Live a healthy life
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How did you do? Is there anything you want to change about your health? Spring cleaning your lifestyle will make you not only healthier but happier.
Your health
If your health is a problem, you need to deal with it right now. The longer you put off confronting it, the worse it’s going to get. Even if your physical health doesn’t seem to be a priority right now, being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle will make you feel much better.
Apart from anything else, how annoyed will you be if you put a lot of other changes in place and create a wonderful life for yourself, which you are then too ill to enjoy?!
The body often takes a long time to react to maltreatment, so you can sit on the sofa eating pot noodles for years and think you’re fine… but it catches up with you in the end.
If you have a difficult relationship with food, or if you struggle to care about eating properly, let me recommend WeightWatchers. My sister has learnt a huge amount from this organisation; she is now healthier and feels much better about herself.
If you’re not sure how you score on cholesterol, blood pressure and so on, ask your doctor. It’s easy to do and your doctor can only be pleased you’re taking an interest in your own health. If you’re not sure about your eyes, ears or teeth, get them checked out.
Your lifestyle
An unhealthy lifestyle is a sure sign that you don’t value yourself sufficiently highly. As I’ve said elsewhere on this site (it applies in every area), it can appear to be more relaxing not to bother about eating properly or ever taking any exercise but actually it’s not. The apparent relaxation of the couch potato is in fact only apathy and indifference to life.
If you get off the sofa, become more active and take an interest in what you consume, this will help you in two ways. Firstly, you’ll feel better just because you’re engaging with life again. Then the good that you’re doing to your body by treating it better will kick in and you’ll feel better physically as well as psychologically. This won’t happen overnight but you should notice a difference within two or three weeks.
Let go of your bad habits and addictions
We develop bad habits and additions as a means of soothing ourselves. The secret to kicking them is to work out exactly what need our bad habit or addiction is fulfilling in us and then learn to meet this need in a different, healthier way. I know this is easy to say and can be hard to do but I’ve found it helps a lot to know that this is what it’s about, rather than that I really need whatever it is I’m trying to cut down on.
I’ve also found that, although I routinely have a glass or two of wine in the evening at home, when I’ve been on holiday and thus stimulated in other ways, I often haven’t even thought about having a drink. When my friend and I went to Las Vegas, the only alcohol we consumed in ten days was one margarita. This is most unlike us but, as I say, we were so excited about everything around us that we just didn’t think about wanting an alcoholic drink.
In practical terms for everyday life, try changing your evening routine. If you do something, instead of just hanging out and watching telly, you may be less likely to want to drink/smoke or whatever it is you want to reduce. If you go to the cinema, join a class or do something to keep yourself healthily occupied even two or three times a week, this adds up to a significant reduction in your bad habit. It may also help to lift your mood generally, so that, even when you are sitting at home, you may feel less need for wine/cigarettes/whatever.
Another aspect of addiction is habit. If you’re accustomed to, say, having a glass of wine at the end of the day, try having your favourite juice instead, in the same type of glass you use for your wine. Really good juice can be expensive but, while you’re weaning yourself off the wine, I consider it’s worth it. That way, you have the same feeling of pampering yourself slightly that is, for most people, part of the purpose of the wine.
In my opinion, unless you have been advised by a professional to cease doing whatever you do (eg, drink alcohol), most things that are bad for you in excess are fine in moderation. The odd glass of alcohol, the occasional chocolate bar, one or two cups of coffee a day, I personally feel do me no harm. I have purist friends who would disagree but I just want to say, you don’t necessarily have to cut out everything you like altogether. I would also strongly recommend that you work on the positive aspect of providing yourself with replacement ‘soothing’ before you force yourself to stop doing what you enjoy. If you focus just on the negative, you will probably either fail and feel worse or succeed but still not feel good because your need is not being met.
Some habits are unequivocally bad for you and should be your priority for replacing. Two of these I consider to be taking illegal drugs and smoking tobacco. If you smoke or take drugs, you are damaging your health, as you well know, and you need to start working right now on finding ways to help you stop craving tobacco, cannabis or whatever it is you do. Find yourself another way to meet this need.
I know this is easy to say, particularly since I don’t smoke or take drugs, and please forgive me if I sound trite or holier than thou. When I was told, years ago, to give up coffee to facilitate the efficacy of a homeopathic remedy, I went into a decline for a week and then drank a huge cup of coffee. I’m not saying I could do any better than you. All I’m saying is that drugs and tobacco are harmful and thus prime candidates for spring cleaning. The same goes for anything that you consume to excess, whether it be alcohol, chocolate or coffee.
Help with letting go of your bad habits and addictions
My experience of transactional analysis psychotherapy has helped me to understand a great deal about my own bad habits and I recommend you to try it. A therapist will help you to identify the needs that you’re meeting in unhealthy ways and to find healthy ways to meet them.
I’ve also heard very favourable reports of this book. If you want to give up smoking, see if Allen Carr can help you.
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking
by Allen Carr
As attested by hundreds of ex-smokers, an excellent book that really works.
Read more about Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking.
Embrace your good habits
At the beginning, you may not derive much pleasure from developing good habits, such as drinking water, eating fruit and vegetables and being active. However, even if you have to force yourself for the first week or two, I encourage you to make the effort because you will feel better. For me, I started by feeling satisfied with having achieved something every day (eating an apple, going for a walk) and then, as doing these things made me feel physically better, I began to take more interest in looking after my body.
Exercise is particularly good because it almost always yields an instant benefit as well as a longer-term one. The endorphins your body produces as you walk briskly or work out help to lift your mood and give you a feeling of balance and well-being.
Do more of what you enjoy (if it’s healthy)
If you enjoy playing squash, for example, but feel you shouldn’t because it’s expensive and takes up time when you ought to be working, look at your priorities. Squash is very good for you, so juggle your time and your money so that you can enjoy your game without guilt. Put your health and well-being at the top of your list of priorities. (See Your Work for more about this.)
Take regular time out to pamper yourself but do it in a healthy way. Pampering does not mean drinking beer or eating chocolate in front of the telly. It means having a peaceful bath, meditating, having some quiet time alone in the park or by the river, being massaged (by someone else or yourself), giving yourself a beauty treatment, spending some time in the sauna or steam room… this sort of rejuvenating activity.
Life is for living, right now. Enjoy it.