5 Simple Things to Improve Your Well-being

This blog is all about how the simple, small things make life so meaningful, and many of the ways we can improve well-being are quite simple. We live in a world where the standard is to try to fix things with pills and products, and we want things to be fast, cheap, easy, and big. We don’t have time to see how things are connected or investigate what’s going on at a deeper level; we just want it solved. It’s all about convenience and instant gratification. None of that bodes well for health long-term, however, and the most impactful solutions for improved health and well-being tend to come from simple philosophies or commitments. Without further ado, here are five simple things you can do to improve your health and well-being:

1. Eat real food

Since the 1950s, grocery stores have gradually been filled with processed food. According to Dr. Larry McCleary, 80% of the food we have in grocery stores currently did not exist 100 years ago. I interpret that as at least 80% of the food in grocery stores is highly processed with additives I want to steer clear of. The secret to buying real food at the grocery store is to shop the perimeter where you’ll find meat, seafood, and produce. The large majority of shelf-stable foods filling the middle aisles to the brim is pumped full of sugar (my arch nemesis) preservatives, additives, and chemicals that do nothing but disintegrate health.

Real food, on the other hand, has positive impacts on the body. Just to be clear, by real food, I mean food that was either a live animal or that grew from the ground. I personally am not a fan of grains and exclude them from this rule of food that grows from the ground. Eating real food can improve your focus and memory, energy levels, libido, and overall health by reducing the risk of cancer and metabolic disease (read: type 2 diabetes). To read more about real food and its importance, check out this post.

2. Drink clean water

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan that came to light nationally in 2016 revealed just how important it is to drink clean, filtered water. The crisis illuminated how we can be impacted by contaminants in our water in modern times, and how it can go unaddressed. Generally speaking, poor quality water can contribute to cancer, endocrine disorders, gastrointestinal issues, parasites, and infectious disease.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit organization that works to make research and education accessible, as well advocate for healthy living. They have developed stringent guidelines for drinking water based on the impact of common toxins in our water. My favorite water filter, the Berkey, has a helpful water quality search tool where you can see what contaminants exceed the EWG’s standards in your region. They also have high quality water filters that I highly recommend!

Improve your well-being by investing in your health with a high quality water filter. While it is an added expense, even simple a Brita filter is better than nothing!

3. Breathe clean air

While most of us are familiar with our collective concerns for air pollution, this is focused solely on the air outside of our homes. All of our air is important, but given that the average person spends 90% of their life indoors and takes about 20,000 breaths a day, it would be remiss not to consider the impact of indoor air quality (IAQ).

I am particularly passionate about indoor air quality after getting sick from toxic mold exposure in my home. It wasn’t ever something that crossed my mind until I had to worry about it after being diagnosed with mold illness. If you’re concerned you might be facing a mold problem in your home, I recommend reading this post on how to check for toxic mold and this post on what to do if you’ve found mold in your home.

Regardless if you’re managing a mold concern in your home, investing in high quality air purifiers can reduce the mycotoxins, bacteria, dusts, and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that you breathe in. Exposure to indoor air pollutants can lead to respiratory disease, cancer, and common allergy symptoms of irritated nose, throat, and eyes. To address this, you can invest in air purifiers for your living and working spaces. Of course, the kind of air purifier you invest in depends on your purpose, but you can read this post on air purifiers to learn about how they work as well as a few trusted brands I recommend investigating.

4. Use clean products/limit chemicals

Your skin is the biggest organ on your body and it is super absorbent. What you put on your skin makes its way into your bloodstream. This includes all moisturizers, deodorants, makeup, shampoo, and the cleaning supplies we use. Unfortunately, there are a lot of toxic chemicals in the majority of our products, like phthalates, parabens, and fragrance, to name a few. The problem with these ingredients is that they disrupt our hormones and cause all kinds of diseases including cancer, infertility, birth defects, and skin irritation.

To reduce the impact of these toxic substances, we can evaluate the cosmetics, and cleaning supplies we use, and reduce our interactions with plastic. For cosmetics, you can use cleaner products on your skin and try out some natural options, like using coconut oil as a moisturizer and arrowroot flour as dry shampoo. For cleaning supplies, you use cleaner cleaning products, like Molly’s Suds laundry detergent and Branch Basics. You can also consider cleaning with vinegar, baking soda, and olive oil. I remember feeling delighted the day I realized I could clean stainless steal with vinegar and shine it with olive oil! Read this post for more ideas about low toxin living.

5. Prioritize sleep

Unfortunately, I know that the first four things here can be quite expensive since we’ve made these simple solutions more difficult to acquire, but sleep has a different sort of cost. It doesn’t cost you money, but it does cost you time. The benefits, however, can be returned to you by improving the quality of your life significantly. Getting enough sleep can improve your mood, sharpen your focus and memory, and help to regulate your immune system and blood sugar. On the other hand, the long term detriments of reduced sleep include increased risk of inflammation, heart disease, high blood pressure, metabolic disease, brain atrophy, and dementia.

I know that some of these things- maybe all of these things- are easier said than done, but in theory, they are all simple solutions to improving health and well-being.

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