6 Ways To Get Healthier (That Have Nothing To Do With Food) 

Food is an undeniably important part of any wellness plan, but it doesn't end there. Some of us are guilty of focusing too much on food while allowing other areas of wellness to fall by the wayside. But don't worry, I've got you covered. Here are my top six pieces of health advice that have nothing to do with food but that will help you get your health to an optimal place:

As important as how much you sleep is when you sleep. The adrenals are meant to release low levels of cortisol at night. However, if you stay up late and rev yourself up, the body gets the signal to begin pumping out more cortisol, which can alter the quality of your sleep and give you that dreaded "second wind." If you're stressed about something, that can also prevent you from getting great sleep. Ten p.m. is typically the time to make sure you're winding things down.

In other words, it's critical to decrease stress. Luckily, there are a lot of ways to do this including exercise, meditation, talk therapy, changing your thought processes to be more empowering, and removing yourself from situations that cause your stress to go up. And remember, not getting enough sleep will cause your stress levels to rise, so refer to the first foundation above.

Exercise provides both cardiovascular benefits and the stress reduction benefits, and yet, many of us are not getting even close to enough of it. The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every week. Not sure how much you're getting? I recommend wearing a fitness tracker to understand how active you really are. While yoga is amazing for stress reduction, not all forms of yoga get the heart pumping and yield the cardiovascular benefits, so I frequently recommend adding a form of exercise that has cardiovascular benefits, such as Zumba, dancing, brisk walking, or spinning. Weights, while critical for healthy aging, are not a substitute for cardiovascular exercise but are important to support bone health in aging.

This is perhaps one of the most important factors when it comes to living a long and healthy life. Why bother doing the work to be healthy if you're not sure what your purpose on this earth actually is? Take time to reflect on what makes you happy, where you feel most at home, and where you want to see yourself in one, three, five, 10 years. Having a clear purpose and working toward a goal will give you the willpower to avoid temptation and stay healthy to pursue it.

In our modern world, we're exposed to far too many toxic substances, which can be difficult for the body to get rid of. Sweating through exercise, sauna and steam use, or baths can be an excellent way for the body to rid itself of toxins. Dry brushing can also be helpful in this area. For true detoxification, it's important that the liver is optimally functioning; the adrenals can't be overly activated or it will impair the function of the liver and you won't be able to process toxins or hormones properly. Being female, drinking a lot of alcohol, and aging can all slow down the liver's detox abilities. Being constipated also causes the body to recycle the already processed hormones back into the system, increasing the load on the liver even more and forcing it to do double the work.

You don't need to work on all of these at once, but pick two or three pillars to focus on and expand to include others when you feel ready.