If you want to be able to take care of your family, your aging parents, your employees and so on, you need to manage your own health as a primary concern. Does this mean drinking all the orange juice in the house and yelling at your spouse if you get less than seven hours sleep? No, but it does mean you need to realize that your body is a machine, and machines need a certain amount of care in order to run properly.

Here are some tips to keep your own body running like a well oiled machine:

1. Quit the leaf! Whether it’s tobacco, chewing tobacco or even marijuana, these things have harmful affects on your body. Legality aside, the harmful chemicals brought into your system as a result of using these items are known to cause cancer, emphysema and other serious medical conditions.

2. Green is your favorite color. And not just for the environment, green should be the color of most of your food as well. Raw leafy greens are fantastic forms of vitamins, anti-oxidants, nutrients and more. Spinach, broccoli, asparagus, romaine lettuce and all their wacky cousins will give your body what they need.

3. Don’t be a juicer. No, I’m not talking about steroids, I mean orange, apple, pineapple and cranberry juice. Check out the sugar content on the label of your favorite drink and you’ll see that you’re ingesting high amounts of fructose, high fructose corn syrup and all sorts of unnatural items. Water, tea, natural juices (check the label) and other drinks low in sodium and sugar are where it’s at.

4. Find your happy place. You need 30 minutes of alone time a day, not matter how hard it is to find that time, you need it. Find it in your car, the bathroom, a closet, wherever and whenever you can get time to clear your head, read the bible, zone out and whatever else you need to do. There will always be needy people, but you need time to yourself as well.

5. Know your booze. A glass or two of red wine is actually healthy, even a beer now and then isn’t bad. However, three Red Bull and Grey Gooses every Thursday through Sunday is gonna turn your liver into mush and ruin just about every other organ as well. Hard liquor can be enjoyed in moderation, but moderation means high quality liquor once a month, tops.

6. Quit fast food, as fast as you can. Watch “Super Size Me.” Then, after you’ve finished cursing McDonalds, make an eating chart that you keep in your bedroom or bathroom. Keep track of every item you eat during a month and see how often you eat out, that means pizza, Taco Bell, Burger King, restaurants and so on. Eliminate as much garbage from your diet as you can, especially if it’s made by people wearing silly hats offering you fries with your meal.

7. Practice the three R’s: Reading, reading and reading. Yes, television is the cheap whore who will give herself to you as often as you want her. But, it’ll ruin your physique, cause you to lose your vocabulary and even keep you on the couch eating chips so much that you’ll forget what the sun felt like on your skin. Subscribe to two magazines you like to read, make a list of books and try to bang one out a month and set one night aside in your home to focus on reading something, maybe even out loud.

Fridge temperature is about 36 degrees, cold enough to eliminate most flavor and all subtly from most white wines. Full bodied whites, like Chardonnay, should be served at about 55 degrees which requires an hour-and-a-half in the fridge. Less textures wines, like Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc, can be colder since there is less depth to lose.

2. Serving Red Wines Too Warm – Everyone knows that red wines are supposed to be consumed warm but this does not mean at room temperature. Reds should be served at 65 degrees or below, slightly cooler than room temperature. A good rule of thumb that applies to red and whites is the more complex the wine, the higher temperature it should be served.

3. Using the wrong glasses – The bare minimum is two different types of glasses: a general purpose wine glass and champagne flute. Some drinkers say you need a separate glass for red and white wines, but I would say that is more of a luxury than a necessity. Brandy and cognac drinkers will definitely want to add a sniffer to their collection early on.

As you get more interested in wine there is quite literally no limit to the number of different glasses available and the amount you can spend on them. For instance, Riedel has a separate glass for vintage champagne, a one for regular champagne, and one for sparkling wine. Until then, the basic two will work fine. Perception is an important part of tasting and even inexpensive wines deserve a real wine glass.

4. Pouring too much wine in the glass – There needs to be enough room in the glass for the wine to be vigorously swirled. In most wine glasses the most you will pour is halfway or slightly less.

5. Not Letting the Wine Breathe – This isn’t just wine snobbery. Red wines will open up once they are opened and mixed with air. White wines also open up but not as much as reds.

Decanting is a topic of debate among wine people. Separate from letting the wine sit after opening, decanting is pouring the wine into a special container to expose more surface area to air. Wines with a lot of sediment in the bottom will clear out with decanting but for the most part decanting is a matter of personal preference.