Six Pillars of Health
There are mounds of evidence supporting each of these pillars and their benefits to your health. We'll show you why holistic and preventative measures are important to your overall wellness. We have a step-by-step guide on how to achieve optimal health for you trying to balance it all. We know life is super busy—and we want to help.
1. wholefood Plant-Based Eating
Whole plant foods are delicious and satisfying! They cut food cravings and eliminate the desire for sugary or fatty foods. Digestion is improved!!! A plant diet is less expensive and makes cooking at home easier!
A Whole Food Plant Based Diet is your most POWERFUL weapon to stay healthy and fight disease.
It’s all about eating plants, and avoiding animal foods. It’s about eating whole foods and eliminating processed foods.
2. Positive Relationships
Simply put; love yourself, love those around you, and be around loving, supportive people. If there are toxic people in your life—strive to improve the situation. If you can’t, sometimes distancing yourself from them is the best approach. Talk to a professional.
How to Start:
Make a list of everyone in your life (family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, etc.) Put them in one of 3 categories:
- Healthy – they add value to your life and you add value to theirs
- Neutral – not harmful or toxic in any way; but don’t enhance your personal growth
- Unhealthy – extremely toxic and should be avoided at all costs
3. Healthy Sleep
Our bodies NEED sleep to function normally. Sleep helps all of your body’s systems recover. Each individual’s specific sleep needs may vary, but in general, 7-9 hours of sleep per night will maximize your ability to recover and be ready for your next day. Good sleep hygiene with a proper evening routine and minimizing phones and distractions in bed can help.
Consider the following:
- Sleep 7-9 hours per night and have good sleep hygiene with a good evening routine.
4. Stress Management
We are surrounded with environmental pressures: our job, overuse of electronics, lack of sleep, poor diet, and a sedentary lifestyle. It is a vicious cycle.
However, our reaction to stress is just as important. We have a lot more control over how we react to these stresses than we realize!
Consider the following:
- Sleep 7-9 hours per night and have good sleep hygiene with a good evening routine.
5. Moderate Exercise
Moderate exercise is not difficult. There are many ways to exercise and improve your health!
The Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Scientific Report 2018 stated that: Most health benefits are achieved with 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week-like walking!
6. Avoidance of Risky Substances
Avoidance of risky substances is perhaps the most obvious part of a healthy lifestyle. All of us live in an environment full of harmful toxins. It is important to acknowledge and talk about the harm that is caused by alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and other toxic substances, including the pollution in our environment, household chemicals, and bad-quality water. Lifestyle medicine looks at a wide range of potential toxins from various sources.
Avoid using the following substances:
Alcohol
Tobacco
Illicit drug use
environmental toxins