How to live a healthy life – Part 4
January 18, 2011 
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“Don’t try No-Doz,
better stay away from those,
who carry around a firehouse.”
– Bob Dylan
While Dylan didn’t seem to have healthy living in mind when he wrote those words, the lyrics do make one point: the benefits of avoidance.
Avoidance of the bad stuff, we all know, is only part of healthy living. To quote someone else, an old friend of mine who lives in Puerto Rico: “You have to minimize your input and maximize your output.” That’s it, 10 words that can take the place of an armful of diet books with 250 pages each. It has always been my contention that any self-help book can be boiled down to two sentences. This is double for diet, exerise or holistic health books. Being fit and feeling good does not take a lot of strategy (but as many tactics as you want.)
Healthy living is really a no-brainer in 2008. We have the benefit of decades of studies showing a myriad of improvements by lowering caloric intake and raising the pulse rate through aerobic exercise. Cutting out salt. Avoiding sugar. Avoiding fats. Being sensible about carbohydrates. And try to control portions. I was speaking to a young friend from China a few years ago who had made her first trip to the U.S. I asked what was her main imporession of America. “The portions are huge,” she said, “and people are always in your face.” After some discussion, I deduced “in in your face” was her description of a friendly “hello.”
You know what you have to do. And reading another article about healthy living isn’t making you any healthier. You just need a little will-power (or a significant other with same,) and a strong desire to be healthy. Here’s a few quick suggestions, being kept brief, so you can go out and do it!
- Get up 30 minutes early each morning and walk, run or jog for at least 20 minutes.
- Have beef or pork no more than once a week, each.
- Keep portions of meat no larger than the palm of your hand.
- Throw away your salt shaker (there is plenty of salt in prepared foods, and other spices can bring the flavor out of most dishes.)
- Minimize your sugar intake, and try to avoid sugar substitute.
- No more than two slices of bread a day.
- No food between meals, unless it is a raw fruit or vegetable.
- At fresh fruit or vegatbles at two of your meals each day.
- Whenever you think about food, switch your thought to your ideal body.
- Grill, don’t fry.
- Savor each bite.
- Don’t smoke.
- Take your medicine each day.
- Drink all the coffee you want.
Enjoy!
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