A Doctors 5 Top Secrets to Avoid Getting Sick

This article was written by Dr. Joseph Mercola, http://mercola.com. I personally use all of these suggestions and I have not been sick except for the mildest of colds for the last 15 years!


1. Optimize Your Vitamin D

This takes the number one position for a reason: if you're vitamin-D-deficient, and many are, your immune system will not activate to do its job.

Vitamin D also functions in many different tissues and affects a large number of different diseases and health conditions. So far, scientists have found about 3,000 genes that are regulated by vitamin D.

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections, including the flu. It produces over 200 antimicrobial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic. At least five studies show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and vitamin D levels. That is, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections.

Plus, studies have shown you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF and lower your risk of many other common diseases -- like diabetes, heart disease, depression, hypertension and Alzheimer's disease -- simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels.

To find out more, including your best sources of vitamin D, dosing and what proper levels should be, please watch my free one-hour lecture.

2. Optimize Your Insulin and Leptin Levels

Eating sugar and grains will increase your insulin level, which is one of the fastest ways to get sick and also experience premature aging. Leptin is another heavyweight hormone associated with disease and the aging process.

Like your insulin levels, if your leptin levels become elevated, your body systems will develop a resistance to this hormone, which will wreak havoc in your body.

Ron Rosedale, MD, who is one of the leading experts on leptin, does an excellent job of explaining the links between insulin, leptin, your weight and your overall health, and has done so in numerous articles posted on my site.

My nutrition plan, based on natural whole foods, is your first step toward optimizing your insulin and leptin levels and increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life. The heart of my program is the elimination, or at the very least, drastic reduction of grains and sugar in your diet, while focusing on the foods that are right for your unique biochemistry.

3. Exercise

If you are exercising regularly, just as if your vitamin D levels are optimized, the likelihood of your acquiring an upper respiratory infection decreases quite dramatically, and studies have clearly shown this.

In one such study, staying active cut the risk of having a cold by 50 percent, and cut the severity of symptoms by 31 percent among those who did catch a cold. The researchers noted that each round of exercise may lead to a boost in circulating immune system cells that could help ward off a cold virus.

It's a well-known fact that exercise improves the circulation of immune cells in your blood. The job of these cells is to neutralize pathogens throughout your body. The better these cells circulate, the more efficient your immune system is at locating and defending against viruses and diseases trying to attack your body.

Upon reviewing 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010, researchers found that exercise reduces the risk of about two dozen health conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and depression.

Exercise also slows down the rate of aging itself, providing perhaps the closest example of a real life fountain of youth as we will ever find.

Since exercise has repeatedly been proven to benefit your immune system over the long haul, it's crucial to treat exercise like a drug that must be properly prescribed, monitored and maintained for you to enjoy the most benefits.

Essentially, you need to have a varied routine like the Peak Fitness program I now highly recommend. The Peak Fitness program includes:

o Peak 8 exercises

o Conventional aerobics

o Strength training

o Core exercises

o Stretching


4. Eat Plenty of Raw Food

One of the most important aspects of a healthy diet that is frequently overlooked is the issue of eating your food uncooked, in its natural raw state.

Unfortunately, as you may be aware, over 90 percent of the food purchased by Americans is processed. And when you're consuming these kinds of denatured and chemically altered foods, it's no surprise we have an epidemic of chronic and degenerative diseases, not to mention way too many cases of colds and flu.

Ideally you'll want to eat as many foods as possible in their unprocessed state; typically organic, biodynamic foods that have been grown locally, and are therefore in season.

But even when you choose the best foods available you can destroy most of the nutrition if you cook them. I believe it's really wise to strive to get as much raw food in your diet as possible. I personally try to eat about 80 percent of my food raw, including raw eggs and organic, naturally raised meats.

5. Learn How to Effectively Cope With Stress

In my past experience treating patients with serious chronic illnesses, the vast majority have previous emotional stress that contributed to their problem. And for most of the serious illnesses, the trauma stems back to their childhood. But according to at least one recent study, it doesn't take serious trauma to cause these changes. Even normal "everyday" emotional experiences can have a detrimental impact on your future health.

Emotional stressors can also predispose you to an infection while making cold symptoms worse. Finding ways to manage daily stress as well as your reactions to circumstances beyond your control will contribute to a strong and resilient immune system.

My favorite tool for this is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a system that helps balance your body's subtle energies and repair emotional "short-circuits."

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does give you a general idea of how to live healthy and avoid getting sick. Other factors, like getting high-quality sleep and avoiding exposure to environmental toxins, are important too, but if you're looking for a few simple "secrets" to get started on today … start with those listed above.

Chances are that if you use them, you, too, will become one of the growing numbers of people who are using a healthful lifestyle to avoid getting sick.

Eating Mindfully - 4 Rules For Conscious Eating

I have been using these "rules" for conscious eating from Paul McKenna's "I Can Make You Thin" for years and I have found that they have really changed my relationship with food for the better! Bonnie

 1. When you are hungry, EAT

Why would anyone eat if they weren't hungry?Because it is simply a habit. Many people are so desensitized to their body's messages that they've forgotten how to pay attention. Real physical hunger is different than emotional hunger (which we will deal with later). Physical hunger comes on gradually. Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, when you feel bored or upset. If you starve yourself you will end up binging. That's how your body gets thrown off balance. In future when you feel physical hunger, eat! When you starve yourself your body goes into 'survival mode' it slows your metabolism and your body starts to store fat. When you eat when you are truly hungry you tell your body there will always be enough food and it speeds up your metabolism.

The Hunger Scale

Take a few moments right now to look at the hunger scale and tune in to your body. How hungry are you right now? Each person is different, but as a general rule, you want to eat whenever you notice yourself between 3 and 4 on the scale – that is when you are fairly hungry, but before you become ravenous. If you wait until you get down to one or two your body will go into starvation mode and you'll wind up probably eating more than your body needs and storing the excess as fat. Ideally, you'll want to stop eating at right around 6 or 7 on the hunger scale – when you are feeling pleasantly satisfied or full but not yet stuffed or bloated. From now on never go into the RED areas!

Of course, if you have been a serial dieter you may be so used to overriding your body's signals that you may at times 'forget to eat' until you're ravenous or keep eating until you're full or even stuffed before noticing it's time to stop.

If you think this might be you, practice tuning in to your body once an hour until you begin to notice differences between different points on the scale. The more you practice tuning in to your own hunger, the sooner you'll be able to recognize your body's subtle signals long before your stomach growls and your brain starts to get fuzzy.
 
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should.

As soon as you tell yourself to not eat certain foods, (usually because you've been told they're bad for you), you upset the natural balance of your relationship to them. Rather than wanting it less, that 'forbidden food' instantly becomes more attractive to you. The inner battle between your positive intention and your resistance to being controlled (even by yourself) can be exhausting. As you begin to make peace with food and learn to listen to the wisdom of your body, you experience freedom from the tension and guilt that comes from NOT following your intuition.Also, as you stop resisting and start to follow your natural intuitions about what to eat when, you may notice your tastes changing. You may even find yourself naturally attracted to the very foods you're 'supposed' to be eating now.



The problem is that even though they feel temporarily high from cramming in lots of food, they feel fat and guilty afterwards. In fact, they feel so bad that they repeat the whole ritual of unconsciously stuffing themselves again in order to anaesthetize the bad feelings they just created!
Here is perhaps the single most important key to success:
You can eat whatever you want, whenever you want, so long as you fully enjoy every single mouthful.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Put the knife and fork down whilst you are chewing your food and really enjoy it - savor the taste, and enjoy the wonderful textures and sensations as you thoroughly chew each mouthful of food at least 20 times!
If all you did for the next two weeks was to slow your eating speed down to about a quarter of what it used to be and chew each mouthful thoroughly, you will find it easy to leave food on your plate.

 4. When you think you are full, STOP eating

The natural design of the human body is to eat when we're hungry and stop when we're satisfied, but many of us are conditioned to eat until we think we're full - or even worse, until whatever food we put on our plate is gone. When you've eaten enough, your stomach sends a signal – a sensation that says "I'm satisfied – that's enough." Most people experience this gentle, clear, satisfied sensation in their solar plexus (the area below your rib cage but above your stomach).Of course, if you miss this warm feeling of satisfaction when it first occurs, you'll notice that each subsequent bite of food becomes a little less enjoyable than the one before. The more you pay attention to it, the more obvious it becomes. If you are not sure whether you are full or not, just guess. You will soon find it becomes easier to tell.
 Can it really be this simple?

Yes! Let's review the four elements:

1. Eat whenever you are hungry
2. Eat only what you want, never what you think you 'should'
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful
4. Stop when you even think your body is full 

3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY and enjoy every mouthfulPeople that are overweight often shovel food in to their mouths as quickly as possible in order to get high from the happy chemicals we release in our brains when we eat. Unfortunately, because they are eating unconsciously, they never notice the signal from their stomach that lets them know that they are full. So they keep on stuffing their faces, expanding their stomachs and putting on weight.

Breaking Free From Emotional Eating!

If Diet and Exercise Where Enough We'd All Be Slim and Healthy...

A lot of us know that we need to make changes in our diet, exercise and lifestyle. We may even successful start making these changes only to come up against very powerful self-sabotaging behaviors. You may think you lack willpower if you have cravings for and addictions to food, but that's not true. It's not a lack of willpower – it's that there are very powerful emotional blocks and barriers around food for most of us and we've never learned the proper tools for how to address these challenges.

Most issues that we have around food are deeply ingrained and started when we were children and/or teens. Even though food is technically fuel for our bodies most of us have some kind of emotional attachment and habits around it.

In my ten years as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor I usually run into 3 types of clients. These three different types of clients all want to make some kind of positive change in their life i.e.: better health, greater fitness level and/or weight loss.

The first type of client I see has the desire to have "things be different" but they want an "instant fix" or a "magic cure" (by the way this is a good percent of the American population). They are not willing to make any significant changes or effort to move towards their desires and believe that I can give them a "magic cure."

The second type of client I've seen also has the desire to have things "be different" and they are willing initially to make some changes and apply some effort, to move towards their desires. But when things don't happen as fast as they would like them to, they quickly get frustrated and discouraged and go right back to doing things "the way they've always done them."

The third type of client is much rarer and I don't see too many of them. They jump in with both feet, make the changes, apply the actions consistently and move forward one step at a time until they achieve their goals. But once they get there and finally experienced the sweetness of getting what they wanted and the joy of vibrant health and their own perfect weight, they little by little start self sabotaging and making choices that are not in alignment with maintaining their success.

There is a forth type of client that I've seen, but I have to tell you that they are very rare indeed. This person goes through the exact same process as the third type. They successfully achieve their desired goals but not only are they able to maintain them, they keep expanding their desires and reaching for a higher level of health, wellness and fulfillment.

What makes this forth type different than the rest and what keeps them moving successfully one small step at a time towards their desires? The difference that makes all the difference is this. Not only do they change their actions, they change their minds. They change and rewrite their beliefs and thoughts. This quiets their inner critic – you know that little voice that keeps telling you what you're doing wrong and helpfully points out all your faults and sins. That voice that tells you things like, "you're selfish to want time and things for yourself, others needs and desires should come first." Or "you don't deserve that, who do you think you are?" Or how about this, "you're so fat and disgusting, I can't believe how weak and lazy you are." And here's one of my all time favorites "you've tried this a million times before and failed, what makes you think you'll be able to succeed this time, you're just a fat lazy slob."

Does any of this sound vaguely familiar to you? If it does don't panic you're not alone. What I've found in my personal experience with myself and working with numerous others, is that these types of internal comments are very, very normal especially among women. These types of insidious thoughts and beliefs will keep you stuck, frustrated and/or will cause you to sabotage any success you manage to achieve, because at a very deep level you don't feel worthy or deserving of it.

What do I mean by this? I mean that even though your "going through all the right motions" and doing all the right things – eating healthy nutritious food, getting the proper amount of exercise and sleep and keeping your life generally balanced, if you haven't changed your mind, if you haven't dealt with what I like to call the "junk food" thoughts; if you don't truly believe on the deepest level of your "being" that you are valuable and deserving – you're going to have trouble maintaining all those wonderful new healthy and life enhancing choices and a vibrant, healthy body!

They "key" to permanent success is your mind – change your thoughts and you change your beliefs, which naturally changes your actions and so doing changes your reality! The key to all your desires is within you and you hold all the power to make all your dreams come true – you just need to change your mind!
But how do you do this? If you've tried to changing a negative thought pattern you have to a more positive one you know how hard that can be. My favorite tool for releasing old non-supportive though patterns and beliefs and resetting your mind with new self-empowering beliefs is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).

To learn more about EFT and how you can use this simple acupressure technique to help with weight loss, cravings and emotional eating, sign-up to download my free e-Book "EFT For Weight Loss Success" click on the box to the right. Watch my video EFT for Cravings (box on the right) to get immediate help with emotional eating and food craving.