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User ProfileThe 5 Steps to Optimal Health
February 18th, 2010
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Optimal health isn’t found in a miracle pill or drink, but is a lifestyle achieved through a balanced and simple approach to diet, exercise, nutrition, and knowledge.
Dramatically improving your health is something that doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. It only seems complex because it’s hard to know where to start or which actions will have the most impact on your health. If you watch TV or pass by a magazine counter, it’s even more complicated because each month there’s a new diet or exercise program—often contradicting what was said last month, last week, or even yesterday. It doesn’t have to be this way.
In reality, there are some tried, tested, simple, and effective ways to improve your health. They don’t involve intricate diets or arduous exercises—and cost you little if anything at all. If you supply your mind and body with proper information and nutrition, you will be your own greatest source of health, disease prevention, and happiness.
We believe that that there are healthy steps that you can take right now—without disruption to your daily life. By incorporating smaller, manageable chunks of
activity into your daily routine, you’re more likely to follow these changes for longer than if you were to make more drastic ones and eventually go back to your old ways.
We’ve distilled volumes and decades of medical and scientific research—and conducted a substantial our amount of our own, so that you don’t have to sort through it all. We’ve arrived at a simple five-step plan that you can start right now to put you on the pathway to optimal health, vitality, and quality of life.
Even if you’re in great shape, you’ll see the wisdom of Unicity’s 5 Steps to Optimal Health, and if you aren’t, you’ll see how easy and simple improving your health can be.
Step One: Hydrate
Step Two: Exercise
Step Three: Cleanse
Step Four: Nourish
Step Five: Target
Before we begin, go into the kitchen, fill a glass with water, and drink. There! You just did the most important thing you could do to start improving your health—drinking sufficient water. Could it be simpler? We don’t think so. All medical and scientific research points to this as your starting place: Drink more water.
How long can you hold your breath? You can’t go very long without oxygen, can you? Next to oxygen, water is the most essential element needed by your body—not only to survive but also to function properly. It might not seem like it, but water is the most necessary nutrient of them all.
A significant fraction of your body is water. Your muscle tissue contains about 75 percent water. Your blood is 95 percent water, your body fat contains 14 percent water and your bones have 22 percent water. All totaled, your body is about 55 to 60 percent water.
With that much water in your body, you’d think that you could go for a while without any more. However, your body is using up water even sitting still. Have you ever sat in your car with the windows rolled up when it was cold outside, and had the windows fog up? That’s the water that leaves your body with breathing and evaporation through your skin.
Water is the main ingredient in the fluids in your body systems. Fluids travel through your body, carrying nutrients and waste to and from all your cells and organs. Your heart, your eyes, your intestines, and even your big toe need water-based fluids to survive.
Water plays a critical role in the natural metabolic, digestive, and cellular regenerations processes. Every part and system in your body depends on water to function properly.
Don’t wait until you’re thirsty—according to a Mayo Clinic study, thirst is not always a reliable gauge that you’re getting enough water. In fact, thirst usually doesn’t develop until after the body fluids are depleted well below levels required for optimal functioning.
We recommend that men drink at least four quarts of water a day, and that women drink at least three quarts.
Does it surprise you that Step One is simply drink more water? Go get another drink and we’ll move on to Step Two.
Water helps your body:
- Regulate body temperature
- Moisten tissues in your mouth, eyes, and noses
- Protect body organs and tissues
- Prevent constipation and enhances digestion
- Lubricate joints and tendons
- Lessen the burden on the kidneys and liver by flushing out waste products
- Dissolve minerals and other nutrients to make them more accessible to the body
- Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells
- Increase energy levels
Poor hydration causes the elimination system to become inefficient. When this happens the body starts eliminating waste and toxins through the skin. This can cause acne. Poor hydration can also cause the skin oil to become thicker and increase the possibility of it getting trapped in the pores leading to acne.
If you feel hungry, it's probably actually a sign that you're thirsty, especially if you've eaten not long ago. So have a glass of water when you're feeling hungry and see what happens!
- 1% dehydration results in thirst
- There is a 10% decrease in your mental performance when you feel thirsty
- 2% dehydration reduces your ability to work
- 4% dehydration results in lethargy, apathy, and mental symptoms
- If you are dehydrated you are more likely to have trouble concentrating, be more irritable, and have more headaches
You were afraid this was coming, didn’t you? By “exercise,” we don’t mean the “feel the burn” “no pain, no gain” types of exercise. While there are a number of excellent ways to give your body the exercise it needs, walking is the most natural and normal activity most people can do. If you’re not already moving your body regularly everyday let’s start with walking.
Walking requires little time and no equipment, and research has shown that walking (brisk or power walking) can be beneficial and effective to overall health.
The benefits of exercise vary from burning excess body fat to preventing conditions that are likely to diminish functional capacity, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis. In addition, recent studies have shown that a regular exercise program significantly improves mental capacity.
In fact, walking and other exercise leads to the release of the body’s natural happy drugs—endorphins. Many physicians recommend adding regular walking and exercise as a natural treatment to relieve a bout of depression.
Regular exercise is a vital part of any arthritis treatment program because it increases strength and mobility, and reduces pain at the same time. The joint movement from walking strengthens cartilage—the material that protects the ends of bones—by transporting nutrients and waste products to and from it.
You can be creative about walking and exercising. For example, park further away from work or the store. You’ll be amazed how much stress you relieve by not having to find close parking. Take the stairs next time instead of the elevator. Offer to take an evening walk with your spouse, kids, or dog.
Of course, if you’ve been sedentary lately, you’ll benefit from any increase in activity. Start with 30 minutes of walking a day. If you can’t do 30, start with 20, or 15. Start right now. After you’ve walked into the kitchen to get another drink of water, keep going right out the door and around the block!
The Journey to Optimal health begins with your first step--then add 9,999 more!
Perhaps a time goal leaves us vulnerable to an all-or-nothing attitude. If we can’t fit in 30 minutes or an hour of exercise, we may give up. Wearing a pedometer, on the other hand, may help us see how seizing each opportunity to be active adds up for our health.
A clinical study* compared the actual physical activity between women who followed a 30-minute per day of exercise guideline, and women who tried to reach 10,000 steps a day.
- Before the study, both groups walked less than 7,000 steps each day. The women who aimed for 30 minutes of exercise reached 9,505 steps on the days in which they included a 30-minute walk.
- But on the days without this walk, they reached less than 5,600 steps a day. In contrast, the women who tried for 10,000 steps averaged 11,775 steps when they met their goal. Even when they fell short, however, they still averaged 7,780 steps.
Clip a pedometer on right now and start counting your steps. Falling short of 10,000 steps a day? It will be easier to try increasing by only 2,500 steps per day increments.
* May 2004 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise?, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).
- Exercise increases energy levels and increases serotonin in the brain, which leads to improved mental clarity.
- Recent US government guidelines say that to lose weight and keep it weight off, you should accumulate at least 60 minutes of exercise a day. But half an hour a day is all you need to reap the health and disease-fighting benefits of exercise.
- Research has shown that exercise can slow or help prevent heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis (bone loss), and loss of muscle mass.
- Regular walking triggers the release of substances that improve the overall condition of arteries and increase their flexibility. Researchers have found that walking alone can improve artery elasticity up to 35 percent. One study monitored 24 sedentary postmenopausal women, ages 60 plus, walking 40 minutes a day, 5 days a week. After 12 weeks, these women improved the elasticity of their arteries to the same condition of someone 28 years old.
—Dr. Kerrie Moreau, University of Colorado - Walking has the power to reverse the aging process and safeguard your heart. As you age, your arteries lose up to 60 percent of their stretchiness, leading to an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.
- Aerobic exercise of any kind has the power to calm jangled nerves and improve bad moods. When it is done every day, it can enhance self-esteem and combat depression. Research has shown that a brisk 20-30 minute walk can have the same calming effect as a mild tranquilizer.
Optimal health is an inside-out condition. The first step in achieving and sustaining good health is cleansing and detoxification on the inside. In order for your cells and organs to function properly—let alone optimally—you must cleanse your internal systems.
One of the most neglected aspects of your health is what’s on your inside. Keeping the outside of your body clean is a billion dollar industry. Soaps, scrubs, shampoos, toothpastes…whole aisles of grocery stores devoted to keeping you clean on the outside.
Unfortunately, out of sight is out of mind when it comes to internal cleanliness. Granted, there are a lot more pleasant things to talk about than the details of your insides, but neglecting your internal health and cleanliness has its consequences.
If you’ve been struggling with managing your weight, reshaping your body, or improving your health, and being nagged by health problems like bloating, constipation, and low energy levels the problem may actually be inside you. Not inside your head—think a little lower.
You could be carrying literally pounds of intestinal matter that is blocking the absorption of essential nutrients. This build up has been building up for years; and you can’t eliminate it on your own.
No one likes to think of themselves filled with all sorts of sludge and chemicals, so let’s focus on some of the symptoms that can occur when you need to rid your body of harmful impurities:
Are you?
- Suffering with fatigue, weakness, low energy levels?
- Dealing with allergies or food sensitivities/intolerances?
- Frustrated by elimination problems, constipation, diarrhea, hemorrhoids?
- Suffering with intestinal disorders like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), Colitis?
- Experiencing poor immunity - frequent colds, viruses, infections?
- Dealing with the aggravation of frequent headaches or migraines?
- Exasperated due to skin problems, acne, rashes, boils, pimples, lack-luster color, canker sores?
- Uncomfortable due to digestive problems, bloating, belching, acid reflux, hiatal hernia?
- Concerned by flatulence, bad breath or foul body odor?
- Stressed because of unclear thinking, poor concentration?
- Frustrated because they are always running out of "steam" before they run out of day?
Your body's primary internal organs are engaged in two vital tasks: taking in and processing what the body needs, and getting rid of what the body doesn't need.
Most people focus on improving what they take in—like the nutritional quality of their food and the purity of their air and water. It”s equally important to assist your body in getting rid of what it doesn't need.
- If you live 80 years and eat just two pounds of food per day, you will have eaten 58,400 pounds of food in your lifetime—all of which must pass through your intestines.
- It is estimated that 100 million people in the United States suffer from constipation and that these people spend $700 million on products to relieve constipation each year. It seems a shame, when constipation is easily avoided through diet and cleansing.
The digestive system is the principle cleansing system in your body. However, if it's not working properly, it can make your body even more toxic. Imagine cleaning your house with a vacuum that has a hole in the dust bag. Using it would spread more dust throughout your house then if you hadn't vacuumed at all.
Every tissue in your body is fed by the bloodstream, which is supplied by the intestines. When your intestines are dirty, the blood is dirty, and so are your organs and tissues. It's the intestines that must be cleansed first before any additional enhancement in your health can take place.
At this point, your body needs help from an external source, such as herbs, fiber, and other purifying agents, to regain its proper balance between accumulation and elimination. Internal cleansing allows you to experience immediate results, often leading to better overall health, vitality, and a stronger sense of well being than you’ve previously experienced.
Consider, if you will, the difference between these two words:
- Eat
- Nourish
When you eat, you consume. You put food in your mouth, chew, and swallow—outside of personal tastes, rarely are you concerned or even aware of the quality of the food you eat.
When you nourish your body, you supply what is necessary for life, health, strength, and growth. Step Four requires that you put more thought and effort and make choices that are more educated about what to provide your body in order to have optimal health. In Step Four, you concern yourself with two sources of nourishment:
Ensuring that your body:
- Is provided with high quality foods
- Receives adequate amounts of sleep, rest, and relaxation
Nourishment Through Food
Today’s diets have more fats, more sugars, more carbohydrates and fewer nutritionally rich foods than ever before. Missing are the essential vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and phytochemicals critical to improving and maintaining your health.
The best way to improve nourishment to your body is to eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, carbohydrates, and phytochemicals that your body needs to remain healthy.
Unfortunately, most of today’s fruits and vegetables are not organically grown rather they are genetically altered to accelerate growth and utilize chemicals to repel insects and to maintain the appearance during harvest, sorting, and transporting to a retailer—resulting in significantly fewer nutrients. In fact, the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables has decreased as much as 60 percent in the last 15 years. Accordingly, the FDA has increased its recommended dosage of fruits and vegetables to 5-9 a day.
In most cases, adding a daily nutritional supplement to your diet will greatly improve the amount of nutrients available to your body.
Nourishment Through Sleep
It’s time we woke up to the importance of sleep! You may consider sleep to be a “passive” activity, however, sufficient sleep is an essential aspect of health promotion and chronic disease prevention.
Insufficient sleep is associated with a number of chronic diseases and conditions—such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression—that threaten health. Notably, insufficient sleep is associated with the onset of these diseases and also poses important implications for their management and outcome.
The National Sleep Foundation has noted that the need for sleep changes as we age and has recommended the following sleep guidelines for selected age groups (*including naps):
(0–2 months)
10.5–18 hours*
(2–12 months)
14–15 hours*
Toddlers/Children
(12–18 months)
13–15 hours*
(18 months–3 years)
12–14 hours*
(3–5 years)
11–13 hours*
(5–12 years)
9–11 hours
Teenagers
8.5–9.5 hours
Adults
7–9 hours
Nourishment Through Rest and Relaxation
Relaxation isn't just about peace of mind or enjoying a hobby. Relaxation is a process that decreases the wear and tear on your mind and body from the challenges and hassles of daily life.
Stress is simply a fact of nature—forces from the outside world affecting the individual. The individual responds to stress in ways that affect the individual as well as their environment.
We all have stress sometimes. For some people, it happens before having to speak in public. For other people, it might be before a first date. What causes stress for you may not be stressful for someone else. Sometimes stress is helpful – it can encourage you to meet a deadline or get things done. But long-term stress can increase the risk of diseases like depression, heart disease and a variety of other problems.
People feel little stress when they have the time, experience and resources to manage a situation. They feel great stress when they think they can't handle the demands put upon them. Stress is therefore a negative experience. And it is not an inevitable consequence of an event: It depends a lot on people's perceptions of a situation and their real ability to cope with it.
Whether your stress is spiraling out of control or you've already got it tamed, you can benefit from learning relaxation techniques. Learning basic relaxation techniques is easy, often free or low cost, and poses little risk.
This step is custom made just for you and your health. We’re all different; some have weight management struggles, others have bone and joint pain, while still others want to take a preventative route for their cardiovascular health or boost their immune system. In all cases, improving your health will improve your life.
Regardless of genetics, ethnicity, gender, or age, Step Five is about taking responsibility for your health by providing nutritional support to areas of your body before they become health concerns or even problems. Target areas include your heart and cardiovascular system, weight management, symptoms of aging, your immune system, and more.
Almost all of the possible major health problems are preventable through developing the simple, healthy habits of Hydration, Exercising, Cleansing, Nourishing, and Targeting your body
through lifestyle choices, advanced nutritional supplementation, and the application of the latest medical research.
However, knowing all the health research and common sense in the world doesn’t amount to much if you’re missing one key element: ACTION. The secret to getting ahead in health is getting started.
When you consume a Our franchise product, you have our uncompromising guarantee that our formulas are effective, complete, balanced, and safe. In fact, all of our products are based on solid scientific research with ingredients that have published peer-reviewed clinical studies backing their efficacy.
Our franchise offers more than 120 health and wellness products that meet our exacting standards. Our many unique and patented product formulations have been developed through nutritional, clinical, and medical research to enhance your overall health and well-being. Our desire and our tireless effort is to help you become the best and healthiest you because of our products.
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