How to feel as good as possible

I realise it is subjective but I was wondering what sort of eating and fitness guidilines I should be following to feel as good as possible.
Any input on this subject would be appreciated.

Anything you do to improve your diet and exercise will have results. The exact route you go is entirely up to you. If you're just starting out you might want to give a look at a book called 'Body for Life'. I actually don't like the book, but that's only because it is written for beginners and I was expecting something more substantial. It will give you a great overview of diet and exercise at the beginner level, in easy to read and understand terms. One of the things this book deals with well that many other fitness books entirely ignore is how to keep the motivation up. You will feel better, but sometimes that's not enough to keep you going. This book does a good job of dealing with the psychological aspect of fitness. Good luck!

Well first of all- DON'T DO DRUGS. Despite what everyone says about having so much fun or awesome experiances, unless you are one of the few REAL people who can only do drugs very rarely, and have no problem living without them for long periods of time, they may not ruin your live but will not help in the long run. Drug use over time does a lot to contribute to depression, lethargy, and trouble focusing on complex tasks.
A lot of long-term drug users are better or worse than others (dramatically so), but despite the short term benefits drugs will never make you happy. I know what I'm saying is nothing new, but only with extremely moderated use and excellent mental health can a drug user not let the drugs effect their life (in small ways too).
Aside from eating healthy foods, and excercising often, healthy relationships are key. Having friends and other people in your life can bring about the best and worst of times. For this reason, you should try to surround yourself with straight people, and finding/developing hobbies that are drug-free. Also, as much as your drug-using friends may mean to you, you must realize that anyone who depends on/excessively uses a substance is someone who does not set a healthy example for you. Unless you have the iron willpower to always hang out with drug users and never use drugs, you should try to make friends with more straight people because they will have a more positive influence on you than your other friends who'll probably (unfortunately) bring you down.
This does not mean you have to ditch your friends and become a different person. Just try to recognize who and what have positive and negative impacts on your life. To dump your drug-using friends (expecially ones with real problems) just because they bring you down would be selfish, but if you really care about them and yourself you should try to be a positive influence on THEM.
Please excuse my rant...

on a day to day basis i would suggest eating as little animal if any as possible. you want to get your food from things that grow from the sun. not things that eat things that grow from the sun.
eliminate all refined things as much as possible from your diet. no white flour (bread), sugar, processed foods. the more something is processed the worse it becomes for you.that includes cooking veggies too. cooked veggies offer no nutritional vaule. try to eat as much raw fruits and veggies as you can. eat lots of seeds and nuts for getting your omega fats which are important
try to get 20 minutes of sunshine a day for good vitamin d absorbtion. also, make sure you get an hour of exercise, perferably outdoors.our bodies were never designed to "retire". always use all your body, if you understand what i'm saying.
as for vitamins i take vitamin e because it helps keep your mind and heart strong. vitamin e is also best absorbed with fat so eat it with a decent dinner and it also should be taken with vitamin c at the same time. vitamin c is very important to maintaining good health. i also take selenium which is a powerful antioxident and its good to take it esp. if you smoke pot. you should also find a complete multivitamin.
you should get a colon clense. toxins can be harbored in the colon for 20 years and longer. it takes about that long for colon cancer to get to a detectable point as well. if you harbor toxins in your colon they will omit themselves constantly into the bloodstream.
after you do that eat an apple a day. an apple will (and pumkin seeds) will pull toxins from your body. your blood is your life, make it clean.
at first you will feel really bad when you are trying to detox yourself. your body gets used to crap and that becomes its way so when you try to make good lifestyle changes your body may freak out a little and you will feel like crap while the toxins are being flushed from you.
drinking green tea (made yourself) also has very powerful antioxident and clensing properties.
you should read about holostic healing (even though youre not sick). it will give you a good concept on how your body works. every three years you will have a new body as your cells are constantly changing and being replaced. this is how people cure themselves from cancer or terminal diseases. also read up on toxicless eating.
and never dive right into something full force or you will fail. take one thing at a time and change it.
if you have any questions or anything, e-mail me.

beanergrl, I truly hope that you are joking. I mean, all those things you mention, there is NO scientific backing - I mean, come on, a "colon cleansing"??!?!
You mention too many things for me to comment them all, but please, don't take all this bullshit new age crap to your heart too easily.
To your defense, some of the ideas you mention may have some impact on quality of life, but mostly it is the faith in the things you do that count. If you believe in it, it works. But then you might as well just look into religion. Same mechanism.

^^^^
Have you been reading the Dr. Shwartzbein Health book???
It sounds like you've been reading it!
Anyhow, my advice is to stay away from alcohal, ciggs, and junk food/fast food.
Trust me, you'll feel great once you stop drowning yourself in it.

>>beanergrl, I truly hope that you are joking. I mean, all those things you mention, there is NO scientific backing
actually, the value of a plant-based diet has a fuck-load of scientific backing and is endorsed by the American Diabetic's Association.
ebola
np: orbital

well even though one exercises and eats right it doesnt mean he/she will feel good most of the time..there are plenty of people who go to the gym and live so called "healthy" lifestyles and yet they still feel tired more often than they should..im in that same boat, i dont feel as good as i should and i eat right, exercise, and take vitamins..i have for years yet i still feel lethargic and rather lazy at times, and i have no idea what causes this...i DO take drugs, mostly downers, but i have always felt like this and the docs see nothing wrong...i think its something in the air that makes us feel like shit..

I'm going to have to side closer with BlackOut on this "toxins" thing. Can you name a single toxin that lingers in your bloodstream for 20 years?
I do agree on reducing refined sugar and flour as a good step. However, I think most of these rules are near-voodoo anyway, so you can pick-and-choose what sounds "healthy" for you and you will probably feel better from a placebo effect. Everything works differently for different people.
My strict diet and exercise program that got me off was to eat generously until 3 PM staying away from fast food and other hi-cal pure-fat things. I drank a lot of water. Don't try to eliminate fat, your body needs it. I would go and work out at 5:30 and stay until 7, mixing lifting and cardio; always lifting first. Then I'd go home and drink a couple whey protein shakes spaced an hour apart. After that, no more food for the day, only water.
As for supplements, I took a B-complex. I have since stopped this program altogether and am back on doing assloads of stimulants to keep from getting sluggish. I do lifting every couple days, but it's nothing compared to where I was 3 months ago. I miss the runner's high and the all-day good feelings I had from the regular workouts. (I can't run, I use cardio machines, but lost my gym access.)

^^ yes, i can name lots of toxins that stay in your body for 20 years. dairy for one.the mucus that it creates stays in for up to 30. heres a link that explains it and your colon.:
http://www.gingerick.com/Aim/EliminateToxins.htm
i worked at a holostic healing center (before i was a stay at home mom i was an OT) where people with terminal diseases went for treatment for remission. the very first thing that they had to do was get a colon cleanse. as far as it not being proven to be effective, it is only not proven by the researchers for our govt who are paid to find new medicines, not preventions. big pharmecutical is big business, bigger then tobacco. they are not going to spend money on research that helps cure or prevent something. there has been lots of research that has proven the validity of colon clenses in the homopathic world. and i'm not new age at all. in fact the hospitol that i worked at , as well as florida hospitols which are all over fla are owned by the seventh day adventist churches. they are a church i belonged to for years. if you do a search on them you will find that they have had numerous studies done on them and their diet because colon cancer is virtually unheard of with its members because of their no meat, high fiber and fruit and vegetable diet they adhere to. i also want to add that i have personally witnessed a few hundred people with cancer and aids who were given less then 6 months to a year to live reverse their diseases and go into remission.
my husband himself had psorasis since he was 13. he had to take methotrexate which is a drug for chemotherapy. taking this drug was so bad that he had to have liver biopsies. he also took tegrin which he had to be off of for over 6 months before we could conceive our children or they could be born with club feet and hands. he also had to take puma light therapy which cost a few more hundred dollars a week. all the doctors,( and we went through many), told him there is no cure for psorasis, only medications that will suppress the immune system and keep it under the surface. because psorasis is an autoimmune disease its classified with aids and cancer we couldnt get insured anywhere and it was really costing us over $300 a week on his meds for several years intill we met the people that changed our lives.when he changed his diet and eliminated the toxins that were giving him it and incorported the right vitamins the psorasis all cleared up and hasnt came back. ive just recently seen on the "doctor approved" psorasis website that "they" are just now finding out that psorasis starts in the gut first (leaky gut syndrome) and that the toxins leak into the bloodstream causing psorasis as a secondary condition. well, der, thats what homopathic medicine proved years ago. so don't ever trust what your conventional doctor says as the truth because chances are he doesnt know he only knows what hes been taught.
as far as a vegetarian diet or one that consist of chicken or fish a couple times a week, its not only what the american diabetic association recommends but also the american cancer society and the american heart association. i dont have the time to post a bunch of links here that will tell you all of the benefits, but in addition to the meat not being too healthy for you, now theres also the hormones and antibodies the animal was injected with and the gmo plants with pesticides and herbisides all over it that the animal ate that also makes the meat more toxic to your body.
everything that you put into your body your body is going to see as one of three things. either it's going to act like a medicine, a healing food, such as apples or green veggies. or a neutrul food such as ,say ,cornbread, that neither hurt nor help you, or toxic foods. whenever you put toxic foods in you (refined or processed foods, most dairys and most meats) your body has to process that. when you put something into your body that it has to process that is not compatible with your cells then your cells have to undergo a change in order to process it. take for instance dairy. a cow molecule is much larger then a human one, but yet your human one is going to have to process it if you eat it. everytime you put a toxin in and your cell has to change a shape to process it instead of reparing it, you are inviting disease. sooner or later cancer or heart disease, ect. will set in from undergoing all the negetive celluar changes.
your body is a self healing organ. it is designed to heal and repair itself. your cells have the ability to reverse their diseased state by you by eliminating the toxins and incorporating healing foods and medicinal herbs (at that point. this is how remission occurs. it takes major effort in the area of diet for anyone who has ever gone into remission. every three years every cell in your body would have been replaced.exercise is also very important because it pushes the toxic waste from your lymps. we would have our patients do lots of trampolening, or rebounding (small trampoling) as part of their therapy. it is one of the best exercises for people with cancer to do because of the excellerated rate it eliminates the toxins from your lymps. 7 minutes of trampolening is equal to a half hour of moderate jogging,but without the stress on your body.:
http://www.4optimallife.com/Health-Benefits-of-Rebounding-Exercise.htm
when i intially posted in this thread i didnt know it would turn into me having to post so indeptly. this information is not new age nor does it come from any one persons book. it is a way of life followed by people of all religions, countries, and professions, esp. in the medical fields. jack lalane is a person that has healed himself from toxicless eating when he was told he was going to die. this information about healing yourself is out there all over. you just have to look for it.
heres a site of all the foods and how they help heal your body:
http://www.iwant2bhealthy.com/top_foods/index.shtml
another:
http://www.naturalways.com/medValFd.htm
and heres one on the benefits of pumpkin seeds since i mentioned it too above:
http://www.wholehealthmd.com/print/view/1%2C1560%2CSU_10113%2C00.html#Health_Benefits
and i forgot to mention it but this is extremly important, esp. if you did have cancer and were trying to heal yourself and thats drinking distilled water. why?:
http://www.distilledwater.org/benefits.htm
http://www.naturesstandard.com/dist_ben.html
i think the best way to prevent disease is to eat like you already have it.
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."
- Thomas Edison
http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/cancerselftreatment.htm
a very interesting site with photos on natural healing. in cancer esp. breast cancer the first thing they do is cut off the area that has the cancer. see pictures of a woman who chose not to cut her breast off and heal herself naturally. *warning some may find the pictures unsettling*
http://www.sambiser.com/samsnewsletters/breasteject.html
[ 30 October 2002: Message edited by: beanergrl ]

setarcos- these last few links are in efforts to bring an awarness to how your body works. you will feel better if you start to eliminate toxins from your body, i promise you. its all about what you put into you and exercise and fresh air. i forgot to mention also that yoga is very good for you and makes you feel sooo good. my body craves yoga if i dont do it for a few days. it has alot of benefits including realigning all of your inner organs that do move from their intended positions.

www.sosuave.com , visit it, you won't regret it!!!

I've taken Beanie's advice and yes, I feel alot better. Used to have trouble digesting food, after major operations, and the above things she has mentioned has helped me so much.
I used to love drinking milk, but as you get older it really starts screwing ya up, your digestive system, along with all diary products.
So now I drink soy milk, along with chocolate rice milk. I had a bone density test done, and the doctor said that my test results where higher than the highest point, so maybe all that milk I drank when I was younger paid off, but now it's a problem.
Also IMO, always there are reports of one thing or another being bad for you, and then later it's good. Everyone's body is different, and you alone
know what makes you feel good or bad. So be your own judge, but also others always can help ya out, so be open to new ideas. And it's been said that here in US we eat more in one sitting, than other countries, so it may not be what we eat but how much we eat, after all look at all the fast food restauraunts, all ya can eat places, in a country that has so much variety and quantity we take it for granted by being gluttons, he he. It's now catching up to us, just look around.
The pumpkin seeds are also very beneficial in helping you have a restfull sleep. My husband and I have been eating them daily. I'll make up a trail mix, pumpkin seeds, raisins, almonds, sunflower seeds. He and I sleep more restful than we ever have, really it's amazing how sound and peacefull I sleep now. Would be very beneficial for the elderly also that have trouble sleeping.
Yoga for me is awesome, but something else may fit your interest more, Sat. Ever tried Tai Chi, or kick-boxing? Anything to let go of stress, and help us phsically, mentally, and spiritually
Thanks for the info Beanie, will definetly check out all the sites.
Much Peace to Sat, and patience

practice qi-gong, tai chi, or yoga everyday. use <a href="http://www.brainmachines.com">biofeedback</a> to train your mind to be relaxed or alert depending on your needs. eat an all whole foods diet (fruits, vegetables, beans, grains, nuts, seeds, oils, etc) try and take drugs that don't expand your mind out of your life completely. do i do all this? no, but if i did i'd probably feel really good all the time

no time to write more, just heading out the door, but read this article. long but good.
Then read other stuff at that site