I will cover most of these topics in detail in other posts, but this is a good overview to get you started on the road to better health.
- Nutrition
Follow Michael Pollan’s advice. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Food is anything your great grandmother would have recognized as food. Also don’t eat anything that has more than 3 ingredients you don’t recognize. Extra vitamins and minerals are unnecessary, except that women should take supplemental calcium with vitamin D.
- Exercise
Buy a pedometer and get in the habit of putting it on every morning. Your goal should be 10,000 steps per day (about an hour and a half of brisk walking). Some people do better exercising with a group. If that’s you, then start a walking group or join a spinning class. Here is a website where you can order a pedometer, start a group and record your steps: http://www.everystepcounts.com. The accountability of recording your steps every day can help you keep going.
- Relationships
We are social animals, and studies over the last 30 years have shown that the effects of relationships on health are just as powerful as cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking status. Spend time with your friends and family. Expand your social network. Don’t take work home at night or on weekends, and don’t check your email more than once a day. Unplug the TV and sit down to a nice dinner (of food, mostly plants, not too much) with your spouse, children or significant other.
- Stress
Reduce the things in your life that are emotionally stressful if you can, and if you can’t, then learn some ways to reduce the effects of stress on your body-mind. Exercise helps. Learn meditation and/or yoga. Take walks in the woods. Use your vacation days to do something fun.
- Alcohol
A little alcohol is actually good for you, but a lot is not. Also, drinking a little every day is better that a lot on the weekend. A healthy amount is no more than 1-2 drinks per day, with a drink defined as 1 1/2 oz of 80 proof alcohol, or a 4 oz glass of wine. For those who can’t stick with those limits, it’s better not to drink alcohol at all. There is some evidence that red wine is better for you than other kinds of alcohol.
- Tobacco
Don’t smoke cigarettes or cigars, and don’t use chewing tobacco or snuff. If you are already a tobacco user, quit. If you are having trouble quitting, Vermont has an excellent resource called 802QUITS. They provide counseling and medication, including what appears to be the newest and most effective — Chantix.
- Exercise your mind
Brains atrophy just like bodies do without exercise. Brain exercise is anything that engages your ability to think and create. This does not include watching television. Read some books. Read the newspaper. Subscribe to some blogs. Do crossword puzzles. Take a course online. Write something.
Will all this make you illness free and live forever? Absolutely not! Illness, suffering and death await all of us sooner or later. But if you do all of these things (or even most of them), you will enjoy your life more, and it’s likely to be longer and happier.
I appreciate your straight-forward style and the practical advice that gets right to the heart of the matter. Looking forward to more!
Hello! I find it curious why alcohol is more tolerated (in general opinion anymay, but it seems in medical opinion also) than smoking. My question is: would one cigarette per day be considered/permitted as it is one glass of wine? Or is the effet of tobacco is that much worse? Anyway I wanted to tell that I find interesting the idea of creating a healthblog, and I look forward for your posts!