Tag Archive for: health habits

Giving Up Those Pointless Battles

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Every morning you can hear a “boink” on one of the back windows of the house. Every 15 seconds or so, another one. Then it begins to travel to another window. Boink. Boink. Boink. It’s a female cardinal. Time after time after time. Day after day. Upstairs windows, downstairs windows; the back of our house is almost all windows, so she has many choices. Boink. Boink. Boink. It’s been weeks, and she hasn’t learned yet and most likely is not going to learn to stop doing that. The battle continues. It’s pointless.

I’ve read the reasons why cardinals do this: a reflection of themselves or of the trees or shrubbery they’re on. Why she does it isn’t important—she’s still not getting into the house. And while she concentrates on attacking our windows, she’s not finding a nice male cardinal or building her nest. We’ve decided she’s not the smartest cardinal on the block, so maybe it’s better if she doesn’t reproduce.

Her day-after-day pointless battle raised a question in my mind. What are you doing day in, day out, that’s interfering with attaining the health you want? Starting every day with two pieces of toast with your eggs? Why not just one? Or try it with none? Are you walking at your usual window shopping pace? Why not try to increase the number of steps in the same time frame or get where you’re doing quicker by stepping up the pace? Always doing three sets of 15 repetitions? Why not raise the weight and drop to sets of 10 reps?

Or maybe it goes deeper. Are you fighting pointless battles just because you always have? Are they keeping you from doing what you truly need to do? What struggles could you walk away from?

You’re not a cardinal. You can change what you do to get better results. It may not require a whole lot more effort but unless you change things, you’ll keep getting the same results. Look at every one of your eating, exercise, and supplements habits. Look at where the conflicts are in your life. Where can you make changes that will get you better results?

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Your Payment Is Due

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Today is Tax Day here in the U.S.—if you owe the government any money, today is the day you have to file your taxes and pay up. There are penalties if you’re late, so you want to be sure you pay up on time.

Good health is the same way. The things you do that are beneficial such as eating less, eating better, flossing and brushing your teeth, exercising and many more things impact your health in positive ways. Overeating, refined carbohydrates, smoking, being sedentary, and other poor habits affect your health in negative ways. Done long enough, they’re going to impact your body.

Just like Tax Day, payment will become due. The price you pay depends on whether you have more good habits than poor ones. The only thing you don’t know is when you’ll have to pay that price: diagnosed as prediabetic at your next physical, headaches from high blood pressure, chronic bronchitis. Doesn’t matter whether you’re ready or not, someday you’ll have to pay for how you take care of your body. My advice is to choose wisely today and every day.

In this case, it doesn’t have to be the whole sum at once. Start small right now by skipping refined carbs just for today or taking a few extra steps. Definitely floss tonight before bed. You can sleep well at the end of the day knowing you’re headed in the right direction.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

The Way Things Used to Be

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On the radio, I heard a woman say, “I just want things to be the way they used to be!” That mirrors the frustration that I read from emails people send about being older. I don’t necessarily mean those over 60; I get the same type of frustration from 30-year-olds who find that their bodies don’t respond the way they did in their teens.

Things can’t be the way they used to be. Your body is a miracle, plain and simple, but it’s designed to run its course. It’s the original planned obsolescence. Hormones change. Joints wear. On top of that, we don’t do ourselves any favors with our lifestyle.

Things can’t be the way they used to be and that’s good. We remember what was good about those times, but we forget what wasn’t good and idealize the rest; we don’t remember the zits, the braces, and the awkwardness of inhabiting a body we weren’t used to using.

This goes back to the last two messages. You have to decide who’s in charge and then work to be the best version of you that you can be. Forget about the way things used to be—make your body the best that it can be today.

Spend some time examining your health habits. You may think you’re eating well, but it may not be enough of the right nutrients and that’s keeping you too thin or too heavy. The exercise you do may not be the best for the body you have today. It’s going to be trial and error, but you’ll do your research, consult the experts, and figure it out one piece at a time.

Stop wishing for a body gone by. Make what you have the best it can be right now. Who knows? It may just be better than you ever imagined it could be.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Observations: One Thing

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Our pretend daughters helped me cut down a dead pine tree a couple of weeks ago (we don’t have any actual daughters, so we just chose two young women we especially liked and pretend they’re ours). I can remember when that pine was planted. It grew from about seven feet tall to well over 25 feet in 15 years. Every tree that was planted in our yard has grown like crazy and thrived. Why did this one die? It had plenty of water. We had a tree service feed and protect the trees against pests and diseases.

The . . .

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