Sticking to healthy lifestyle habits every day is hard for many of us. A few ancient healthy lifestyle habits, that used to be simple, have become really difficult to live by in modern society:
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” – Hippocrates
“Walking is man’s best medicine.” Hippocrates
Hippocrates provided some sensible healthy lifestyle tips a long time ago. Grandparents passed these down through the generations. But no one seems to be able to explain what happened next. The nationwide “45 and up” study, run by the Sax Institute here in Sydney, found that only a third of people aged over 45 years had a healthy weight. More than a third (36%) were overweight, and 22% were obese in the most recent 2012 survey.
Having simple healthy lifestyle habits is important because unhealthy weight, diabetes and other chronic diseases are common and can lead to serious complications. Walking and nutrition, which are ancient foundations for good health, need to be prioritised for adults, even for the busiest working adults, and especially for those with kids, as kids are learning from today’s adults.
How to walk more
Having loads of comfortable shoes on hand can make the difference between walking daily (to work and on errands) or not. Of course, some shopping around is needed to find stylish comfortable shoes; and the shoes do cost a bit more. But managing a monthly budget is all about priorities. Making room in the budget may mean that other expenses need to be de-prioritised (for example, buying a lower cost car or home easily provides thousands of extra dollars to support healthy lifestyle habits).
Owning a scooter also motivates me to be active on longer journeys. This means that we use a car only for very long or complicated journeys, and every other journey is full of fun and exercise. A bicycle is another option, although I switched to a scooter because it is lighter, doesn’t need tires to be pumped, and I can fold it to bring it on both the bus and the train.
How to eat healthy all the time (not just sometimes)
Healthy eating on a daily basis continues to be more of a struggle. As a busy working adult with a family, the first change I had to make was to push aside less important thoughts, to make way for thinking-time about this healthy lifestyle habit.
A mindset change has made a difference. Now that I devote “special” thinking-time to healthy eating, I naturally think of meals more creatively and easily. For example, my kid started primary school this month. What is a tasty nutritious breakfast before school? After a few weeks of trial, error and reflection, I came up with the idea of making custard at home using freshly-laid eggs from the health food store, milk (or fermented soy milk), potato flour, pureed pear, and a dash of maple syrup. This breakfast dish is comforting, delicious, nutritious for the kids and adults in our family, and makes no mess at the table.
During my thinking-time, I try to picture the basic fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and raw foods, such as the foods that are pictured on the NSW Make Healthy Normal website. With these images in my head, I mix and match thoughts until I have a meal planned. Simply picturing a fresh juicy red organic tomato can lead to a beautiful simple pasta or rice dish with tomato and basil.
But I don’t eat healthy every single day. I haven’t reached that stage yet. I support my healthy lifestyle habits by using some supplements, probiotics, and natural products to aid digestion, deal with cravings, and detoxify. In an ideal world I would get all my nutrition from food, and wouldn’t need detoxification or digestion aids. I am progressing, but rely on support for now.
