14 Essential Health Tips That Will Make You Fit In No Time

Take Advantage of Extra Exercise Opportunities

Many people give up on being active just because they can't fit in a full 30- or 60-minute workout into their day. But every little bit counts, and it's easy to take advantage of opportunities throughout the day.

For example, use the stairs instead of riding the elevator. When parking your car at the store, work or anywhere else, park further back to get in extra steps. During your break at work, instead of hanging out in the cafeteria or break room, walk around the building.

Drink a Glass of Water When You Wake Up

Instead of rushing to the coffee pot when you wake up, drink a glass of water. It's one of the best things you can do for your body. After sleeping all night, the body gets dehydrated. Drinking water will get you re-hydrated, jumpstart your metabolism and help to purify your body of toxins. Ideally, it should be warm or at room temperature as it helps to get the digestive system moving efficiently and reduces metabolic waste that tends to build up in the immune system.

Keep Coconut Oil On Hand

Coconut oil has practically an endless number of uses for benefiting health. Every household should have a jar of unrefined coconut oil. It's ideal as a replacement for vegetable oil in cooking as it contains healthy fats that can improve cholesterol levels. It also helps to control blood sugar, regulates metabolism and can boost energy too. You can also use it as an excellent skin moisturizer or even as a conditioner for your hair.

Replace Soda With Green Tea

Green tea is a potent superfood - or superbeverage, if you will. It's loaded with vitamins and antioxidants that can help curb appetite, regulate the metabolism and more. Green tea has also been found to help decrease the risk of all sorts of diseases, including cancer and heart-related conditions like congestive heart failure. By replacing your daily soda with green tea, you'll not only help keep your metabolism revved up, but you'll be consuming fewer calories as well as avoiding potentially harmful chemicals.

Stop Chowing Down Your Food

When you sit down to eat, slow down and savor each and every bite. Chew slowly and thoroughly. By doing this you'll feel fuller faster and be less likely to overeat, or feel tired afterward. The brain takes about 20 minutes to signal fullness. By chowing down everything in front of you quickly, you won't realize you're full until you become overstuffed.

Sprinkle Flaxseed On Your Meals

Flaxseeds are packed with micronutrients, fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. They've been shown to offer a host of health benefits, including cancer prevention, lowering the risk of liver and heart disease, reducing hypertension and they're also great for digestion. It's easy to incorporate them into your diet. Throw some into a smoothie, sprinkle them onto plain yogurt or onto a salad.

Use Peppermint Oil

Like coconut oil, peppermint oil has many different uses that can benefit health. It's also fairly inexpensive too. Keep a bottle around and take a whiff in the morning to get you feeling energized and more alert. Add a drop into your water for flavor as well as to improve digestion and even reduce appetite. If you're craving something sweet, drinking a cup of tea with peppermint can do the trick without damaging your waistline.

Use a Smaller Plate at Meal Time

Many people overestimate just how much food they're eating as well as how much they need to feel satisfied. One contributing factor is plate size. Just by using a smaller plate you can reduce your calorie intake by as much as 20 percent. If you're trying to lose weight, you may even want to consider investing in some portion control plates.

Take Advantage of Your Phone

One of the simplest ways to use your phone to improve your health is to set an alarm every hour as a reminder to get up and move around and drink some water.

These days there are practically an endless number of apps you can use too. HealthyOut was rated as one of the best apps in 2015. It allows you to search restaurants nearby and filters menu options by restrictions like low calorie, low carb, low fat, and high protein. Couch to 5K is a great app that uses a proven method to take you from no running at all to a 5k run in just nine weeks with no experience necessary.

When in Need of a Sweet Flavor, Use Cinnamon Instead

Instead of pouring sugar into your coffee or tea, use cinnamon for flavor. It's not only filled with antioxidants, it helps keep blood sugar balanced, reduces bad cholesterol and even revs up the metabolism. Cinnamon is naturally sweet tasting without all the calories and inflammatory effects. It can make giving up sugar a lot easier than you probably realized.

Freeze Slow Cooker Meals

The season for slow-cooked meals has arrived. One of the best ways to not only save time but to ensure you're eating healthier meals is to fill a freezer bag or other type of container with nutritious ingredients for slow cooker and then put it in the freezer. Then the next time you need an easy, healthy meal, all you have to do is defrost it and place it in your slow cooker. Chili and stews work especially well.

Eat an Orange Before Exercise

Eating an orange before you workout can help reduce muscle soreness. You'll also get the added boost of vitamin C. While oranges are best known for their vitamin C content they're also a great source of potassium and carbs for fueling exercise. Their antioxidant content also helps to boost the immune system.

Wash Your Pillowcases More Often

If you've been suffering from unexplained breakouts, your pillowcases might be to blame. Mold and bacteria breed in beds. That, along with all the dead skin that we slough off each night is rubbed right back into the skin when you're sleeping, giving you a higher chance of breaking out. When your pillowcase isn't laundered or changed regularly, a build-up of dirt and oil from the environment as well as your skin and hair touching the pillow is transferred back to your skin, clogging pores and causing blemishes. Wash them at least once a week - twice a week is ideal.

Add Ginger To Your Meals More Often

Even though ginger is mostly known as a spice, flavor is not its only virtue. In Asia it's been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Not only is it a great cure for nausea and other digestive ailments, it's packed with antioxidants that can help fight free radicals, preventing premature aging. It can also help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol level and can increase HDL (good) cholesterol. Add fresh ginger root to hot water for a delicious tea, grate some on top of a bowl of oatmeal, add it to a stir-fry or spice up sweet potatoes.