3 Keys to Better HealthEvery woman can improve her health through simple choices she makes everyday. Quality nutrition, regular exercise, and preventive health screenings are all essential ingredients to regain and sustain optimal health. Quality NutritionWhen it comes to eating, the impulse is usually to grab whatever is easy, quick, affordable, and available. Right? And food can take on many disguises such as comfort, pleasure, reward, the centerpiece of every celebration, and an expression of love-both given and received. But none of these things speak to the real role food plays in your life-its nutritional value. Food is fuel. Nothing can work properly without fuel, including your body. Food is also powerful medicine. The medicinal qualities of certain foods actually fight cancer and are potent natural weapons for boosting your immune system and holding cancer recurrence at bay. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), beans, dark green leafy vegetables, garlic, tomatoes, berries, flaxseed, grapes, green tea, soy, and whole grains all have documented healing and disease-prevention properties that must find their way into your diet in abundance. From WHOLE: 12 Principles for Rebuilding Life after Breast Cancer Regular ExerciseIt is equally important to engage in regular exercise to gain and maintain your health. Renew is about getting your juices flowing with movement, stretching, and weight-bearing activity. You need not buy an expensive gym membership nor invest in fancy exercise clothing. Quality shoes, proper support for your chest, and maybe a compression sleeve (if you are a breast cancer survivor) are the only requirements for most exercise. If you haven't been exercising, don't worry. Exercise need not involve strenuous lifting, hours of training, or competitive team sports if that isn't your thing. One of the best exercises is simply walking. For an all-weather, do-anywhere-and-anytime option, walking can't be beat. If you put on your thinking cap, no doubt you can come up with many safe, clean, well-lit places to walk. For example, many shopping malls open their doors before opening hours, encouraging people to walk for exercise. Even during your daily routine activities, you can pump up the activity value by increasing your pace, walking instead of using the elevator, or parking further from the entrance and walking the extra distance. Each of these can give you several additional bursts of exercise throughout the day. From WHOLE: 12 Principles for Rebuilding Life after Breast Cancer Preventive Health ScreeningsAt every age, there are regular health screenings you must do to detect illness and disease at its earliest stage. This is an essential step, because the oft-used adage "The best protection is early detection" is absolutely true. It is important to know your health history and status to ensure that you have all the information you need to preserve the options for treatment and cure. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health has an outstanding guide for preventive health screenings and good health called "A Lifetime of Good Health: Your Guide to Staying Healthy." Search the Our Publications link at http://www.womenshealth.gov/pub/pg.cfm or call 1-800-994-9662 for your free copy.
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