Monday, October 16, 2006
Healthy Living in todays world
In recent times much is being made of the stressful way in which we live. The "Rat Race" is a much used term & one only has to visit the larger cities such as London or New York, to view for yourself how much faster is the pace of everyday life. The first time that we visited London for example, we were almost swept off our feet by the tide of human traffic on the rush hour tube & found ourselves caught up in the hectic pace, rushing from one station to the next or to the nearest exit even though at that time we were on holiday!
Even in the smaller towns, work & home life are becoming increasingly pressurised areas as we strive to achieve our career goals, earn higher wages to provide better for our growing families & sometimes simply to stay afloat in the business world. Home has greater expectations, with many of us striving to maintain the outward appearance of belonging to whatever neighbourhood we have chosen to live in. Our homes must have the right accessories as must our families, the children must go to the right schools & we must wear the right clothes, drive the right car etc.
In such a context healthy living has come to mean different things I think. There is the kind of healthy which demands that we eat & grow only organic produce, that we follow the latest "Healthy Diet", that we follow a particular exercise plan & conform to whatever is the most recent guideline from the most fashionable guru.
Then if we are lucky we have the (possibly) more down to earth version of healthy living that enables us to choose our own path, which maybe mixes organic & non-organic produce a little, which enables us to listen more to our bodies in terms of what we should eat & how much we should drink. Many of the latest suggestions involve eating a balanced diet containing a little of everything with extra portions of vegetables & fruit to increase our vitamin intake & energy levels. Drinking plenty of water, remembering that this does not include the water used in tea, coffee & sugary drinks. If we want our body to respond favourably, we are told that we need to eat, drink & exercise in moderation & sleep well at night, indeed apart from sleeping, it would seem that moderation in most things is now believed to be the key to that new healthy you.
So if you want to have a healthy lifestyle, try getting 8 hours sleep every night, eating plenty of fresh produce & moderate amounts of protein, carbohydrates & even sweets, drink plenty of water along with moderate amounts of your other favourite beverages & learn to manage your stress levels. Practise taking several deep & slowly released breaths before speaking when you are in a situation where you feel tense or even angry, use that extra thinking time to choose your words in this situation.
Smile often to yourself during the day (& evening), make a conscious effort to think of something that makes you smile however briefly. It is difficult to be angry or sad if you are smiling. See if your friends notice the difference (enough to comment without you mentioning it).
Even in the smaller towns, work & home life are becoming increasingly pressurised areas as we strive to achieve our career goals, earn higher wages to provide better for our growing families & sometimes simply to stay afloat in the business world. Home has greater expectations, with many of us striving to maintain the outward appearance of belonging to whatever neighbourhood we have chosen to live in. Our homes must have the right accessories as must our families, the children must go to the right schools & we must wear the right clothes, drive the right car etc.
In such a context healthy living has come to mean different things I think. There is the kind of healthy which demands that we eat & grow only organic produce, that we follow the latest "Healthy Diet", that we follow a particular exercise plan & conform to whatever is the most recent guideline from the most fashionable guru.
Then if we are lucky we have the (possibly) more down to earth version of healthy living that enables us to choose our own path, which maybe mixes organic & non-organic produce a little, which enables us to listen more to our bodies in terms of what we should eat & how much we should drink. Many of the latest suggestions involve eating a balanced diet containing a little of everything with extra portions of vegetables & fruit to increase our vitamin intake & energy levels. Drinking plenty of water, remembering that this does not include the water used in tea, coffee & sugary drinks. If we want our body to respond favourably, we are told that we need to eat, drink & exercise in moderation & sleep well at night, indeed apart from sleeping, it would seem that moderation in most things is now believed to be the key to that new healthy you.
So if you want to have a healthy lifestyle, try getting 8 hours sleep every night, eating plenty of fresh produce & moderate amounts of protein, carbohydrates & even sweets, drink plenty of water along with moderate amounts of your other favourite beverages & learn to manage your stress levels. Practise taking several deep & slowly released breaths before speaking when you are in a situation where you feel tense or even angry, use that extra thinking time to choose your words in this situation.
Smile often to yourself during the day (& evening), make a conscious effort to think of something that makes you smile however briefly. It is difficult to be angry or sad if you are smiling. See if your friends notice the difference (enough to comment without you mentioning it).
