Dr. Curtis McElroy

Category: Wellness

  • The Wellness Habit

    How To Make Wellness A Habit In Every Part Of Your Day

    We often become distracted by what life throws at us which leads to neglect our own well-being. Our days can be fast paced but seldom do we slow down to think about the importance of maintaining your wellbeing. Stress is commonplace in the modern world, simply driving to work in gridlock traffic can make you a basket case.

    Fortunately, you can make better choices and develop good habits to make wellness a part of your every day routine…

    Make a Decision and Stick to it

    So first off, you’ll need to make the decision to live a healthy lifestyle. This is a step that many people avoid, and they end up giving up and reverting back to their original way of everyday living. Well, wellness is a decision (As simplistic as it seems) and it’s a necessary one for all of us.

    How Can We Make Wellness a Habit?

    Habits are created by doing something over and over again until it becomes ingrained within us. It’s like we’ve rewired our brain to now automatically make certain choices without thinking.

    So, here’s a few ways you can make wellness a habit every single day…

    • Set an alarm clock.
    • Make healthy diet choices.
    • Plan an exercise routine.
    • Make time every day to do one thing you enjoy.
    • Spend more time with friends and family.

    If you do these things every day, in order, at the very minimum, you’ll notice overall improved wellness. We need discipline and there’s no other way to go about it. Especially in the fast-paced world we are so accustomed to.

    Alarm clock

    Setting an alarm clock to wake up early is a good way to start your day. The good thing is we know exactly why we’re waking up early… to get things done!

    Diet

    The nutritional choices we make are crucial to physical wellness. Feeding our body live foods (Vegetables, fruits, lean meats, grains etc.) will make us feel good and give us energy for the days ahead.

    Daily exercise

    Exercise has so many benefits from improving mental health to creating stronger and more capable bodies.

    You can prevent chronic disease like Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and Osteoporosis by doing daily exercise. That’s how powerful getting the body moving really is.

    Enjoy life

    We tend to get too focused on things like work, personal issues, relationships etc. but why can’t we take the time to laugh and enjoy being in the moment?

    It’s so important to relieve stress by putting worry aside for a little bit each day to focus on leisure activity. We’re not meant to constantly be in fight or flight mode and having leisure time can immensely decrease stress which can accumulate and really interfere with out wellness.

    Have healthy relationships

    The relationships we develop and maintain in life are essential for wellness. Having a sense of worth often comes from being loved and appreciated by other people.

    Let’s face it, the reason for our existence is to coexist with others so we can come together to function as a society. Having great friends and family can really give a nice boost to our self-confidence and happiness because we’re all here to support one another.

    Make Wellness a Daily Habit                      

    All you have to do is make a decision to live every day in a state of wellness. If you follow the steps mentioned previously, at a very minimum, you’ll have a good start in creating healthy every day habits.

    Without good habits, we’ll never accomplish anything. Wellness is the determining factor in our ability to be productive and effective in every day life.

  • Can Nootropics Be Used Safely To Get More Done In Less Time

    Can Nootropics Be Used Safely To Get More Done In Less Time

    If you work a typical 9-5 then you are going to be fixed to working for those specific hours. This means there’s no benefit to working faster and then sitting around with nothing to do for hours.

    But if you have managed to set up your own business, or if you have discussed flexi-hours with your employers, then working faster means freeing up more time to get home and spend with your kids or doing the things you love!

    In these scenarios then, productivity tools help you to earn back your time. And this is one reason that more and more people are now looking into ‘nootropics’ or ‘smart drugs’ to give them the edge.

    Should you?

    What are Nootropics and How do Nootropics Work

    So let’s start by looking at exactly what a nootropic is and how it works. What’s important to recognize right away is that nothing can make you ‘smarter’ as such because that is a very vague term that is almost impossible to define.

    Nootropics can give you a slight cognitive boost in particular areas like focus, memory or even creativity.

    And there are two separate ways that nootropics can work to do this.

    In the majority of cases, nootropics work by increasing the production of one or more neurotransmitters. These are the chemicals in the brain that help neurons to communicate with one another and that can trigger changes to our physiology and our mental state.

    For example, if you have more dopamine in your brain then you will become more focussed and more driven. This is likely to also increase norepinephrine which triggers the ‘fight or flight’ response.

    GABA helps us to relax by suppressing synaptic transmissions and this can also make us more creative – though it is a sedative as well.

    Serotonin puts us in a good mood but eventually converts to melatonin and makes us sleepy.

    Cortisol is the stress hormone and makes us hungry.

    Orexin is another sleep-regulating neurotransmitter.

    Glutamate and acetylcholine are both excitatory neurotransmitters that increase brain activity.

    Generally, these nootropics that work by increasing neurotransmitters will focus on excitatory neurotransmitters and thus help to make you more alert, less tired and more focused.

    These include modafinil, Piracetam, Ritalin and even caffeine.

    But there are many problems with these kinds of drugs as they can cause adaptations in the brain leading to potential addiction and making us groggy when not using them.

    Likewise, it’s not possible to raise one neurotransmitter without altering levels of many more. Ultimately, the brain is too delicate and too complex for us to tinker with it in this way.

    The Other Type of Nootropic

    But the other types of nootropics work differently – by providing the brain with more energy (vinpocetine, creatine, CoQ10) or by providing it with the raw nutrients needed for healthy operation (omega 3 fatty acid, vitamin B6, zinc).

    These types of nootropic really do trigger widespread cognitive improvement in a safe and measurable way. However, the results are relatively mild and take a while to appear – so it’s not going to turn you into a productivity king over night!

  • 5 Simple Ways To Boost Your Wellness Today

    Boost Your Wellness Today

    Are you ready to start adding a little wellness to your lifestyle?

    You can do some simple things to improve your wellness and ensure that you feel as fit and healthy as possible.

    The following are 5 simple changes that you can make to your lifestyle to improve your overall wellness.

    boostyourwellnesssunrise
    Sunrise and Wellness

    1. Get Some Sleep

    It is no secret that sleep is important. You may have noticed that sleeping helps you to avoid that tired feeling all day, and helps you to concentrate more. Sleep is also a chance for your body to rejuvenate, and plenty of things still go on in your body’s various systems while you sleep.

    If you don’t get enough sleep, it’s not only highly likely that you’ll be tired the next day, but your health can suffer too.

    Being tired makes us emotional, stressed, limits our concentration, and can even make us more susceptible to illnesses. Try to get around 7-8 hours per night for the best benefits that sleep has to offer.

    2. Breathe

    It may seem like an unusual suggestion, but do you ever take the chance to just sit and breathe? There are a lot of breathing exercises and even with just one session of concentrating on your breathing will leave you feeling more relaxed.

    Over time if you do this at least once a day, you’ll find that you feel calmer, less emotional, and just generally better. Meditation is a good time to try out breathing techniques.

    3. Don’t Be So Convenient

    For some reason, people feel that they are too busy to cook a proper meal each day. This results in grabbing a quick meal on the way home from their local fast food place or they get frozen dinners that can be thrown in the oven or microwave when they get home. While these shortcuts may seem to save time, ultimately, both are very unhealthy choice to make.

    Ready meals, processed food, and junk food are loaded with sugar, fat, salt and many more calories than our bodies need. Fast food also tends to be heavily processed and as it is often fried, the nutritional goodness for our bodies is practically non-existent.

    Try to cut back on these unhealthy foods and instead cook from scratch. It is not difficult to prepare a healthy chicken breast with vegetables on the side for example and this is a far healthier option.

    4. Go For A Walk

    Instead of putting off exercise claiming that you don’t have enough money to afford a gym, or enough time to actually go to the gym, just take a step out of your front door. You can walk anywhere and this is completely free.

    Involve the whole family and go for a walk around the block or to the park if there is one nearby. There is absolutely no excuse for not going for a walk and you have plenty to gain from it too.

    First of all, you’ll be able to enjoy gentle exercise that will still give you a good cardio workout to keep your heart pumping. You will also be able to enjoy some fresh air, which is essential for the brain and muscles.

    Make it a nightly ritual that takes places right after dinner.

    5. Drink More

    We’re not suggesting that you go to the bar and get drunk – quite the opposite actually. You should really be drinking around 8 glasses of water per day and if you don’t do that and you suffer from headaches, then we’re willing to bet that you’re dehydrated and need some more liquid in your body.

    Every time you go into your kitchen, try to remember to have a glass of water. Whether you’re making breakfast, lunch or dinner or if you’re just grabbing a snack, using this as a prompt to drink a glass of water is an effective way to remember to stay hydrated.

    These 5 simple tips with improve your overall health and can even have a positive effect on your appearance by improving the quality of your skin.

Copyright @ 2017 DrCurtisMcElroy