Does it sometimes feel like managing your life is a full-time job?  For those with an illness, it can feel like a full-time job with overtime.  I know that with doctor appointments, medications, supplements, the exercise you are supposed to do, the meditation or other relaxation technique you try to fit in your day, the massage and everything else your doctor is recommending, it can be pretty overwhelming.

Yet you want to thrive.  Who doesn’t want that? I want that, and whether sick or not, I bet you want that as well.

The great news is that you can ignite your body’s self-healing powers.  Yet when do you have the time?  Well sit back and take a sip of your chamomile tea, beautiful, because today I have 8 ways to jump-start your health with ease.

1. Turn off the TV

What?  Is that really a healing method?  Why yes.  You see TV is a mind numbing, passive activity, or, in the case of the news, a stress producer.  TV rarely engages your brain and never engages your body.  TV = sedentary. But sedentary does not equate to thriving.  So with that out of the way, let’s see what you can do with the 28 hours a week you just freed up.

2. Take a Bath

Preferably with Epsom salts (2 cups), baking soda (1 cup) and some lavender oil (3-5 drops).  Soak for 20 minutes in the evening before you go to bed (when you would otherwise be watching TV).  This will lower your cortisol levels, which will help shed pounds and reduce inflammation. It will also help you sleep better.

3. Cook Twice a Week

One of the most powerful natural healing remedies we have in our toolkit is a whole-foods, unprocessed diet full of anti-inflammatory foods.  Unfortunately, one of the biggest roadblocks people construct in front of them is “I don’t have the time to cook.” So here's an easy tip.  Just cook two days a week.

Try this: on Sunday, make a big pot of whole grain, a big pot of stock (easy to do in a crock pot) and a pot of beans.   Cut up some vegetables to have raw or steamed. Wash a bag or two of greens. Prepare a homemade dressing to be used throughout the week.   If you did all this, even once a week, you could then mix and match all of these for some yummy nutritious meals that you could assemble in minutes.

This is almost too easy.

4. Add Greens to Your Smoothie

Greens is one of my favorite energy producing, healing foods.  But I know it is a challenge to get 3 cups of it a day - the amount your cells need to heal your body. Adding one leaf of kale to your morning smoothie is an easy, and surprisingly delicious way to get your green.

5. Start Your Day With Lemon and Warm Water

Lemon juice is a great alkalizing agent as it helps counter-balance an acidic body chemistry that can promote inflammation.  So before you grab your cup of coffee, give your body a fighting chance and promote its detoxification process with a glass of water, with the juice of ½ lemon.  This concoction will encourage your body to purge the toxins that all of us come in contact with daily.  To make it easy, cut the lemon the night before and store it in a glass container.  Squeeze in the morning.

6. Put Your Water on A Timer

We all know we need to drink more water, but most of us don’t do a good job at it.  For some people it helps to fill a 32-ounce bottle each morning and drink from that during the day.  For others, it helps to have a big pitcher on their desk with a smaller cup that you keep refilling – it doesn’t seem as overwhelming.

In my opinion do whatever mind game works.  But I don’t always trust my mind.  I do trust a timer however.  Set an alarm on your watch, cell phone, or computer to go off every hour.  If you drink a glass of water each time it goes off, you will be nice and hydrated and detoxified.

7. Take a Spin

. . . around the block that is.  I know how easy it is to find an excuse for not exercising.  I was the queen of them back in the day.  So seriously, this doesn’t have to be difficult.  Each day, simply take a walk around the block.  Maybe take a spin during your lunch hour. Or after you get out of your car but before you walk in the house, take a quick detour around the block.  Sneak it in anyway you can.

8. Make a Bed of Greens

Yep, here is another sneaky way to incorporate greens into your daily routine.  Whether you are having fish, beans or a New York strip, serve it up on a big bed of greens whether raw, sautéed with garlic, or steamed. Two cups down, one to go.

A note on greens: Be sure to rotate your greens.  Don’t eat just one type; experiment with different types.  They all have different healing properties so you want to be sure you are getting a full compliment of nutrients.

What do you think?  Does these tips seem doable? Do you have other tips?  Please share them in the comments below.