Improving Your Health: 7 Steps You Can Take Today to Have a Healthier Life

Are you fed up? Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired? Well now is the perfect time to start doing something about it! There are steps that you can take today, right now, to start paving the way toward a healthier life with more joy and energy.

So let's get started.

1. Set appointments with your doctor and dentist Get routine screenings to catch trouble before it starts. If you're already experiencing health challenges of any kind, your doctor can help you find the existing causes of the unease. Even if your unease appears to be something minor, you want to address it before it becomes serious.

2. Record what you eat Record everything you eat for a week or two - every meal, snack, and beverage. This may help you discover what's dragging you down. For example, looking at your beverage intake might make you realize that you're overdosing on sugar because of sweetened cups of coffee and fruit juice. Seeing everything recorded will make it easier to make positive nutritional changes.

3. Improve your diet Here are some steps you can take right now to start cleaning up your diet. Raid your kitchen and throw out all junk foods. Ok, maybe you can save just a little bit. But when it's gone, no more junk food in the house! Start eating five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Go grocery shopping today if you need to. Decide right now to start planning to eat well. Keep healthy snacks, fruits and vegetables in the house. Buy foods that are low in sodium and saturated fat. Search for and devour all the information you can about healthy cooking and eating. Here's an article to get you started - fitness.gov/eat-healthy/how-to-eat-healthy/.

4. Schedule three days a week for exercise At this point, you don't need to know exactly what your routine will entail. The most important thing for now is to firmly commit to exercising regularly. Start off with an easy goal of exercising three days a week, but you should eventually work up to five days a week minimum. Plan out the days, times, and length of each workout. A minimum of 30 minutes is recommended. If you don't have a gym membership or exercise videos, vigorous walking will do for now. If you hate exercising, mix in some activities that you enjoy. Any activity that gets your heart pumping qualifies - skating, hiking, dancing, etc.

5. Control stress Less emotional stress equals more health and happiness. Meditation, exercise, and yoga are three highly effective methods of controlling stress. You also need effective ways of dealing with unexpected stressful situations. For instance, you might go for short vigorous walks after bad work meetings. Or, retreating to a bathroom stall to simply close your eyes and take some deep breaths will have an instant calming effect. Usually, all it takes is the simple realization that stressing about a problem does not solve it.

6. Get more sleep In many cases, getting more sleep boils down to having the discipline to set a daily sleep schedule. But there are many things that can disrupt a good night's rest. Some of them include: elevated stress levels consuming too much caffeine watching T.V. right before bed exercising too late sleeping on a low quality mattress Getting enough sleep is crucial, so you should do everything you can to get seven or more hours of sleep as often as possible.

7. Improve your personal relationships Your personal relationships can have a huge impact on your overall health and well-being. If you're not getting along with a coworker or someone you're very close to, think about what you can do to help improve the relationship. The other party may or may not reciprocate, but you can at least put your best foot forward. If the relationship does not improve for whatever reason, the stress control tips above can help you deal with it. If the relationship is overly toxic, cut it off altogether if possible. Your mind and body will thank you for it. Final Thoughts There is no reason why you can't start taking steps at this moment to improve your health and well-being. The sooner you get started, the better. So, what are you waiting for? There's no time like the present.

Hopefully you won't find yourself in the position of needing to fire your contractor. But if you do, be sure to document everything, seek professional advice, and stick to your guns. There are good contractors out there, and once you find one be sure to hang onto him. They're like gold dust.