Your health: 10 things to do in June

June is here, which means gardening season's in full swing, school's out for summer and we've got the most daylight hours we'll have all year. Take advantage by taking time to pay attention to your health. Here are 10 ideas to focus on this month.

1. Eat a healthy breakfast
Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, and for good reason. It gives you the energy to get going in the morning -- real energy, rather than caffeine-induced alertness. "After a night's sleep, our bodies have just about used up their glucose store," notes Jill Fullerton-Smith, author of The Truth About Food (Bloomsbury, 2007). "Our brain functions exclusively on glucose, so breakfast helps us top up our brain fuel." For the best brain food, Fullerton-Smith recommends foods low on the glycemic index, such as whole grains. To make the meal even healthier, add other power foods such as berries or nuts and seeds. Not hungry first thing in the morning? Pack a healthy homemade muffin and some yogurt to eat when you get to work.

2. Go for a morning walk
With the sun rising so early these days, it's not surprising that many of us find ourselves waking up before the alarm. Make the most of those extra minutes by going for a quick power walk. Even 10 or 15 minutes will help wake you up, get your metabolism going and burn a few extra prebreakfast calories. If you're up for it, turn your morning walk into a run.

3. Celebrate Clean Air Day
June 4, 2008, is Clean Air Day, a day on which Canadians focus their attention on air quality and climate change. Get involved by making a difference in your community, whether that be supporting the Commuter Challenge, organizing a walking school bus with your kids and neighbours or encouraging your workplace to support employee efforts to combat air pollution.

4. Make a weekly meal plan
The hardest thing about cooking healthy meals is planning for them, especially if you come home from work exhausted. Make things easier for yourself and your family by planning meals a week at a time. Pick a day of the week that's convenient and sit down to go through recipes, organize cooking schedules and write out grocery lists -- even order groceries online if it's more convenient for your household. Not having to think about cooking every night will make doing it that much easier, and with ready-made meal plans and prepurchased groceries, you'll be far less likely to phone the local pizza place.

5. Sip on red wine
It's no secret that red wine is packed with antioxidants -- and for many of us, it's an excellent stress reliever as well. But did you know that moderate alcohol consumption can lower your risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes and help keep your brain in tip-top shape, according to Liz Pearson and Mairlyn Smith, authors of Ultimate Foods for Ultimate Health (Whitecap Books, 2007)? So go ahead and enjoy that glass of wine with dinner, and know that it's more likely to help than harm, so long as it really is just one -- more than that and the risks will outweigh the benefits.

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