Staying Healthy

 Aside from having any predispositions or poor health due to heredity, there are a few things one can do to stay healthy and still enjoy life...

Sounds like an oxymoron but it is not, I assure you.  However, staying healthy does involve a lifestyle change...

One of the first things that I would suggest that you do is QUIT SMOKING.  Most diseases later in life can be traced back to the damage done to our bodies by smoking.  Quitting this habit is not easy but is necessary to begin one's lifestyle change.

The next step that I would suggest is to minimize your consumption of alcohol.  There is nothing wrong with having 1-2 drinks after work, one is preferrable but consuming lots of alcohol on the weekends is not the best way to spend your time.  If you must drink alcohol to be sociable then nurse your drink and spend time listening to the conversation or contributing to it.

The next step is not easy for most of us and that is daily exercise...  The exercise does not have to be vigorous or robust but it does have to be consistent and last for 20 minutes.  What I like to do is walk around the block once a day, listening to iheart radio ear buds connected to my phone.  Once around the block for me in 9/10ths of a mile and takes me about 20 minutes of normal walking up and down the roads.

The other hurdle that you must overcome is twofold with the first part limiting the amount of what you eat at each meal and the second part being making sure that meal is healthy.

When I turned 40 years of age, I gave up eating red meat, fried foods, and sugars, concentrating instead of chicken, turkey, fish, vegetables, fruit, and beans.  I also eat rice and pasta but in reduced amounts.  I avoid bread, especially white bread, but allow myself to eat low fat pita bread,  I also include cheese and yogurt into my healthy eating.

However, in order to maintain the healthy diet, I allow myself to each a cheeseburger 3-4 times a year as well as a pizza.  I might eat a steak once a year but after eating vege burgers and vege hotdogs, eating the real thing does not always taste as good.

What I have found that works best for me is to eat 5 relatively small meals each day that collectively are less than 2,000 calories, trying to stay in the range of 1,600 to 1.800.

The final piece of healthy living is once again twofold with the first part being getting 8 hours of sleep each night and the second part being finding a way to reduce or manage my stress.  One of the ways that I manage my stress is when I have to be somewhere at a specific time and I know that it will take me 30 minutes to drive there, I leave the house 45 minutes before so I don't have to worry about driving fast.

Yoga and meditation are good ways to manage stress and can easily be done at work, if you are clever, and want to avoid peer ridicule. 

REMEMBER:  don't base your self-confidence on what other people think of you.