5 MICRO HABITS TO STAY HEALTHY
1. Floss your teeth once a day, every day.
Flossing cleans those tight spaces between your teeth and the gap at the base of the teeth and the gums. These are places that a tooth brush can’t reach. Only flossing can remove tartar and bits of food that lodge in these places. Flossing helps prevent gum disease and bone loss that occurs when bacteria builds up.
But a healthy mouth isn’t the only reason to floss every day. Medical research has proven the bacteria that flourish in an unhealthy mouth can lead to systemic problems like heart disease, diabetes and respiratory illness.
If you don’t have this daily habit, every single day, it’s past time to make it part of your regular routine, either in the morning or evening.
It only takes a minute or two, but it can have a big impact on your health.
2. Add one additional veggie to one meal.
Increasing your veggie intake by just one additional serving can kickstart other healthy eating choices and provide you with many more nutrients. In fact, vegetables have more vitamins and minerals for the same amount of calories as foods with “empty calories.”
Veggies give you energy, help you eat less because they fill you, and they’re naturally low in calories. Add some spinach to your morning scrambled egg or your midday sandwich. Eat a sweet potato with your dinner. Cook some swiss chard or kale to add to your soup. Just don’t overcook them!
Pick one meal every day this week, and think how you can up your intake of just one more serving of veggies.
3. Turn off your cell phone when driving.
I thought I was unsafe when I didn’t wear a seatbelt, but now there’s a new driving danger in town — cellphones. According to the National Safety Council, one in four of all car accidents (26%) are caused by cellphone use.
Believe it or not, only 5% of cellphone-related crashes occur because the driver is texting. The vast majority involve drivers who are distracted while talking on handheld or hands-free cellphones.
Make this a new micro habit for yourself — turn off your phone or pull over to talk. You’re reducing your chance of injury or death by 25%. Why play Russian Roulette with your life?
4. Up your Omega 3’s.
Omega 3 fatty acids found in cold-water oily fish like wild salmon, herring, sardines, and trout have a tremendous number of health benefits. Omega 3 helps cut your risk of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers (breast, prostate, and colon), and it improves mental, joint, bone, and bowel health. However, the average American doesn’t get nearly enough Omega 3 in their diet.
It’s strongly recommended to eat Omega 3 rich fish two or three times a week. Sadly, the vast majority of the fish supply is now heavily tainted with industrial toxins and pollutants. The best source of Omega 3 is wild caught Alaskan salmon (rather than farmed salmon) and small fish like sardines.
If you can’t afford to eat wild caught salmon regularly and don’t like sardines, you can take supplements like fish oil and krill oil. Krill oil seems to have a few more health benefits, so do some reading on both to decide which you prefer. In my research, I found positive recommendations for this Krill Oil.
Create a new habit of taking an Omega 3 supplement daily, or increase the amount of healthy Omega 3-rich healthy fish you eat weekly.
5. Perform the “Scientific 7-Minute Workout” daily.
This short and convenient workout is a high intensity circuit training routine using your own body weight. It is an easy habit to add to your morning or whenever you want to get a quick burst of energy during the day. And according to an article in the New York Times, “it fulfills the latest mandates for high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort — all of it based on science.”
