Eating a plant-based diet has been proven over the last few years to have a huge impact on your overall health and well-being. With thousands of top athletes onboard and switching from meat to veg, it’s exciting times. Plant based recipes make you far more adventurous with food, and spices become such an important part of your cooking, which in turn gives you double the health benefits! Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds all provide an anti-inflammatory environment for the fluids of the body – which is the fundamental part of feeling energised, healthy and disease free. There are many small changes that we can make every day that will have a massive impact on how you feel, plus be incredible for the environment too. The two main factors I would say that are vital, are to make fruits and vegetables the main part of everything you eat. The second fundamental thing is increasing your water intake.
Making sure you have great hydration is one of the simplest adjustments you can make with some impressive results. Even a small decline in your body’s hydration can make things very difficult for you. Straight away your focus starts to weaken, you can feel dizzy and confused and your heart can beat in weird rhythms. Tiredness starts to slowly creep in, your mood and energy can decline, and your concentration levels may drop. I am sure you have all experienced that mid-afternoon slump where you feel as if your eyes want to shut and you just need to nod off for a few seconds. Well, if you want to wake your brain up go have a pint of water with some lemon, lime, fresh mint and cucumber in and see what happens! It’s a miracle! If you are an asthma sufferer or have allergies of any kind, then hydrating yourself, as simple as it may sound can be very beneficial. If you are dehydrated, this can cause the body to produce more histamine, and asthmatics have excessive levels of histamine in their lung tissue which can cause increased mucus to build up in the lungs, resulting in more restricted airways, making it far more difficult to breath. Also, if you want beautiful skin, good brain power, better circulation, a healthy digestive system, and regular bowel habits, then drinking water is one of the main key elements to help this. Take constipation as an example – I have seen so many clients over the years that have turned up for appointments in so much pain and have been on medication for constipation. This can result in spot breakouts, your eyes can look puffy, or perhaps visible skin rashes are on the body. People can become bloated and uncomfortable and lose their appetite, or get bad breath, or a nasty taste in their mouth from overgrowth of toxic gut bacteria which can work its way right up from the gut to the mouth.
Stress is also a major factor for constipation but staying hydrated can make every bit of difference possible. Try not to reach for drinks that may dehydrate further, such as fizzy sodas, beer, wine, spirits, hot chocolate, coffees, sweet teas, and energy drinks as these types of fluids will only help you to pack on the pounds and zap you from hydration.
Getting the best out of your health and feeling energised and full of vigour can sometimes come from the simplest changes.
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