100 Simple Ways to Change Your Life for the Better

No matter how perfect you may think you are, the fact this there’s always some small way you can improve upon yourself. Whether it’s broadening your knowledge or reducing your impact on the earth, there are seemingly endless little things you can do to make a change for the better. Here, we’ll discuss 100 of these steps, and how you can go about doing them.

Health

Good health is the foundation of a good life, so make these improvements, and they’ll resonate out to the rest of your life.

1. Eat breakfast every morning: Eating breakfast is important for your health and mental power, supplying essential vitamins, minerals, and energy for your day.
2. Get a good night’s rest: You just can’t have a happy and productive life if you’re tired all of the time, so get some quality shut eye.
3. Drink water: Step up your water intake to lose weight, feel better, and improve your skin.
4. Eat slowly: Slow down when you eat, and you’ll find that you consume less while still feeling satisfied.
5. Cut down on junk food: Junk food has a nasty way of bringing your health down, so avoid it whenever possible, opting instead for healthy food like fresh fruits and vegetables.
6. Practice good dental hygiene: Researchers have found that dental hygiene is important for more than cosmetic reasons-it can help you chew food and even avoid heart disease.
7. Drink tea: Be sure to check out the powerhouse of benefits that tea can deliver, which includes improved memory and prevention of ills such as cavities, cancer, and heart disease.
8. Get some exercise: Whether you need to lose weight or not, exercise will have a positive effect on your overall health and quality of life.
9. Improve your energy: If you’re feeling sluggish all day, chances are you’re just not going to feel good about yourself. So take a few steps to boost your energy, and you’ll be better in your daily life.
10. Intensify your workouts: Researchers have found that by doing more intense workouts, you can enjoy similar benefits that you would with a more relaxed workout for a longer period of time.
11. Enjoy fish a few times a week: Eat fish, and you’ll get a serving of Omega-3 fatty acids, which can help reduce heart disease.
12. Wear better shoes: Don’t torture your toes with restrictive shoes all the time-limit the amount of time you spend in uncomfortable shoes.
13. Protect your skin: Stay out of the sun to avoid skin damage, or use sunblock to help.
14. Eat at home: It’s easier and cheaper to prepare healthy foods on your own at home, and skillfully cooking a meal is sure to impress just about anyone.
15. Get tested for prediabetes: Diabetes is a disease that many Americans are susceptible to, and by discovering it early on you can prevent it or lessen its impact.
16. Take a daily walk: Get a little bit of movement and clear your mind with a walk every day.
17. Lose weight: One of the best things you can do for your health and overall quality of life is to shed a few pounds.

Mental

Improve your mind by taking these simple steps.

18. Go back to school: Continuing your education does not have to be a complicated endeavor. Take an online class, or just a weekend seminar.
19. Read classic books: Improve your mind by finally picking up all those books you were supposed to read in school.
20. Plan: Always have a plan for your life, so you’ll know what you’re working toward.
21. Quit procrastinating: Resolve to get moving, and you’ll find that you have much more time than you originally realized.
22. Get inspired by a book: Read a book that will help you spark positive changes in your life.
23. Learn from your mistakes: Don’t let mistakes get you down. Instead, consider what you did wrong, and how you can avoid doing so again in the future.
24. Stop worrying: Let go of worry, and know that the future will come no matter what you do about it.
25. Learn to play a musical instrument: Pick up a guitar, or even a harp, to improve your mental capacity and have something fun to do.
26. Work to your own advantage: Improve upon what you can, and let the rest fall away.
27. Think slowly: Instead of jumping to conclusions, carefully calculate what a situation means. Doing so can help you save relationships that might be damaged by rash thinking
28. Participate in a debate: Have a rational discussion with someone of similar intellect to improve your knowledge.
29. Learn a new language: Broaden your horizons by learning how to speak a new language.
30. Visit Wikipedia: Spend some time on Wikipedia learning lots of interesting facts you’ve never realized before.

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Top 10 Healthy Foods We Never Eat

There are many healthy foods that never see the inside of a shopping cart or in your fridge. Some you’ve never heard of, and others you’ve simply forgotten about. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best of the bunch. Make a place for them on your kitchen and you’ll instantly upgrade your health with no a prescription.

1. Cabbage - Cabbage is a vegetable few people really appreciate, but it’s truly a dieter’s friend. It’s strong-flavored, but it’s this feature that makes it enjoyable in certain dishes.
This leafy vegetable ranks right up there with broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts with a reputation for fighting cancer. It’s also a good source of vitamin C, fiber, potassium, and other nutrients. Cabbage also offers a major payoff — the fewest calories and least fat of any vegetable. This powerful veggie is a must for dieters trying to lose weight. From green cabbage you’ll enjoy a fiber boost and a respectable amount of vitamin C. Two types of cabbage, savoy and bok choy, provide beta-carotene — an antioxidant that battles cancer and heart disease. For those who don’t eat dairy products, bok choy is an important source of calcium, which may help prevent osteoporosis and aid in controlling blood pressure.

2. Blueberrys - are the best fruit because they contain the most antioxidants, significantly less pesticides are used in their cultivation, and they are the least perishable of all berries. They are high in vitamins A, C, and E, and contain significant amounts of potassium, manganese and magnesium. Recent studies have shown that eating blueberries may improve memory, intelligence, and coordination.
Consuming blueberries au naturel is a good idea, since heat diminishes the benefits of the phytonutrients they contain. (Health experts agree that eating cooked berries, fresh or frozen, still provides significant benefits.)

3. Spinach. There are many reasons to enjoy the dark green leafy vegetable known as spinach. For many years spinach has been touted as a health food, and this superfood certainly lives up to its reputation. Spinach is a rich source of many important vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C, iron, calcium and beta-carotene.
Spinach is also a rich source of dietary fiber, thought to play an important role in protecting the body from many forms of cancer. As a matter of fact, the compounds contained in spinach are being studied for their possible role in preventing many forms of cancer, including such major killers as lung cancer. One reason may be the high concentration of vitamin K found in spinach. Vitamin K has long been associated with cancer prevention, and spinach is one of the very best sources of this vital nutrient.

4. Pumpkin seeds - Downing pumpkin seeds is the easiest way to consume more magnesium. That’s important because French researchers recently determined that men with the highest levels of magnesium in their blood have a 40 percent lower risk of early death than those with the lowest levels. And on average, men consume 353 mg of the mineral daily, well under the 420 mg minimum recommended by the USDA.In terms of their fat content, pumpkin seeds are a good way to get both the omega 3 and 6 essential fats needed for hormone balance, brain function and skin health.

5. Beans - Much recent research in the food sciences has established that all kinds of beans are loaded with protease inhibitors, compounds that make it hard for cancer cells to invade adjacent tissue. Fava beans contain much herein, which has shown to block carcinogens in the digestive tract. And soy beans are especially rich in isoflavones, which appears to reduce the risk of breast cancer by blocking the tumor-growing influence of estrogen. Lentils also belong to the bean family, and are one of the tastiest, most versatile, and easiest to prepare beans.

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14 Habits That Make You Fat

1. TV Watching

Prolonged TV watching is a strong predictor for obesity1.
Recent research2 has proved that people who watch around two hours of TV per day are much more likely to be overweight than those who watched only half an hour per day. When you watch TV you are virtually motionless. Your heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate decline, resulting in burning 20 to 30 calories less per hour. Research by Harvard University4 has shown that there is a link between the amount children eat and the amount of television they watch.

2. Eating Too Fast

It is a habit of most people living in a fast paced society. Eating fast lets you eat too much before you are fully aware of it. It takes the brain about 15-20 minutes to start signaling feelings of fullness. Scientists suppose that fast eating is a risk factor for the metabolic syndrome3, a combination of the symptoms such as high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, and insulin resistance.

3. Task Snacking

Task snacking refers to eating while doing other activities. if you often eat meals or snacks while working by yourself in front of your computer, while driving, watching TV, or standing at the kitchen counter, shopping with a friend, or talking on the phone, it’s likely that the “task snacking” eating style is increasing your odds of becoming overweight or obese.

4. Frequent Fast Food Consumption

One of the big reasons we’re seeing more obesity in our society these days is that we are too stressed and busy to make healthy dinners at home, often opting to get fast food at the nearest drive-thru instead. Fast foods compromise the quality of the diet by replacing more healthy foods. Fast foods are known for having high content of saturated and trans-fat, low content of fiber and massive portion sizes, which leads to obesity.

5. Eating To Manage Feelings

Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food (usually “comfort” or junk foods) in response to feelings (such as depression, anxiety, or loneliness) instead of hunger.

Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions. How many times have you found yourself scouring the kitchen for a snack, or absently munching on junk food when you’re stressed, but not really hungry?

6. Too Busy To Exercise

With all the demands on your schedule, exercise may be one of the last things on your to-do list. If so, you’re not alone. Americans live a more sedentary lifestyle than we have in past generations, yet our minds seem to be racing from everything we have to do. Unfortunately, from sitting in traffic, clocking hours at our desks, and plopping in front of the TV in exhaustion at the end of the day, exercise often goes by the wayside.

7. Your Friends Can Make You
Fat

If you’re putting on weight, you might want to take a look at who you’re hanging around with. A study7 published in the July 26, 2007 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that obesity may be “socially contagious.” The study was conducted on more than 12,000 people over 32 years, and concluded that having an overweight friend, sibling or spouse increased one’s risk of obesity by 37 to 57 percent.

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Drink Soda and Damage Your DNA

Research from a British university suggests that sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in many soft drinks, has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

This could eventually lead to diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver and Parkinson’s.

When a UK professor of molecular biology and biotechnology tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells, he discovered that it was damaging important DNA in the cells’ mitochondria.

Mitochondria serve as the “power stations” for cells, and damage to them can lead to serious cell malfunctions associated with aging and age-related disease. The damage caused by sodium benzoate was great enough to cause the mitochondria to stop functioning.

Sodium benzoate occurs naturally in berries in small amounts, but is used in large quantities to prevent mold in soft drinks such as Sprite, Diet Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.
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