Daily Walking Is a Key to Healthy Eating and to Good Nutrition

"Walking is, by far, the best form of exercise." - Dr. Paavo Airola

I strongly encourage you to make walking a daily exercise habit in your life. Walking is simply the best form of exercise known to man. It's also free and can be done almost anywhere. You can use your walking time to also keep mentally fit by reflecting on life, by meditating, and by praying. If at all possible, get out of the city and go for a long walk in the woods or on a mountain trail or on the beach. You need to find a place that has clean air to breathe and beautiful views of nature whenever possible to enhance the experience.

Let me also caution you not to walk or jog in smog or on trafficked streets. If you live in the city, sometimes it's difficult to find places where the air is pure. Look for large parks with lots of green grass and trees where you can walk. Walking on busy streets downtown where there is bumper-to-bumper traffic is unwise and dangerous to your health because there is a ton of lead and carbon monoxide in the air that flows into your lungs and body. If you live in a smoggy city and your only choice is to walk on the smoggy streets, then it's better not to walk at all. Possibly consider getting a treadmill and walking in your house. The best solution is to move to a place where the air is pure and you won't be killing yourself with polluted air.

While you're walking, you can adjust the speed of your walk to your level of energy and comfort. However, if you're able to make it a power walk, it is best to keep up a brisk walk in order to give your body the exercise it needs. If you have the time, stop in the middle of your walk and do some stretching exercises. Stretch, bend, and rotate your body and limbs to increase your flexibility. Also, remember to do deep breathing exercises as you walk. Learn to breathe in deeply from your abdomen instead of from your chest. This will increase the amount of oxygen that your body gets and will feed your body the oxygen it needs to function better.

After you finish your walk, go home and take a shower to wash away the perspiration. If you're really gutsy, take an intermittent cold and hot shower. Try 10 seconds of freezing cold, followed by 30 seconds of hot, and do this repeatedly. Nothing will feel so stimulating to your body as this kind of hot-cold shock treatment.

When you finish your shower, dry yourself with a coarse towel and then give yourself a 7-minute dry brush massage. You will want to use a special natural-bristle brush with a long handle that you can find in a health food store. Brush every part of your body, beginning with your feet and working up towards your heart. Use circular motions and be fairly rough on your skin. As you may know, your skin is your largest eliminative organ of your body. When you use a dry brush massage, you are helping your body eliminate toxins and brushing away dead skin cells, as well as stimulating the blood flow to your entire body.

The key to the door of creating a healthy lifestyle is of course eating healthy whole foods and getting the good nutrition that your body needs. However, it is extremely important to add exercise to your nutrition, as well as other healthy habits such as dry brush massaging. Think of your dry brush massage as your own personal Million Dollar Health and Beauty Treatment!