Live to the Fullest! - Eight Easy Steps to Super Health

Life to the fullest - whatever it means to you - is the dream of every person. Often, money is what people finger as the principal obstacle to living the full life they want. However, those who can think more deeply will certainly know that good health, in all its ramifications, is the basis of a happy life. If you've got bubbling health, other things can be added unto you. We know, however, that sound health eludes most people who walk our streets everyday. Good health seems far-fetched, which is why life expectancy, in our environment, has been slashed to the embarrassing, yet true average of 45 years.

What will pass as super health is possible if you begin early to run a pattern of living that sees good health as an important goal to aim for. If you take it for granted and assume you will always be well, irrespective of how you live, you may meet a few surprises. To a large measure, your health is in your hands and there's much you can do to attain and sustain sound health. Here are eight easy steps to put you into top shape and provide the 'gangling' health you need to enjoy life.

1. Diet Is King - Get it Right
What you eat or fail to eat is the first point of control in getting yourself to a blistering physical conditioning. While it sounds easy, what you often see people eat shows that many can't see the connection between long term health and their diet. Diet is not about expensive meals - it's just about sensible eating. What are the things to eat and to avoid? Here's a quick summary:

• You need nutritious meals, in what is referred to as a balanced diet. That subject is too extensive to be elaborated on adequately here. It's important to note however, that a balanced diet consists of the right proportions of key nutritional elements - carbohydrates (energy), protein (repair and growth), fats (energy and more), vitamins (various body maintenance and functioning support) and minerals (various critical functions).
• You need regular meals and three times a day is healthy. However, what to eat must be in the right quantity, geared to the nature of activity. Underfeeding could rob the body of vital nutrients. Excessive consumption is unhealthy, easily causing constipation and possibly obesity. Eat in reasonable proportions.
• While it's important to have the right nutrients in your meal, you must avoid the food elements that are proven to be damaging to health. Excessive salt for instance. Saturated and trans fats, excessive sugar, high cholesterol (especially the HDL 'bad' type) are some of the health-threatening stuff to distance yourself from.
• Water is vital for life and needs to be consumed in sufficient quantities daily. Make it a habit and facilitate this by having clean, portable water handy always. How much in all in a day? There's no cut and dried answer as it depends on the weather, your activities, your health, etc. Estimates on the basis of daily water loss to urination, sweating, etc, suggest a minimum of two litres of water for just replacement. To stay well in fluid, consider 3 litres if male and 2.2 litres if female. If you need more, by all means drink. Your fluid intake may also partly come from fruits and other drinks, provided they're healthy.

2. Exercise is Priority - Be Consistent
Get your diet right and move ahead to programme regular exercises and activity into your life. That would have taken you two major steps into a new life of good health and fitness. Physical exercise is any activity that is aimed at developing or maintaining top physical fitness and sound health. It may involve formal exercise routines or could just be domestic, office or other activities that can exert the body and bring fitness and health benefits. A sedentary life, devoid of physical activity, is a killer. What do you need to do?

• Make sure you exercise regularly. Four to six days in the week, with durations of at least 20 minutes, will be ideal. But don't rush into this. First consult your doctor for an evaluation and guidance. And when you start, a gradual build-up is recommended.
• Specific exercise activities will depend on you, but jogging, swimming, cycling, brisk-walking are great options, with a lot of cardiovascular endurance benefits. Anaerobics such as weight training, stretching, etc, can also figure in, especially if you are also interested in some muscle build-up.
• Never say you can't find time. There are clever ways to achieve that goal: make it interesting by choosing activity (ies) you love, become part of a team or at least work with one partner for mutual support, figure out your best time of the day and use it, pay at a gym to feel you have committed resources, vary the activities if this helps sustain interest, get one or two other activities you enjoy into the programme (watching a football game at the training pitch after your exercises), etc.
• Making exercising a way of life and stretch yourself physically whenever the opportunity is there (and you'll find plenty): walk the stairs, trek some distance, take up some activities at home, etc. Always look out for something that can work up your body.
• Be determined. Nothing is easy, but in this case, the gains are so enormous you can't afford to fail. Make sacrifices, especially knowing that you ultimately stand to reap a rich reward.

3. Spare Your Body of Unhealthy Substances
This is straight forward, though it may not be easy for those who are already victims. Medical research has sufficiently established the danger of certain products generally classified as hard drugs: cocaine and stuff like that. You too must have seen a few people on the streets whose lives have been turned upside down by these drugs. They are simply not part of the regimen for super health.

Alcohol is easily part of this group. Heavy consumption is unhealthy and easily robs you of physical and mental strength and your dignity too. The danger to the kidneys should also worry you. Cigarettes continue to enjoy wide consumption but their damaging impact is already proven and documented. Smoking is implicated in some strokes and blood pressure problems, apart from the huge risk of lung cancer. The wise choice? Rid your body of these substances that can retard your health, weaken your system and pre-dispose you to illness.

4. Personal Hygiene, Key to Prevention
What we sometimes overlook is the fact that many of the diseases that afflict us are contracted or ingested, or infections through exposure. In effect, some personal care might have prevented them. Take sexual hygiene and the scourge of HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Or rampant waterborne diseases which mere boiling could contain. Check how many people are down with stomach disorders everyday, because they probably ate unhygienic stuff. Or even the menace of malaria, because mosquitoes are breeding in the open, stagnant drains all around us. There is so much you can do to protect yourself better and stay in a top health condition. Take stock and choose to raise your hygiene standards, for your own good.

5. Get Major Risk Factors Under Control
Past errors or exposures might mean that a few things have already gone wrong with your health. Experts say you can still get much of this under control and enjoy good health. Take high cholesterol level, for instance, which could pre-dispose you to major health problems. You can't stay and wait for that to happen. See your doctor and work out a plan to cut it down to normal range. Your blood pressure is already diagnosed as high? It will do more damage if you leave it that way. Again, your doctor should help you get it under control. Over-weight or obese? That's disaster knocking. It may be tasking, but the good thing you owe yourself is to work your weight down. Yes, a lot of weight-reduction programmes that don't work. So create your own programme or ask around for one that has worked for somebody else. Your blood sugar level is high? That portends more serious problems. Luckily, blood sugar control is possible, so see your doctor to guide you scale down. Whatever the risk factor that you are already exposed to, with medical help and personal discipline, you may reverse, moderate or at least control it's impact so that your good health is not ruined. You probably know that many people have died because they were simply careless over a condition that was largely controllable.

6. Routine Checks and Reviews Are The Way
We are all probably weak at this, but that is a huge problem for our healthcare. Traceable to poor consciousness and financial handicaps, many hardly undertake health reviews or medical checkups. That is a disaster because problems are not detected but rather identified. Put differently, risk factors are not determined before they cause problems and early stages of problems are not detected. We all wait till the system has effectively collapsed and is failing to function before seeking medical help becomes imperative. It's obvious that this is a totally faulty strategy for super health. If you not only value your health but want to hold it in tip-top state, you need a more proactive approach. Nip problems in the bud. Discover risks and tackle them when they are still un-entrenched and less resistant. The right formula is routine medical checks. Find a doctor you can trust and let him manage your health on a preventive basis - checking for danger signals, evaluating them and advising early on what to do. This doesn't call for a daily visit - you schedule visit intervals with your doctor. Ultimately, it's not only cheaper but also more effective.

7. Be Accident Conscious
Sadly, accidents can suddenly turn an otherwise healthy and boisterous life into a colourless, restricted and unhappy one. Accidents occur and often are beyond our control. The reality though is that many accidents are also traceable to carelessness or recklessness. Many auto accidents are. Some at the workplace are, often the fault of the employer. Domestic accidents that are preventable are frequent. Take a recent case: house-help carrying a bucket of hot water upstairs is on the stairs when madam calls for something. House-help leaves bucket on the stairs to respond. Young son going upstairs is unaware of the bucket on the stairs and runs into it, tripping and turning the bucket. You know what splashing hot water on his body means, though this was caused by some carelessness. Are you leaving waiting accidents around: exposed electrical wires, sharp objects, slippery surfaces, etc. Do you have fire extinguishers even in your car, let alone house? Do you drive safely? Is your car an accident waiting to happen? While you say that 'what will be will be', check if there are the ones you are unwittingly pushing to be.

8. Positive Living, Overall
The right mental attitude is fundamentally important in maintaining sound health. If you are too troubled to even sleep well at night, everything said here will probably fail to work for you. If you worry about things you can do (instead of going ahead to do them) or things you can't do (instead of the good sense to accept the reality), you will leave a troubled body system that will not respond well to your aspiration for good health. If you remain perpetually in conflict with others (your mind will continue to do battles even when you're alone), you will leave yourself disoriented, unstable and unhappy. None of these will foster good health. Be wise and realise that it all begins within you. Turn your mind into a sanctuary of peace, by seeking to do good and that which is fair to all. A forgiving heart will help you too. Share with joy in other people's good fortunes rather than let jealousy churn your stomach. Work hard to accomplish goals that will gladden your heart and create excitement. Have faith even when it's tough, knowing that The Creator has imbued you with the strength and vision you need to succeed, which you just need to discover. Propel yourself with a great mind and your body will also respond well.

In the end, everything is in the hands of nature. However, these are ways you can help out. Don't ruin your health and preach that what will be will be. Just as you invest in stocks, property and other assets, investing in your health is one major part of investment that you shouldn't ignore.