Exercise

It’s no surprise that most of us are sitting down wayyy too much these days, which is leading to all kinds of health problems from ‘nerd neck’ to dangerous levels of inactivity.

If this is you (let’s be honest, it’s all of us), try a new habit this week called “3 every 30” coined by leading lifestyle medicine lecturer and guru Darren Morton in his book Live More Active.

How it works: for every 30 minutes of sitting, stand up, walk around and simply move for 3 minutes.

Try it this week! Throw in an extra bonus of drinking water in your 3-minute movement break too.

Nutrition

Plant-based eating has been getting a lot of news time lately, and for good reason. More and more studies are coming out showing the significant benefits to longevity and decreased chance of lifestyle disease from eating more plant-based whole foods, and less processed and animal products.

Here’s 3 good reasons to eat more plant-based foods (I grabbed these from the world-acclaimed book by Dr Michael Greger, How Not To Die):

1. In one study mentioned in the book, people who once ate vegetarian diets but then started to eat meat at least once a week experienced a 146% increased chance of developing heart disease, a 152% increase in stroke, a 166% increase in diabetes, and a 231% increase in the odds for weight gain.,
2. Studies on the emotional health and mood states of those eating plant-based diets, suggest that eating less meat isn’t just good for us physically, it’s good for us emotionally too. For example, studies found that subjects eating plant-based diets appeared to experience significantly fewer negative emotions than omnivores, and reported feeling more “vigor.” This has been linked to a substance called arachidonic acid found in animal products that can adversely impact mental health.
3. Our kidneys handle plant protein differently from animal protein. Within hours of consuming meat, your kidneys rev up into hyper filtration mode. This is true of a variety of animal proteins – beef, chicken and fish appear to have similar effects. But an equivalent amount of plant protein causes virtually no noticeable stress on the kidneys. Substituting plant protein for animal protein can help slow the deterioration of kidney function.

Mindset

When if comes to healthy living, this may (or may not) come as a shock to you: you are going to have days that aren’t perfect and don’t go as you wish.

That’s ok! Dust yourself off, get back up and on the healthy living band-wagon. It’s not the odd good thing or bad thing that affects your health, its the daily, regular, consistent habits you perform that will change your health for the better or the worse! Don’t give up just from one bad choice.

Here’s 3 simple steps to never “fail” again, also known as failing forward: Confess, reassess, recommit.

Confess: Look yourself in the mirror and say out loud what you’ve done that you said you wouldn’t. Then, let someone you’re accountable to know as well. Through being honest with ourselves we can truly learn, grow and keep moving forward.

Reassess: Take a few moments to reassess the goals and expectations you didn’t meet.

Ask yourself why you fell off the bandwagon. It will often come down to one of these three things:

1. An emotional trigger that became stronger than your commitment to your goals
2. An old excuse based upon the old you (limiting beliefs)
3. Your goals and commitment is not realistic to reach where you are at right now

You may need to return to your goals and modify them to be easier, smaller changes before making the bigger ones.

Recommit: Make a recommitment to yourself. Letting your accountability buddy will help you feel even more determined and confident that you can stay on track and reach your goal.

Copyright © 2021 Alisha Christie