So You Want to be Healthy ….

WHAT ARE THE behaviors that lead to excellent health and peak performance? What do people who are free of disease, full of high energy, ambitious, are clear thinkers, and have a positive outlook have in common? What choices do they make that lead to excellent health? Are they just lucky? Or are they doing something that the majority of people are not doing?

Most likely, people who have reached a level of excellent health are doing well in each of the five essentials to excellent health.

There are five essentials needed for excellent health and wellness. I like to think of the five essentials as the blueprint to excellent health. Each of the essentials is equally important for maintaining proper body function and a healthy mindset.

On a regular basis, a person seeking excellent health should reflect on each of these essentials and should strive to do their absolute best in each essential. If any of the essentials is lacking, they should seek to improve it. The five essentials to excellent health are:

1. Nutrition: Providing your body with the right nutrients through eating mostly whole, nutrient-dense foods.

2. Exercise: Staying active through regular physical activity involving the proper balance of all the fitness components.

3. Sleep: Getting the proper rest and recovery that your body needs every night.

4. Minimizing toxins: Avoiding chemicals and substances that disrupt the flow of your body.

5. Mindset: Having a positive mindset, outlook, and thought process.

Again, each of the essentials is important, and if one of the essentials is lacking, it can have a severe negative effect on your overall wellness.

For example, if one exercises a lot and consumes a poor diet, their overall health will suffer despite all the exercise that they do. The exercise may help keep some of the physical symptoms away, such as high blood pressure and obesity, but the poor nutrition will eventually catch up with the person.

It is very important not to rely on just a few of the essentials to keep you healthy, but to stay strong in each essential. The next section summarizes the keys to staying strong in each of the five essentials and provides a good checklist for you to assess your current health behaviors.