Starting Your Health Journey in 2024

Core - Edition Nº32

The new year brings crisp mornings full of opportunity. You’ve brought in new aspirations and resolutions. Consider this your chance to nurture your health with thoughtful intentions — sipping lemon water to hydrate, savouring nutritious meals, slipping on shoes to stroll outside each day. This is a near-perfect time to explore small, sustainable steps to serve your mind and body with care.

The basics matter most. Sleep that restores you, along with nutrition that nourishes, movement and environments that energise — these are the building blocks. But where do you begin among so many options?

We’ll walk together through this. Even the simplest of habits — a deep breath, extra veggies, an evening stretch — can profoundly shift your health when done with intention. And remember: you do not have to do everything at once; pick one area to focus on and make it an effortless habit before moving to another.

1. Discover nutrition secrets in your kitchen

I dread cooking. Standing over a hot stove after a long day is the last thing I usually want to do. But as common as this thinking can be, it’s an easy way to spiral into grab-and-go meals or takeout that’ll often leave you worse.

What you eat has arguably the biggest impact on how you feel and how well you sleep. Cooking does not have to take a long time, nor is saying “I don’t have time to cook” a feasible excuse. Today’s world has seen to it that you can order groceries and meal plans and find hundreds of online recipes in 10 minutes or less.

You can start small — roast a tray of broccoli and chicken breasts to split across a few days — and keep things quick, easy, and delicious. I also quickly noticed that the more nutrient-dense foods I ate, the less I craved sugar and junk. Don’t get me wrong — it’s still a work in progress. But food prep and the mere satisfaction of eating better quality food was enough to help me stop caring about cooking times and eating junk.

It’s a simple way to improve your energy, mood, sleep, and productivity and avoid the dreaded fat gain. People like to point to processed foods and say, “But look at how much protein it has!”. Sure, but you forgot about the 50 other ingredients you didn’t need.

Modern businesses decided it was fine to sprinkle sugar in almost everything. Not to mention emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners like sucralose, MSG, and many more lab-born ingredients we can’t even pronounce.

If you find that your energy is inconsistent or you’re hungry or tired all the time, start with your diet.

Cut a few foods loose at a time. Swap the cereal for eggs or yoghurt or fruit for breakfast. Try goat’s cheese and avocado on whole wheat bread for lunch. Then, opt for home-cooked chicken or prawns with a light carb source for dinner. All of it can take under 30 minutes in total.

That’s it.

Base your meals around vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, plant-based proteins, healthy fats, herbs, and spices. The non-negotiable items in your routine shopping trip. Swap refined grains for whole grains (although I’ve seen white rice is okay), choose fresh fruit blends over juices (or ensure they’re not from concentrate if you can’t resist), and explore with these inexpensive ingredients to help expand your palate.

“I never feel like cooking; I’m just too tired after work.”

That’s rarely tiredness — that’s you low on dopamine. Dopamine depletion is natural, and people can confuse it with tiredness. But there are also people who work full-time, have multiple jobs, are up to their neck in obligations, and cook without compromise each week — my parents being two lucky examples.

Think of it like this: you wouldn’t cook your own food with toxins, so why pay corporations to give it to you?

Companies use cheap and addictive ingredients to nurture their accounts, not your body.

2. Replenish with mineral-rich hydration

Hydration is more than water — it’s about working on a cellular level to replenish our bodies with all-important minerals. When we drink lifeless tap water day after day, we unknowingly deplete our vital electrolyte stores. In most countries, it’s a “toxic soup” that contains heavy metals, chlorine, sodium fluoride, and other chemicals.

Despite being in the UK, known for its clean tap water and some of the strictest levels of treatment in the world, there is still a risk of “hard” water with a lack of sustenance. Most of our accessible water is depleted of minerals, which greatly impacts how much water reaches and is utilised by your cells.

You need electrolytes. They dissolve in water and can conduct electricity. And without the right amount, your cells will struggle to absorb water. Drinks such as water brims with bioavailable minerals: potassium, sodium, magnesium and calcium. These electrically charged elements act as messages awakening our cells so they can communicate fluidly. Pure spring water — often hidden and untainted by the modern industry — restores our body’s mineral balance. Even dissolving a pinch of lemon water helps transport our hydration intake. And emulsified magnesium oils allow rapid transdermal absorption to revitalise our electrolyte stores.

This means avoiding electrolyte-depleting sources as much as possible:

• Alcohol

• Sodium fluoride

• Phytic acid

• Stimulants

• Excess carbs

• Stress

3. Reduce stress from nnEMF exposure

We cannot see them, yet they surround us. Non-native electromagnetic fields are emitted from wifi, cell phones, Bluetooth devices, and virtually all modern tech. Long-term and accumulating exposure has correlated to depleted ATP (cellular energy) levels and oxidative damage.

If you’re struggling with migraines, cellular dehydration, sleep issues, memory loss, inflammation, tinnitus, fatigue, heart problems, a struggling circadian rhythm, gut or sexual dysfunction, or irritability — this is a good place to start.

Think about it. We’re all electrical beings. Electrical magnetic frequencies fuel and optimise our natural functions. Because of them, moving, thinking, feeling, and working optimally is possible. Our nerves are conduits for electric fluids that send electrical signals throughout the body and brain. We encompass an incredibly intricate system that functions off of electricity.

Modern-day conveniences come at a huge cost, and most of us don’t even know what it feels like for our nervous system to be in a world without nnEMFs. It’s tough to catch a break with the way things are now.

Potent remedies to help this include turning off wifi signals at night and enabling airplane mode when your phone is not in use. Additionally, minimise your use of Bluetooth headphones and make more time for grounding when possible — walking barefoot outdoors makes a difference because the earth’s negative charge naturally counteracts positive EMFs.

While devices connect us and provide entertainment, excessive screen time can negatively impact attention spans, mental health, posture and sleep. Aim to reduce recreational screen usage to create space for other activities.

You can designate screen-free zones like the dinner table or bedroom. Or schedule specific times for checking devices, allowing focus during other tasks. Turn off notifications so phones aren’t constantly grabbing your attention. And when scrolling aimlessly, consciously decide what you want to accomplish.

When screens no longer dominate our free time, we can dive into hobbies, socialise offline, enjoy nature or sit with our thoughts. Even reducing screen-on time by 30-60 minutes daily can improve your quality of life. I’ve noticed that more time away from my phone feels freeing, and the longer I do it, the more satisfied I am once the urges settle down.

4. Yes, you need to prioritise sleep

Sleep beckons for everyone at the end of a long day — a siren call promising rest, recovery, and rejuvenation. Yet in today’s world, we squeeze sleep out of our schedules, not realising how foundational those nightly hours are.

Everything will be pointless if you don’t get adequate sleep. No one can be healthy if they don’t sleep well on a regular basis.

I used to burn both ends of the candle, chasing productivity or entertainment. Sometimes, I still do. But sleep allows our bodies to recharge, repair tissues, consolidate memories and cleanse waste from the brain. Especially during winter when people are more susceptible to illness. Poor sleep hygiene impacts concentration, decision-making, immunity, and mental health.

Start with the consistency of your sleep schedule. Make it a routine even on weekends. Limit exposure to blue light, which damages nerves, induces insomnia and fatigue, and raises cortisol (stress) levels.

Protect those evening hours like the elixir of crucial time that they are. Dim your lights, avoid blue light exposure, cut off work and screen time, opt for baths, and use magnesium lotion and lavender mist. With consistency, your sleep will improve dramatically.

5. Forest bathing

The concrete jungles we wander can easily starve us of nature’s rejuvenating air. Forest bathing is one of my favourite immersive wanders through the local greenspaces to help soak in my senses.

Away from the EMF smog lies air perfumed with a fresh scent, exercise, sunlight, and relaxation. What’s not to love? The song of leaves gently dancing on top of the trees while the worried mind mends its fractures underneath. Mental clutter gets cleared by nature’s incense.

Everyone could do with more time away from cell towers and nnEMF sources. Daily walks and trips to greenspaces over the years have been one of the best things for my health.

6. You’re not getting old; you’re just moving less

You’re probably thinking that “more movement” is a no-brainer. But according to WHO, sedentary lifestyles are one of the biggest killers in the world. It’s already well known that physical inactivity is one of the leading causes of disease and disability. But, a sedentary lifestyle increases all causes of mortality. We are designed to move every single day.

Even starting small can create life-giving momentum - brief bursts of jumping jacks, squats, or shoulder rolls throughout work. Stroll outdoors during lunch or phone calls for mini-breaks. See everyday movement not as exercise but as an appreciation for your body and the day. You don’t need to run marathons or join a gym. But do make space for pleasurable movement that massages your mind. Release stuck energies and get juices flowing. 30 minutes per day is your kinetic birthright. It’s the least you can do for yourself.

The Pillars of Health

As we embark on health journeys in the new year, remember that small, consistent changes compound over time. Focus first on getting the fundamentals right - quality nutrition, regular exercise, proper sleep and reduced recreational screen time.

Listen to your body. Explore different types of movement you enjoy and exercise that energises you. Explore new whole food options and recipes. Experiment to find your optimal sleep schedule. Observe how cutting back screen usage impacts your days.

Health isn’t just the absence of sickness — it’s having the energy, focus and positivity to get close to the maximum out of yourself.