritious breakfast instead of relying on a cereal bar scoffed down in the car. You can get in a quick run or workout and give yourself the serotonin boost that comes with exercise which you can ride for the rest of the day.
Let’s face it, if your morning routine consists of a hurried dash to the toilet, frantically clawing on your clothes and dashing out of the door with a piece of cold toast clamped between your teeth this is hardly likely to get your day off to the best possible start is it?
Exercise for a healthy mind and healthy body
Regular exercise makes you look better, but the benefits are by no means restricted to a leaner, more toned physique. Regular exercise is also an important component of brain health. Exercising regularly helps to facilitate the improved flow of oxygen and nutrients to the brain, helping to improve your cognitive faculties and boost memory. Ever notice that you do some of your best thinking on the treadmill or the weight bench? It’s no coincidence!
Cardiovascular exercise has been linked to a reduced risk of dementia. The buildup of proteins in the brain can lead to Alzheimer’s, yet regular cardiovascular exercise has been proven to help to shift these deposits.
Regular exercise can also help to stabilise your hormones helping to alleviate anxiety and depression while also balancing your mood and helping you to combat the effects of stress on your health. Speaking of which…
Put meditation before merlot
Stress is an unpleasant reality for many of us, whether we’re navigating the perils and pitfalls of a stressful job and career or facing the stress that comes with balancing our professional, personal and familial commitments.
A little stress can do us good, but when we allow it to get on top of us it can result in a range of ill-effects. What’s more, many of us can deal with our stress in less than productive ways, finding our relaxation at the bottom of a bottle of wine every night.
Instead of turning to a drink or comfort eating to relieve stress, instead try a few minutes of mindfulness meditation every day. All it takes is 5 minutes a day and it can go an extremely long way not just in helping you to manage stress but in improving memory and cognition.
All it takes is a few small but important life changes for a happier, healthier and wealthier future!
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