Are you a better functioning human with each meal, workout, night’s sleep, visit to the doctor? Do you feel your are ruling your health or are you slowly losing energy, hurting often, sleeping less—having more problems arise as you age? The latter is the most common for Americans. I want to help you live your best life possible, here are some of the biggest areas I see people fail in their lives and health. 

Before you read further, I want you to understand my point of view of the health of the human body. I have the unique opportunity to have taken care of 1000s of people in the Birmingham area and people who travel regularly across the southeastern USA to seek an extremely conservative option of health care. People travel these distances to have someone look at them in a state of functionality and get results.

When people go to the doctor, it's too common that the result is not making them function better as a human (it's usually the opposite). We live in a world of static health care—symptoms are chased and when symptoms are not present we falsely think that we are “healthy” and should not seek to better our health. Without understanding what is going on inside and outside your body, you are going to live less full of life and maybe an early death. This sounds morbid, but you are moving toward either health or death on a daily basis.

With this concept I will go through 7 areas that are crucial to my health. I have practiced these basics of health for 15 years and will continue to practice them until I die. There is no starting line and no finish line—I will always practice these to the best of my ability. Some days, weeks, months, maybe even years I might not be as diligent towards my health. At 38 years old I can tell you I am the healthiest I have ever been in my life and have only gotten better at building my body to the best level of health possible. Follow the rules below and you can begin this journey too. It will be challenging, but gosh it will be worth it. I promise.

Goals

Writing down what you want in your life.

You have to write down what you want and review it regularly. Daily is best, but reviewing on a regular basis will only speed up what you want in your life. You have control of your life. You now have to make the invisible turn visible. Write and review your goals daily. I personally review and edit my goals 4-6 times a week. If you do this, you will see that as you are writing or reviewing your goals, the creation of them will happen SLOWLY right in front of you. It truly is amazing. Start today.

Move Your Body!

78% of your brain is dependent on movement each day you are alive. If you don't move and just sit the majority of your day, you have barely turned your brain on. Your brain controls everything! Activate it, MOVE daily. Have a minimum of 20 minutes of intense movement that changes your heart rate, breathing, and requires you to sweat! If you choose not to do this, you are not choosing for health to exist now or later. Movement is life.

Bloodwork

Get your blood checked for deficiencies and toxicities from a doctor that understands functional nutrition. This blood analysis is not the same as what you get from your medical doctor.

I run blood work on myself 1-2 times per year to look at how my body is running. If I need to add or take away something to make myself healthier, I do it immediately. This may be a supplemental change like more Vitamin D or Fish Oil. It might be a dietary change to remove gluten, dairy, or something out of my daily foods. 

The reason I do blood analysis on a bi-annual basis is so health issues cannot sneak up on me. I am constantly checking my level of health and not waiting for a problem to show up. Even though I do not have symptoms of any kind, I run my blood work to make sure I stay that way.

Healthy Diet

How I eat on a regular basis, special occasions, and restrictive diets.

• My typical daily nutritional choices revolve around whole foods, nothing processed, no sugar, extremely minimal dairy, and extremely low gluten.
• On special occasions I eat what everyone else is eating. I was a chef before I was a chiropractor, so I love great food.
• Restrictive diet periods: Two times a year I significantly restrict any food that I know I’m not supposed to have. I recently completed a 45-day diet of no coffee, gluten, dairy, processed foods, and sugar. Most people would come up with objections of why they could not do this or it would be difficult, but those excuses are why they will not have health as they age. Your sacrifice is rewarded by elevating your level of health and extending your years of quality life. The best part is that you feel amazing when you're eating extremely clean.

Hydrate

Drinking Water with a twist.

• You need to hydrate consistently, but it can be done through drinking balanced water, and eating organic fruits & vegetables. 
• Balanced water is sourced with reduction of toxicity in mind. Spring water from reputable clean water sources is excellent. In Alabama, Blue Spring Water is an amazing source of water. It has natural electrolytes in it so the absorbability into your body actually utilized.
• Tap water has had proper electrolyte ratios stripped and does not absorb efficiently. It has also been proven to have medicine metabolites, petro products, and many other toxins that your body has to filter.
• The quality of water you drink has a huge impact on your energy level, brain heath, and the toxicity level in your body. 

Sleep

Sleep is where we repair. This topic is huge! And extremely diverse so instead of getting into every variable I’m going to give you a few suggestions to maximize sleep and repair:

• Go to sleep and wake the same time every day, by doing this you will increase your body’s efficiency of deep sleep and REM sleep.
• Remove all artificial light from the area you sleep. This includes TVs, mobile phones, alarm clocks, and light coming in through a window.
• Research shows that cool temperatures at night help regulate better sleep, so reduce your temp at night about an hour before you go to sleep.
• Exercise in the morning or midday instead of the evening.

Get Adjusted

With or without symptoms: get adjusted regularly.

• Manipulation of the spine has been proven to help improve mobility and reduce injury.
• Adjustments of the spine and extremities helps to increase communication between the brain and body and helps you move optimally avoiding many types of dysfunction.
• I get adjusted once per week, and will increase it if I’m working through an injury. If I didn’t get adjusted on a regular basis there’s no way I could be at the level of health I am at currently. Hands down one of the most influential aspects of taking great care of my body. 

Minimize Toxins

Remove all the artificial crap out of your life.

• This list could go on forever, here is a simple rule: If man made it, limit it going inside your body.
• If you can't buy the individual ingredients on a box label, don’t eat it.
• If you can set something on a counter and it doesn’t mold in a few days, do not eat it!!
• Artificial Sweeteners, natural and unnatural, are detrimental to your health. Stop trying to go after alternative sweets.
• Reduce plastic use: Remove plastic food storage containers and buy glass. STOP drinking coffee with plastic lids.

I hope this list assists you in making better decisions for your health. Implementing these should be a process, do not try to do it all immediately. Read through them and research them; do not take my word for why you should or should not do something. This journey of learning is so dense and there’s always something to learn, so keep learning on a daily basis.