DIGESTIVE HEALTH SERIES: COURSE #3

HEALTH & WELLNESS 301

How to create healthier lifestyle habits you can stick to for a lifetime.

In the last course we studied the effects of gut health and how it affects other key systems within our body. In this course we will come up with a game plan in addressing effective and tested ways to help you create healthier lifestyle habits for a lifetime.

We have all tried to set healthy goals and failed more than once. We tend to get really excited about the big adjustments we’re going to make in our lives, like setting a goal to drink more water or go out for a walk every day. For a few days we are fully committed and firing on all cylinders. Then we end up missing two days in a row and before long we have quit trying.

Chapter 5: Healthy Habits Start with the Right Mindset

What is lacking is mindset. What you believe dictates what actions you take as well as the eventual results you will have.

Here are five mindset building blocks to help you create lasting healthy habits:

1. Know Your Habits – Every time you do something—such as brushing your teeth or driving home from work—your brain creates a pathway associated with a particular behavior. The more you repeat that behavior the easier it becomes. This pathway is called a habit loop. “The first step to changing your behavior is to create an awareness around what you do regularly,” explains Dr. Lisa Marsch, an expert in behavior change at Dartmouth College. “Look for patterns in your behavior and what triggers the unhealthy habits you want to change.”
2. Make a Plan That Gives You Small Wins – The key to any good plan is establishing goals and actions that lead to easy wins in the beginning. Maybe it’s taking a different way home from work to avoid the fast food chains you frequent the most, or removing all junk food from the pantry and stocking it with healthier options. These small wins will turn into habits, giving you more confidence to move forward with more ambitious goals.
3. Remember Your “Why” to Stay on Track – Part of your plan should be writing down why you want to get healthy in the first place, and prominently displaying it where you will see it daily. It will be your daily motivation to help keep you on track when you are tempted to stray off course. Keeping a daily journal of your thoughts and progress is also a helpful resource in practicing self control and staying on track.
4. Imagine Your Healthiest Self – Another way to keep you focused is to imagine a future version of yourself at your most healthy. By pondering and imagining a healthier version of oneself is a powerful motivator because you get a glimpse of the results you are striving for: a healthy body, inside and out.
5. Be Patient & Consistent – Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, either will adopting the habits that will lead to a healthy lifestyle. You will have ups and downs—learn from them and move on. With consistent effort in all of these areas mentioned above, you will start to see the progress you desire. With progress comes the inspiration and fortitude to keep going.

Chapter 6: Healthy Lifestyle Choices Takes Practice

As we talked in the last chapter, before you can take the action to live healthy you need a positive mindset in place. Your mindset guides your actions which give you your habits. Without good habits, it’s easy to live by default. To get the healthy lifestyle you want takes more than just running on autopilot. It means thinking intentionally about every choice you make.

Making as little as one change per day can have a huge effect on your overall quality of life. In fact, the key is to take a simple, realistic approach towards living a healthy lifestyle that feels achievable each day.

Here are the core actions we need to practice each day:

1. Lower Stress Levels with Self Care – It’s no secret—stress knows how to hold onto us tightly, it creeps up on us creating a wake of chaos on our physical health. Practicing self care can go a long way in lowering your stress levels, such as getting a massage, taking a walk, or taking a yoga class. The key is taking time to give back to yourself.
2. Get the Right Amount of Sleep – Sleep is one of the most important factors when it comes to your health. For some, getting a good night’s sleep may be a challenge, but if you follow the right steps and create a sleep schedule, you will be well on your way to having a good night’s rest.
3. Eat a Nutrient Dense Diet – The reason why people crave sugar and unhealthy foods is because your body is starving from lack of nutrients. By eating a nutrient, plant-based diet you are giving your body what it needs, and you will have more energy, sleep better, look and feel better.
4. Eat Foods High in Probiotics & Prebiotics – Both support the body in building and maintaining a healthy colony of bacteria and other microorganisms, which support gut health and aid in digestion. Prebiotic fiber can be found in apples, bananas and flaxseed. Fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha help promote beneficial bacteria by creating an environment where microorganisms can flourish.
5. Stay Hydrated – Your body is composed of 60% water to help with digestion, circulation, transportation of nutrients and maintenance of body temperature, just to name a few functions. There are many different opinions on just how much water you should be drinking every day, but most health experts commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses, which equals about 2 liters, or half a gallon a day.
6. Get Out and Exercise – Make it a point to move every day. You don’t have to hit the gym, take a hike, play tennis with a friend, go for a swim, hop on a bike or stream an online workout. Exercise is an essential part of any healthy lifestyle. It improves the overall condition of the body and helps you perform better in your daily life.

Next Up!

Stay tuned for the fourth and final course, GI-BIOME 401. We will explore how each of the GI-Biome System™ products can improve health and how the system works together in supporting optimal digestive and immune system health.

Check out dietary products that support a healthy gut:

https://us.mannatech.com/products/gi-biome-system/?account=294898

Sources:

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2018/03/creating-healthy-habits
https://www.healthline.com/health/gut-health#treatment)
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/improve-gut-bacteria#TOC_TITLE_HDR_2
https://cdhf.ca/health-lifestyle/10-ways-to-strengthen-your-microbiome/