Category: Health

Passionate Living:  Common sense tells us to sleep, exercise, and eat correctly.  How do we find the passion for a healthy life?

Are You Struggling?

If you are struggling, you are not alone. Tens of millions of Americans do not get enough sleep, do not exercise regularly, and eat processed food that makes them overweight.

Common Sense is not Enough.

It seems to me that most people have the common sense to know how their energy, mental clarity, and self-esteem rise with healthy habits.

However, one-third of Americans are not getting enough sleep. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.

Spending Money is Not the Answer.

According to various articles online, Americans spend between $40 and $60 billion each year on sleep aids, weight loss, and exercise programs.

Buying sleep aids doesn’t change our behavior.  People who stay up too late and take a sleep aid to go to sleep are more tired than people who simply go to bed on time.

Believing that a financial commitment will lead to a change of behavior, people sign a year-long contract to a gym in January.  By March, most people have stopped going regularly.  Others don’t go at all.

Additionally, other people buy expensive exercise equipment.  Much of this equipment ends up gathering dust in the corner or on Craigslist.

Passionate Living: How People Form Healthy Habits

No one has needs to tell avid golfers to get off the sofa.  They are too passionate about playing golf to care about the sofa.  Tennis, fishing, soccer, softball, basketball, running, sailing, or any exercise that stirs our passions are good choices for creating new habits.

I have switched activities from time to time. But I continue to find new physical activities that I love.

As for eating healthy foods, I have never given up cake or ice cream.  However, for 6 days of each week, I eat things that are healthiest for me instead.  I have good luck with eating a ketogenic diet.  My eating plan is 10 percent carbohydrates, 20-25 percent protein, and 65-70 percent fat. I track what I eat and track my weight.

About once a week, I purposely drift away from my eating plan to eat the most indulgent things I can find.  And, I remind myself the next day that I had planned to eat that way for one-day week.

Then I return to my keto eating plan. The indulgent day kick-starts my metabolism into high gear.  It is not just a day of pleasure.  The indulgent day is a day of necessity.  I have fun and feel passionate about the way I am eating and about the results.

Breaking Habits: Why is quitting unhealthy or counterproductive habits so difficult?  What are the tools that everyone can use to end these habits and start healthier and more productive habits?

Quitting a bad habit is easier when we do something healthy instead. ~ www.jaywren.com

Here are some typical unhealthy or counterproductive habits: procrastination, sitting, overspending, drinking too much alcohol, tardiness, snacking, staying up too late, and so on.

Guilt is Never the Answer

Guilt is never the answer to quitting or breaking habits.  You are not weak.  However, unhealthy, rude habits are powerful.  We succumb to our habits to find comfort from bad feelings.  Guilt only makes the habits more powerful.

My Story

I am going to discuss the steps I used to stop smoking.  However, these steps work in breaking habits of all types.

Smoking may not pose a health threat for everyone.  People who smoke an occasional cigar or a cigarette with friends may not damage their health or their relationships.

This article is not a lecture.  I can only speak for myself about how I have ended unhealthy habits.

I was a chain-smoker.  Whenever I was awake, I had a cigarette in my hands or a cigarette burning in an ashtray at my fingertips.  I had an addiction that created cravings when I didn’t smoke.

However, today, I haven’t smoked a cigarette for over thirty years.  Before smoking my last cigarette, I had quit smoking countless times.

I found that I had two problems.  Quitting and staying stopped.

Recognizing the Habit for What It Is

I had two experiences that told me that smoking was very dangerous for me.  First, my father, one of my uncles, and my father’s dad were smokers. All three men developed emphysema and suffered chronic bronchitis, which is common among people who suffer from emphysema.

Second, I had two colds that turned into bronchitis in as many months.

I realized that smoking was a dangerous threat to my health.

Furthermore, I had people who complained to me about how my smoking bothered them.  Until I became a non-smoker, I had trouble understanding what I was doing to these people.

Breaking Habits: Admitting the Habit Exist

I reached a point where I could admit to myself that smoking would eventually kill me.  Second, I admitted that smoking was selfish and threatened the health of my family and the other people who worked around me.
Furthermore, I had to admit smelling like a smoker had a negative effect on my relationships with other people.  Now that I am a non-smoker, I can smell cigarette smoke fifteen feet away.

Finding Healthy Tools

Quitting was never easy.  Simple, yes.  Easy, no.

The last time I stopped and stayed stopped, I used tools that replaced the elements involved in smoking.  I talked to people who had quit.  Also, I read articles about the things other people had done to stop and stay stopped.

Furthermore, I would call friends when I craved a cigarette.  Talking with them took my mind off my cravings and discomfort.

Here are things helped get through the first two weeks of discomfort.  Part of smoking is the habit of having something between our fingers. I made a chain of paper clips and kept it in my hands to keep my fingers busy. Cravings for a cigarette lasts about 90 seconds. When I became aware that I was craving a cigarette, I would go for a walk to the water fountain or around the atrium at my office.

Knowing that many people ate more when they quit smoking, I began to keep low-calorie foods nearby.  For example, crunching on an apple helped me overcome the habit of putting a cigarette in my mouth.

For two weeks, I felt empty-headed. I had trouble concentrating.  I understood that this sensation was common and would not last.

Lifestyle Changes

Now that I was not smoking, I felt more comfortable doing more exercise.

I joined a health club and went there each morning before work.

With my wife, I took up co-ed softball and soccer. Also, I coached a couple of adult teams. Then I coached my younger daughter’s soccer team.

Instead of trying to stay off cigarettes, I took up healthy habits that changed my life for the better.  By just giving up cigarettes and doing other things instead, my entire lifestyle changed. I was exercising regularly. My wife and I were making new friends who were active non-smokers as well.

Staying stopped was the real problem.  I would go through the discomfort of quitting.  Then I would start again.

But by finding healthier things to do, I have become a non-smoker who can’t understand why other people still smoke.

Stress

Dealing with stress is simple, but it is not always easy. ~ www.jaywren.com

Life’s challenges create pressure.  I can’t always control the world around me.   However, I can reduce stress with my actions.  Here are seven things I do.

I Fight Procrastination.

I feel tremendous stress when I put things off.

Also, thinking about doing a large project from start to finish is often overwhelming.  To reduce stress, I break projects down into multiple, simple steps.

For example, when I am stuck and can’t write an article, I start with writing a title.  I might write one paragraph.  I save what I have written as a draft.   After a few days, I may not come back to work on this draft.  Sometimes, I never come back to finish the article.

That’s okay, because following this method gives me a start to every article I write.

I Write Things Down.

When something is bothering me, I can write it down.  Writing takes the sting out of stress.

If I have something that I need to do but can’t do now, I can write it down.  Having it on my calendar clears my mind for the things I need to do now.

Furthermore, having a plan of action helps me become more productive.  When I become more productive, I have a sense of accomplishment.  I feel less stress.

I Try to Eat Healthy Food First.

When hunger makes me anxious between meals, a snack cuts my anxiety until mealtime.

Although I try, I don’t always snack on the healthiest things.  I must make choices for my snacks.  One of my favorite snacks (not just for desserts!) is ice cream.  Also, I love chocolate-covered peanuts.  One of my favorite snacks is chips and salsa.  It looks like a healthy choice.

But sugary and starchy snacks make me hungrier.  From what I have read, the carbs in sugar and starch, when eaten alone, over stimulate the pancreas to produce a surge of insulin.  The excess insulin drops blood sugar so that I am hungry even though I have just eaten.

Therefore, I try to keep more satisfying snacks handy.  Nuts and peanut butter are calorically dense, but are low in net carbs.  A couple of tablespoons of peanut butter (190 calories, 7 grams of carbs) kills my appetite better than a cup of ice cream (220 calories, 28 grams of carbs).

A slice of Havarti cheese has 80 calories and zero grams of carbs.

I use MyFitnessPal to track my nutrition.  (This is not a paid endorsement.)

Furthermore, I am not a nutritionist, but low-carb, high-fat foods satiate my appetite.  You may find that the same thing works for you.

I Take Breaks!

Being tired creates stress.

No one can run wind sprints all day long.  Breaks make us more productive.  I find that working alone in a virtual office, I can easily forget to take breaks.

To remind myself to move each hour, I have notifications on my calendar to leave my desk and move around.  Simply walking for a few minutes reduces my feeling anxious.

I get plenty of sleep.

Not only do I take breaks. I try to get plenty of sleep.  Allowing my brain to rest enables me to make better decisions. Better decisions increase success and cut stress.

Note: Not taking breaks from work or not getting enough sleep creates stress that can lead to burnout.  We reach a point where overdoing our job cripples us in ways that we can no longer do our job.

I Try to Keep It Real.

It is so easy for me to want to control national or international events.  Thinking that I can control these things is completely fruitless and painfully stressful.

People in forums say things that annoy me.  Correcting them is pointless.  I can’t police the Internet!

Likewise, I can easily believe that I can change other people.  There are things that I can do that affect how other people react.  However, just changing my own behavior is not always easy.  Believing that I can change other people is often impractical.

Frustration over the things I can’t change creates stress.  I try to keep it real about the things that I can change and not change.

I Talk with Friends.

Just having friends helps me beat stress.  Talking to friends gets me out of my own head and into the present moment.  Furthermore, in talking with friends, I get practical information on dealing with challenges in my life, thereby increasing success and reducing stress.