The Ultimate Guide to Health

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Disclaimer: I am not a doctor/dietician/scientist. The information in this guide comes from my research and personal experience. Before using any information from this article, please consult a doctor/dietician and do your own research. The reasoning provided in this article might not be exact or complete.

Diet is the most important component of health. Your diet not only determines your physical fitness but also your mental health. A correct diet can be the solution to all sorts of health-related problems including obesity, anxiety, depression, diabetes, etc.

But unfortunately, it is a complicated topic. There is a lot of noise in the information out there which can make it confusing for you to take action. This article aims to simplify the insurmountable task of fixing the diet and lifestyle into a few actionable steps. My promise is that following these steps will help you to live a long, happy, and fulfilling life in the long term.

Below are the key steps that you need to take. These are arranged in the order of their priority. It might be futile to jump steps as applying any later step without having first applied previous steps might not produce any significant benefit. Let’s roll:

1. Stop eating processed sugar and sugar: If it tastes sweet, spit it out! Sugar is the best poison. It is highly addictive, easily available, extremely cheap, and socially accepted. It is so hard to not eat it unless you consciously oppose it. Processed sugar is mainly found in cake, ice cream, pastry, etc. This is the most deadly form of sugar. But avoiding processed sugar is not sufficient. You should forget the taste of sweetness. I would suggest staying away from sugar alternatives like jaggery, honey, rock candy, stevia, etc. These alternatives are also sufficiently problematic. It also helps in keeping things simple by just avoiding all forms of sugar.

2. Prioritize sleep: Often people underestimate the importance and power of sleep. Sleep heals all sorts of mental, physical, and emotional injuries. The Guinness book of world records won’t let you set a record for “the maximum number of hours that a person can go without sleep” because lack of sleep is so extremely bad for your health. Try to get around 8 hours of sleep. The quality of sleep is also very important. If you tend to mouth breathe during sleep then consider mouth taping.

3. Get your fats right: There are just a handful of oils that you should use.

   • Coconut oil: You should not use coconut oil for high-temperature cooking. It can be used for any other purpose including low-temperature cooking. Coconut oil gets many of its benefits from its high MCT content.
   • Ghee: Ghee is a very stable fat. So it can be used for high-temperature cooking. It gets its benefits from its high butyric acid content.
   • Extra virgin olive oil: It is considered to be the most healthy oil. It can be expensive though. Despite being not a very stable oil, research suggests that it is safe to consume high-quality extra virgin olive oil for medium and high-temperature cooking.
   • Avocado oil: another very stable oil.

   Other than these oils, mustard oil can also be considered for cooking. I have personally not concluded if mustard oil is healthy or not. It is in that grey area for me. Make your own wise decision if you need to consume it. Any oil other than these five should not be used. This means you can not use canola oil, refined oils like sunflower, groundnut, etc.

   Trans fat is another form of fat that you should avoid at all costs. It is mostly formed during frying and roasting in the same oil repeatedly. A simple rule of thumb: stay away from fried and roasted stuff. If you are dying to eat it then cook it yourself using a stable oil like ghee and replace it quickly with fresh oil for another round of frying.

4. Identify your allergies: Let's understand allergies first. When you eat some food then for any reason your body may recognize that particular food as its enemy. In reality that food may or may not be an enemy. Then it creates antibodies against it. When you eat that food again the next time then your body starts showing side effects because it fights with it. Once you have an allergy then it is very difficult if not impossible to convince your body that this food is not bad.

   Most people have some allergies. There is no point in torturing your body by continuing to eat the food that you are allergic to in the hope that your body will adapt someday. You must identify your allergies and stop eating those things. Identifying allergies can be a complicated and time-consuming process. One simple way is to get the list of common food allergies. Out of the ones that you already eat, apply the removal and re-introduction test one at a time. For example, if you want to check for milk allergy then stop consuming it for 3 weeks. Then re-introduce milk to your diet for one week. If you are allergic to milk then on reintroduction your body should show clear negative side-effects like reduction in energy level, brain fog, bloating, loose motion, diarrhea, skin problems, etc.

5. Move your body: It is inhumane to not move your body. Your body is designed to move. You must have a daily routine to do some physical activity. 15 min for 5 days a week is the bare minimum. You have no excuse. You have to take out some time, preferably with an empty stomach in the morning. You can do this in the comfort of your home. Do whatever works for you. It could be yoga, resistance training, running, sports, whatever you like. For yoga, you just need a yoga mat. You can get started with resistance training with something as simple as a resistance band or a pair of dumbbells. There are numerous videos on YouTube to help you.

   Prefer physical activities that are more connected to nature. Outdoor activities can be better for uplifting your mood. Allow some skin exposure to sunlight so that your body can synthesize vitamin D. Try to maintain a sweet balance of cardiovascular and strength exercises. Consider rucking if you don’t enjoy weightlifting or cardio. Rucking has a lower rate of injury than both running and weightlifting.

   If you happen to be working on a desk job then don’t forget to take short breaks every 30 minutes or so to stretch and walk a little.

6. **Stay hydrated: **Often when people think they are hungry, they are just thirsty. Check your urine color to assess if you are drinking sufficient water. It should be almost transparent.

7. Follow a routine: Your body absolutely loves a routine. As the predictability for your body increases with a routine, you become more efficient by optimizing and automating a lot of your functions. Formulate a daily routine that optimizes your circadian rhythm. Some people are early birds while some are night owls. You will have to figure out what works best for you. If you are confused, then just pick the early bird routine as this is what works best for most people. Even if it doesn’t initially then it’s likely that your body will start liking it after some time.

   If you are a female then things can be a little more complicated as you have an additional rhythm associated with your menstrual cycle superimposed on the circadian rhythm. It is important to listen to your body so that you respect both of these.

   Do note that giving your body a little shock occasionally can be very beneficial if done correctly. When you break your routine and do something exciting, your body is forced to turn off the auto-pilot mode and your brain gets more focused. Just make sure that the shock is not too extreme and that you allow your body sufficient time to recover afterwards.

8. Adjust your macros: Increase fat and reduce carbs. Fat is a good thing if you take the right type of fat in the right quantity. If you think that fat in your diet makes you fat then let me tell you — this couldn’t be farther from the truth. High fat and low-carb diet is the first step to reducing body fat. Carbohydrate is an easy source of energy. When you reduce carbs and increase fat in your diet then you force your body to use fat as a source of energy. This is how you get fat adapted. Once you are fat-adapted then your body can easily burn stored body fat to get energy. You won’t get crazy cravings when you reduce caloric intake as your body won’t complain because it has been trained to handle the situation.

   More importantly, the reason why you get fat is because of insulin. Insulin signals your body to store food as body fat. Eating fat releases significantly less insulin than when you eat the same amount of calories as carbs. The best way to follow such a ketogenic diet is to rely on eggs (if you are not allergic to it) and meat for most of your calories. Don’t get me wrong, the cheap chicken burger sold by your favorite fast-food vendor is extremely bad for your health.

   Most meals should have some protein source in it. Protein not only helps your body to grow and repair the damage but also makes you satiated. You might be surprised to know that feeling hungry and having an empty stomach are not the same things. It's all about hormone release. If ghrelin gets released then you feel hungry. If leptin gets released, you feel full.

9. Practice intermittent fasting (IF)/time-restricted eating: When you eat 24/7 then you put excessive pressure on your digestive system and burn your mitochondria. Give them some rest with IF. Fasting allows your body to recover and become more efficient. When you do IF then out of your 24 hours in your day, you choose a continuous period of 16 hours, known as the fasting period, when you do not eat. This period has to be continuous, meaning without a gap. For example, in a 16–8 version, you take your breakfast at 9, lunch at noon, and last meal at around 4:30 pm. The ratio of fasting period to eating period is flexible though. You can do a 12–12, 14–10, 16–8,… fasting. You can start with a simple 12–12 fast and stick to it or gradually work your way up to longer fasting periods. If you are doing a version that has a fasting window greater than 16 hours then I would suggest that you don't do it daily. Such extreme versions should only be practiced sparingly by experts.

   A high-fat diet and IF together is the best way to lose and maintain low body fat and feel energetic. If you are already fat-adapted then you shouldn’t find IF difficult. There are a few things that you can take during the fasting period that will not only ease your fast but might also benefit further with fat loss. These are water, salt, and coffee. By coffee, I mean coffee powder. When you do IF then your body loses a lot of water as urine and along with that you lose water-soluble minerals like sodium and potassium. Keep yourself hydrated during the fast. When you wake up, add some Himalayan pink salt to your water and drink it. This will replenish your lost minerals and get the blood flowing. Taking coffee is optional. If you do choose to take coffee then only take it in the morning. Remember to have a period of at least two weeks without coffee after one every month to make sure that your body doesn’t get used to the caffeine.

10. Stay connected: Loneliness is as deadly as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. It is important to note that loneliness is a personal feeling. You can feel lonely while you are surrounded by people and not feel lonely when you are alone. If you do feel lonely, then first understand that it is something that almost everybody experiences sometime during their lifetime. Don’t try to defend yourself and try opening up. You will be surprised to find that you are surrounded by amazing people. Try to stay connected with your loved ones. Value life and enjoy it while you are still alive. Staying connected and feeling a sense of belonging can be the most helpful thing for fighting all sorts of addiction including drug, sugar, alcohol, cigarette, and phone addiction.

    Help yourself and others. Try to understand how your work, action, and decisions contribute positively to the growth, development, and progress of humanity. This will give you tremendous purpose in life and your health will automatically improve.

11. Eat whole foods: If I have to summarize the diet part of health then this is it —EAT WHOLE FOODS. This means most of your calories should come from home-cooked or raw fruits, vegetables, eggs, and meat. Stay away from fast food, packaged items, and other processed products. I would also suggest that you consume dairy and cereals like wheat, corn, soy with caution. The reason why these dairy and agricultural products can be problematic for many people is that human beings did not evolve to eat these things. Human beings have started consuming these things in only the last 10,000 years or so but our evolution as humans has happened over millions of years.

    I should also point out that fruits and vegetables mostly contain carbs. If you want to be careful with your carb intake then consume fewer fruits. Eating vegetables should not be avoided because fruits and vegetables are your only source of vitamin C. There is no vitamin C in animal-based products.

12. Replace while salt with pink salt: If you are wondering that this point is for high blood pressure patients then you are wrong. Points 1 and 3 are more likely to solve the high BP problem. This point is more targeted towards fixing your low energy levels.

    Your body has a sodium-potassium pump. A healthy balance between these two minerals is crucial. The problem with white salt is that it creates an imbalance as it contains only sodium. Himalayan pink salt not only contains potassium but also a host of other minerals as well.

Other than the above-mentioned points some other things go without saying. Like, it should be fairly obvious that you must fight your addictions like alcohol and smoking.

Enough reading. It’s time to take action. If you have found the information in this article useful then help your friends and family members by sharing this article with them.

Originally posted here: https://hive.blog/hive-150338/@ayushmw/the-ultimate-guide-to-health