Body Talk: Increase Your Body's Health Potential At Home

image source - dances of dreams

Here are some quick ways to ensure that your body is working at its best for you. Check off each section to make sure you're doing all you can to enjoy optimum health. I've included the body parts we usually tend to overlook.


How to help yourself to better health


Legs
While sitting at your computer desk, feeding your infant, or watching TV, do this simple exercise to strengthen your knees. Remember they are the hinges to strong, healthy legs.

• Starting with both feet on the floor, slowly raise one foot until your leg is stretched out straight in front of you. Hold for 20 seconds. For half of this time extend your toes, for the other half, extend your heel. Do ten of these on each leg every day. This will also get your blood nicely pumping to your toes.
• The university in my city, Bristol, carried out a research which found that women with shorter legs are at a higher risk of developing liver disease than their long-legged counterparts. Whether you believe this or not is not the issue. The point I'm making is to remind you to always watch how much you drink. Long legs or short,  we're all at risk of liver disease if we drink too much alcohol.
• When bending over, use your legs, not your back. The older you get, the more susceptible you are to back problems. Let your legs work out for you.

Back
It's helpful to strengthen your back to protect yourself against potential back injuries. A strong back means that the surrounding muscles will not cease up if you stretch them the wrong way once in a while.

• Get on all fours - knees on floor slightly apart, hands flat on floor shoulder distance apart. Elongate your back by extending your bottom as far out as it would go. Hold for 5 seconds, keeping your head in line with your spine. Next, curve your back like a cat as far up as it would go. Hold for 5 seconds. Repeat 10 times about 3 times a week.
• If possible, buy a Pilates DVD, and learn to  strengthen your core muscles.
• Remember to hold a good posture, but make sure you're not sitting bolt upright for long periods of time. This puts an unnatural strain on your back. You will find that every Pilates or Yoga position requires you to have a natural, easy S shape in your spine rather than a stiff, upright one.

Skin
You need to take care of your skin because it's your largest organ. 

• Be careful to keep yours nourished and moisturised. This is achieved not only with skin creams, but mainly by what you put into your body. Here is a perfect healthy skin article I wrote to address this. 
• Eat right and drink a lot of water.
• Avoid exfoliating too often. This strips your skin of the protective, healthy layer you worked so hard to achieve.

Eyes, Ears, Brain

• Have regular eye check-ups. Make sure that you're wearing up to date glasses that are right for your needs.
• Invest in some good sunglasses and wear them not only in the summer, but also on bright days all year round. Protecting your eyes from harmful UV rays can put off losing your sight as you get older.
• Ipods aren't safe to listen to for lengthy periods. Limit yourself to how much you're using it and give your ear drums a break. Hammering base into your delicate, tiny ear drums will, without a doubt, destroy them. Watch the volume on your kids' MP3s as well, unless you don't mind them losing their hearing when they get older.
• Rest your brain. Put away the music, the games, the TV the computer and wind down before going to bed. Sleeping is how we recharge our batteries. Think of what happens when you forget to recharge your phone's batteries. You don't want to exhaust yourself into oblivion.