Whenever I visit a school and speak to an assembly about how to get healthy, I walk young people through a list of practical steps that they can take to change their lives for the better.

Sometimes I only have 15 minutes to speak. If I only had a few minutes to share a few ideas with you, here’s what I would say:

1. Eat only foods that God created. This means choosing foods as close to the natural source as possible, which will nourish your body, help your heart beat strong and continuous, and give you the healthiest life possible. I’m talking about fresh fruits and vegetables harvested from the field, dairy products, organic beef and chicken, unprocessed grains, nuts like almonds, and seeds like pumpkin seeds.

2. Drink a minimum of eight glasses of water a day.Water happens to be the perfect fluid replacement; only God could come up with a liquid that makes up 92 percent of your blood plasma and 50 percent of everything else in the body. Drinking plenty of water allows the kidneys and liver to operate at full capacity and flush waste and toxins out of the body’s digestive and urinary tracts.

3. Take a break from eating every now and then. I’m a firm believer in the value of giving the body’s digestive system time off from the round-the-clock digestive cycle that so many people put their bodies under these days. Your liver—the hardest-working organ God gave you—will thank you. I recommend a weekly partial fast where you fast from breakfast and lunch before eating again that evening, although if you’re playing a sport, you do need to eat.

4. Take a whole food multivitamin daily. Multivitamins, by simple definition, are a combination of vitamins and minerals formulated into a single supplement. I recommend that you take living multivitamins in whole food form, also known as homeostatic nutrients, which are vitamins and minerals that have been fermented with probiotic microorganisms and their enzymes.

5. Exercise every day. Some school districts are canceling PE, which means your body’s need to exercise is even greater. If you’re not in a sport, then you have to intentionally find time to exercise. Young bodies need lung-bursting exercise at a time when their muscles and skeletal systems are still growing.

7. Sleep for a minimum of seven or eight hours each night. This is as good a place as any to issue a wake-up call about the importance of sleep, which is in short supply these days because of homework and school activities. A good night’s rest revitalizes tired bodies, gives you more energy, and helps you be more attentive in class throughout the day. Sleep experts say you should shoot for the magic number of eight hours, but if that’s impossible, do your best to get at least seven to seven-and-a-half hours.

8. Soak in one hour of sunlight a week. My feelings on sunlight run counter to the conventional wisdom, which says the sun is bad for you. While it’s true that a small segment of the population experiences higher rates of melanoma and other forms of skin cancer, I believe that’s more because they lack adequate nutrients in their diets, especially antioxidant-rich fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. Getting sunlight is important for our bodies because of the way the skin synthesizes vitamin D from the ultraviolet rays of sunlight. If it’s warm enough, eat your lunch outside in the sun!

9. Forgive those who’ve hurt you. Anger, acrimony, apprehension, agitation, anxiety, and alarm are deadly emotions, and whenever you experience any of these feelings—whether justified or not—the efficiency of your immune system decreases noticeably for six hours. Forgiving others reduces stress and gives you the emotional confidence to get through any difficulty.

10. Spend time with the Lord in prayer and live a life of purpose. I believe that people who live a life of purpose live longer and live better because they are more likely to take good care of their bodies. They have a goal—to serve God—because they believe He wants to use them.