My inspiration for easy, simple, and inexpensive healthy living are my grandparents. I grew up with my grandparents in Ethiopia. They are the healthiest people I’ve ever known.
My grandfather passed away after the age of a hundred. My grandmother is still alive, and she is also close to the age of a hundred.
Both my grandparents don’t have a chronic disease. They have never been dependent on any medication. They are physically fit, and their memory and physical movement do not drastically reduce with their age.
So I ask how they are this much healthy, but us, their children, grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren are not as healthy as they are?
The answer leads me to look at their lifestyle closer, and I also do some research to see what the latest science says.
And I found out that, surprisingly, my grandparent’s uncomplicated and simple lifestyle is far superior and supported by science.
My grandparents were not particularly “rich.” They do not have access to regular modern medical care or are very educated people.
But, they live their life with the guidance of self intuition, traditional wisdom, and life experience. They don’t explain their actions scientifically, but I have seen science proving, supporting, and explaining their traditional wisdom as a better approach to a healthy lifestyle.
Sounds familiar? I am sure now many of you’re thinking of your grand or great grandparents and saying, “yeah, it is true.”
So why are we not as healthy as our ancestors? Why are most of us dependent on medication? Or chronically sick at a younger age despite “modern” life, technology, and medical treatment we have today.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the causes for 70% of all deaths worldwide are chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and lung disease. As per the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 6 in 10 adults in the US have a chronic illness, and 4 in 10 adults have two or more.
Some people may argue this is just because now we are diagnosing disease better. Still, if we look at our ancestors’ lives with common sense, like I said above, it is clear they were in a better position.
I think the main reason for our poor health is our lifestyle choices. And as the world is getting more polluted, we are getting more exposure to toxins than ever before.
Both WHO and CDC pointed out the key lifestyle risks for chronic diseases are tobacco use, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, and excessive alcohol use.
But there is still HOPE. We can make some practical changes in our lifestyle and become HEALTHY!!
Therefore, in this post, I will cover the easiest, simple, and inexpensive ways for better health from the latest scientific perspective and, of course, from my grandparent’s wisdom. I hope you will find it helpful.
What is a Healthy Living ?
First thing first, let’s talk about what a healthy living/lifestyle looks like?
A healthy lifestyle is not a short-time diet or a quick fix for the health problems we have. It is a lifelong journey.
Our body does not get sick (especially chronic disease) overnight, as it doesn’t get better instantly. It is a cumulative effect of what we do every day.
Even if we don’t notice it constantly, the quality of food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe matter. Plus, the stress level we have and exposure to toxins are also crucial factors for our overall health.
Therefore, healthy lifestyle choices shall always be something we need to have in mind and incorporate into our routines.
I am not saying it should be complicated and add stress. My goal is to show the easiest, simplest, and inexpensive ways for better health.
So, let’s see the significant health components one by one and discuss insights for what to do about them.
Real Food
It is obvious food is essential, but all foods are not created equal.
Wholesome real foods are what our body needs. Therefore it is vital to be a little extra conscious of what we put in our body.
I am using the word REAL for food intentionally. Because these days, what we are eating is industry produce that is over-processed in multiple steps.
When it reaches our hand as a final product, the food is in a completely different state of form from its original nature.
Plus, the preservatives, additives, and other nasty chemicals used to make the food shelf-stable are another considerable health problem.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Avoid Processed Food
As a rule of thumb, ask these questions about the food you are eating. Does it come from the soil or the sea? Or do the animals eat from the ground or the sea?
If the answer is yes, great, you choose real wholesome food.
I know it is not always easy to find real food. Just be conscious about it and try to avoid processed food as much as possible.
Whenever you eat outside or buy any kind of packed food, try to read the labels and make a better choice.
- Cook at Home Often
Cooking might not be fun for everyone, or some of you say I don’t know how to cook. If you learn some cooking skills and cook your food at home, you avoid junk processed foods and significantly reduce your cost.
Trust me; once you get in the habit of cooking for yourself or even for your family, you will quickly differentiate the taste and the benefit, so you don’t want to eat processed foods again.
- Eat More Vegetables
Vegetables have a high nutrition profile. Try adding various kinds of vegetables you can find in the market. Every vegetable color has specific properties, so mix veggies like it is said: “eat your rainbow.”
- Add Fruits Especially Berries
Fruits are naturally high in sugar, thus need moderate consumption.
Berries are high in antioxidants and low in sugar—that is why they are especially important.
The best way of consuming fruits is eating them as they are, adding them to a salad, or making smoothies (without adding sugar).
Making fruit juice excludes the fiber and leaves it to be consumed as a high sugar liquid, spiking blood sugar and adding stress to our body.
- Reduce Sugar Intake
Our body doesn’t need sugar. Primarily, we should avoid white sugar. The need for carbohydrates can be satisfied by eating vegetables and fruits.
Sugar is more addictive than cocaine (source). It feeds cancer cells in our bodies. It contributes to weight gain and sleep trouble (source) and has many other health problems.
- Get Enough Proteins and Healthy Fat
Proteins and fats have essential nutrients for our body to function, hormone health, and crucial for children’s growth.
Organ meats are nature’s multivitamins. It is best to incorporate them into our food. My grandmother doesn’t eat meat often, but she makes sure she eats liver and kidneys. (Read here the benefit of eating organs meat)
It is better to choose healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, ghee from the grass-fed animal over highly processed vegetable oils (canola oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, etc.).
Even though vegetable oils get more praise than what they are, our body doesn’t need them. They’re just recent industry products included in our diet. Most of them are GMOs, and on the contrary, they are a problem for our health. (Read here for more details)
- Reduce Grains Consumption
I believe grains are not particularly problematic if appropriately prepared and consumed in smaller amounts.
Sprouting, soaking, and fermentation can help to remove unwanted residue and make it easier for digestion. We all know our grandparents are skilled in these preparation methods. Sourdough bread is one of the examples they make at home.
Some of us don’t do well with gluten. So if you have gluten sensitivity, it is better to avoid grains with high gluten altogether.
Sun
Sun exposure is becoming a controversial health topic. However, mounting evidence reveals that moderate sun exposure at healthy levels is safe and necessary.
Extreme sun exposure is harmful and can lead to increased cancer risk. But again, moderate sun exposure doesn’t increase this risk.
Research shows that moderate sun exposure is linked with better health. It lowers the risk of numerous diseases and a longer lifespan.
Vitamin D, obtained from sun exposure, has been linked to a lower risk of many cancers, including skin cancer. (In this blog post, the benefit of moderate sun exposure explained well with research evidence)
Plus, vitamin D influences and regulates over 2,000 genes in our body. It supports our immune health, brain health, the health of many different organs in the body, and hormonal systems. Also, it reduces chronic inflammations.
There is remarkable data that’s come out on vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency and how that links with increased risk of COVID-19.
Regular sun exposure is associated with improved levels of both serotonin and dopamine, which impact our mood and motivation.
Sunlight improves health through various neurotransmitter levels in the brain. One is through circadian rhythm. (Circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.)
We all know our ancestors do not fear sun exposure and spend many hours indoors as we do. It seems like it helped them without needing to supplement their body with external vitamin D pills.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Get sunlight in the morning immediately after you wake up at least for 10 minutes – for a better circadian rhythm.
- Or have regular, frequent sun exposure any time of the day below the threshold of sun burning.
Water
Drinking clean water can even be more critical than getting nutritionally dense food because our bodies can easily absorb good and bad elements from water.
According to research from the Environmental Working Group, 300+ chemicals and pollutants are found in tap water.
Among these contaminants, arsenic, bacteria, chlorine, fluoride, gasoline, radon, lead, pesticides, and herbicides are a few of them.
Bottled water is not a good option either. Chemicals from the plastic bottle can leach into the water. Mostly, the water itself is no different than tap water. Bottled water is costly, and water bottles are a significant source of landfill.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Invest in a Quality Carbon Filter
Most of us drink bottled water these days. And we are spending a lot of money without a real benefit. Therefore it is best to invest in a water filter.
The cost might look expensive upfront, but the price per liter of water is way lower than bottled water.
We have a Berkey filter at home. According to my research, this is the best option to remove contaminants without losing necessary minerals. (I will review the Berkey filter in another post.)
Once you invest in a water filter, have stainless steel or a glass water bottle for outdoor use, you minimize buying bottled water.
Air
A person can go less than three minutes without air. So we know how air is essential for our life.
The question is, “is the air we are breathing clean?”
As we spend many hours indoors, it is especially important to focus on indoor air rather than outdoors.
Surprisingly, indoor air is 2-5 times more contaminated than outdoor air.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Open Window and Doors Often
Allow fresh air to get into your house. (This option doesn’t cost a penny!!) And try to avoid harsh cleaning products to avoid indoor air pollution.
- Have Air Filtering Plants
Bamboo, snack plant, ferns, succulents, and aloe are some of the best plants that can filter the air in the house.
- Salt Lamps and Beeswax Candles
Himalayan natural crystal lamps and beeswax candles can help to remove toxins from the air. The cost for both salt lamps and beeswax candles doesn’t break the bank.
- Air Filters
Air filters are on the pricey side. If you think it worth the investment, air filter machines like Air Doctor can purify and clean indoor air.
We got a good deal once and invested in Air Doctor. I was surprised to see the pile of dust on the filter after just a few months of use. (I can review it as well if you like me to review it.)
Sleep
We all know we have to get 6-8 hours of sleep a day, but how many of us get uninterrupted proper sleep?
Most of us go to bed with our mobile phones and spend hours depriving ourselves unconsciously. The next day we woke up unrest and exhausted.
Or some of us have babies to take care of, so uninterrupted sleep might be a luxury.
I want us to take sleep seriously and make some effort to get the most out of it because it is very crucial for our health, and it is the time our body rest and restores itself.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Leave the phone outside the bedroom.
- Stop using your phone or watching TV for at least 30 minutes before going to bed.
- Try to have a routine – go to bed and wake up at the same time, eat dinner early (at least one hour before going to bed)
Stress
Even if you do all other health factors right but have chronic stress, your health is at high risk because stress hormones suppress the immune system.
High stress levels for an extended time put you at higher risk for many diseases and shorten your lifespan.
Stress causing factors are physical, emotional/mental, or chemical.
Physical stress can come from obvious factors like injury or trauma and less obvious sources like poor diet, lack of good fats (which are essential for proper hormone production), and lack of sleep.
Chemicals put stress on our bodies too. They can come from food and water sources, environmental toxins, and products we put on our bodies (like deodorants and personal care products). I will discuss that in their respective sections.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Eat balanced diet
Do what we discussed above at the wholesome real food section.
- Relax
Have some time of your day to relax intentionally. Painting, coloring, journaling, walking in nature, mediation, simple intentional breathing, and spending time in the community can help.
- Exercise
Physical exercise definitely helps. I will cover it in depth below under the physical activity section.
- Practice Gratitude and Positivity
Write down what you are grateful for and try changing your perspective and look at the positive side whenever you’re anxious. Reducing news and minimizing negative talk is also huge.
Physical Activity
It is obvious that physical activity helps to maintain a healthy weight, increase blood flow, reduce stress, improve mood, and many more.
I am not recommending subscribing to expensive gyms or buying physical equipment.
I am asking you to start slowly, try to be consistent, and do a simple physical activity like walking, stretching, or jogging for a few minutes of your day.
5 – 10 minutes of physical exercise can do wonders if you are consistent.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Again 5 – 10 minutes of physical exercise a day
You only need to be consistent. The goal is not to exercise for long hours once and forget it the next day.
- Use Stairs over Elevator
Sometimes we even wait for elevators just for 2-3 floors. It will be a simple exercise if we choose to use the stairs.
- Choose Walking over Using Transportation for Short-distances
My grandparents rarely use transportation, and I remember walking reasonably long distances with them and how I hated it at the time. But now I know how they benefited from it.
So it is not a bad idea sometimes to choose to walk short distances whenever we have time.
- Find a Friend or a Family Member to Exercise Together
Having a friend or a family member helps motivate each other and use them as accountable partners.
Toxics
Toxics are the primary negative factor that deteriorates generational health, in my opinion. For sure, we are more exposed to toxins than our ancestors.
Our children even will be more as our world is becoming more toxins from the waste and chemicals coming from industries, pesticides and herbicides from the farm, several products we use and put on our body, and many more.
Thankfully, there are ways we can reduce them even though we don’t avoid them altogether. We can start from our home.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Use Natural Cleaning Products
Cleaning products we are using in our homes contain harsh chemicals. Try buying more natural products.
- Use Natural Beauty Products
The deodorants, toothpaste, and other beauty products we use on our bodies contain several chemicals that are not good for our health.
If you don’t believe, go ahead and read the labels. You can’t even pronounce some of the ingredients on the label.
And the others like toothpaste’s label tells you to contact your doctor if you swallow it accidentally. How come it is comfortable to use it every day? There are better natural brands like this.
- Do Detox Bath or Other Detoxification
Use an Epsom salt, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar and soak in the tub.
Do your research and use a detox diet. It is also a good idea to talk with your doctor before applying.
Fasting
Historically, every major religion requires fasting in some way. Likewise, my grandparents fast 200 plus days of the year. It is required by the religion they follow, Ethiopian Orthodox Christian.
Typically during the fasting season, they don’t eat or drink water before 3 pm. They eat one or two times after 3 pm and go to bed. They eat the next day at the same time.
Meat and dairy products are not allowed during the fasting season, so mostly, they eat vegan.
This lifestyle they follow seems to benefit their health. Now Fasting benefits are supported by science.
I am not here suggesting you to fast like my grandparents or to follow a religion. It is simply to show how fasting can benefit us.
>> What to Do for Healthy Living?
- Try a short days fasting with water.
- Apply circadian fasting in your daily routine (meaning go to bed the same time as recommended above in the sleep section and eat before bed at least 30 minutes earlier, your body is fasting during your sleep time)
All the above explained health factors are interlinked and dependent on each other. So it is better to include all of them in our life.
Start slowly, don’t get overwhelmed with all the information. Small changes can lead to great success.
To summarize, healthy living is easy, simple, and inexpensive if we only have consistent routines.
As you have seen, most of the factors mentioned are freely available (like sun, air, sleep…). It is just we need to make time for it and incorporate them into our daily routine.
I recommend starting slowly. Make small baby steps and build up. You will start noticing the benefits in your overall health and productivity.
In short, try to follow the below cycle:
- Wake up at the same time
- Drink a glass of water
- Go for a short walk – ( you will get fresh air and sunlight)
- Cook and eat real foods
- Try fasting or avoid eating after the sun goes down
- Stock up natural cleaning and beauty products and detox
- Open your windows and door in your office or at home for fresh air
- Have few minutes a day to breathe – be present, practice gratitude, or relax
- Go to bed at the same time
Hope all the information helps you to look for a healthy living. What does a healthy lifestyle mean to you? What is your great or grandparent’s lifestyle you like or admire? Do you agree with the above points discussed here? Let me know your thoughts in the comment below.
Source:
- World Health Organization – https://www.who.int/
- Center of Disease Control – https://www.cdc.gov/
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
- Wellness Mama – https://wellnessmama.com/
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