Daily Life Minimalist
I do not have a regular program. I not need one.
I do, however, have routines on which I focus every day.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to have a regular program — before I stop my six-figure job to practice my interests and stay a more significant lifestyle. And I despised that program. Every day thought like Groundhog Day: awaken to a blaring security, shower, eliminate, put on a suit and tie, shell out an time or more in mind-numbing visitors, yield to the regular trappings of communications and calling and communications and events, clarify through even more mind-numbing visitors, eat something from a box in the refrigerator, search for avoid within the great box in the family place, clean my teeth, set the security, sleep for five or six time, start all over again in the day.
That was lifestyle most periods. The same thing over and over and over. Clean. Clean. Do.
And then last year I decided it was for me nowadays. I recognized working 60 to 80 time per 7 days to create the money to buy more unwanted stuff do not complete the avoid I thought inside. It only introduced more debts and anxiety and worry and solitude and shame and stress and worry and depressive disorders.
So I ended my program. Or, rather, I dealt with in my program for better routines.
It do not happen immediately, but over a few years I pared down my items, got into the best shape of my lifestyle, paid off my debts, jettisoned my TV, removed On the internet at property, left business United states, began seeking my interests, ceased buying useless, and began lifestyle a more significant lifestyle — a lifestyle centered on expansion and factor.
During that use of personal expansion I developed new routines I love, routines I look forward to each day, routines that create me happy: training, composing, reading, starting new contacts with persons, and building upon established interactions.
I am also creating the behavior of factor. I believe giving is lifestyle — we never experience truly in existence unless we promote other persons in significant ways. Giving a chance to Home for Human beings, regional soups living rooms, and various other community businesses has been a beginning on my process towards creating this behavior. I also love leading to the visitors at our website and impressive them to modify their lives, much like Leo and Zen Habits encouraged me to modify acquire.
Many visitors ask me what my regular day looks like now that I’m not required into an unwanted program. My answer is always the same: every day is a clear page, although there are routines I act upon regular.
Presenting last Friday as an example, this is how I experienced the day:
I automobile at 4:50am without an security, energized and rejuvenated. Currently my behavior is to get when my system shows me it’s relaxed. But there is no program.
I ate a bananas, consumed java, then authored from 5am to 11am. As I generally produce fictional stories, I prefer composing in the day when it’s peaceful and I’m nearest the wish community. My composing place contains only a workplace, a chair, a laptop, and my information — the only things I need. Nothing else. There is no mobile, no On the internet, no time — no disturbances. Just me and my behavior, which I love greatly. Each day I produce until I never experience like composing nowadays. But there is no program.
After a writing-fueled day (interrupted only by push-ups when or so), I went to the location store and alternated between pull-ups and push-ups under the midday sun. Being active is important for me, and I love it regular. But there is no program.
I bathed, fitted (jeans and a T-shirt), and went to a regional burrito joint to eat a small, veggie meal. I eat when my system shows me I’m greedy, no matter what time (I never own a watch). Some periods I eat meal at noon; other periods I might eat at 10am or 3pm. But there is no program.
After my meal, I went to my favorite cafe, purchased an natural tea, used their On the internet access to examine my mail and submit some composing online, then went to with some of the regulars (as well as some strangers). There were 37 communications in my mail, which was okay as I only examine mail two or three periods per 7 days. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But there is no program.
After two or three time on the On the internet, I went to a store, sat on a common, and study a novel while the sun set fire to the sky. Some periods this behavior challenges me to use part after part, time after hour; other periods I study for only 30 minutes. But there is no program.
After a few sections, I hit the gym with my best good friend (and online composing pal), He Nicodemus, and experienced some cardiovascular and weightlifting. We habitually examine out the gym four or five periods per 7 days. We drop by at different periods each day. But there is no program.
Throughout the day I made sure I was moisturized. Besides java and natural tea, I consumed only water. No alcohol. No sweet products. No soda pop (or ‘pop,’ for those of us in the Midwest). I attempt to consume my fat in oz. of water each day, which is not always easy — so sometimes I consume only 50 percent that. But which is okay: there is no program.
I own a car, but I do not generate it on Friday. I do not need to. It was a nice day, so I went instead (even though Dayton, Oh, is not exactly the most walkable city in the world). Some periods I need to generate to where I want to go; other periods I can walk. But there is no program.
Later that evening I experienced meal and a discussion with a good friend, and afterwards we went to a regional show. Other periods I might view a movie at the independent movie or examine out a buddy’s house or shell out quantity of an art collection or offer a few use of time, all routines I love. But there is no program.
After the show, I went a few distance by myself, getting my thoughts. It had been a wonderful day, followed by a wonderful night — a denim jeans sky lit by a declining cres celestial satellite, a thousand diamond jewelry afire, and the possibility of a new day at nighttime.
The great news is my lifestyle is no different than yours, without the program. Sure, the details are different, the situations are different, but we all have the same 24 quantity of a day. We all have one lifestyle to stay, and that lifestyle is driving by one day at once. The only real difference is within the selections we create and the behavior we take.
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Lose weight the French way
HAVE you ever wondered why most French women appear to be effortlessly slim? The answer could lie in their diet. Not the Mediterranean diet, but a weight-loss program that has been taking the country by storm.
When French nutritionist Dr Pierre Dukan introduced his Dukan Diet there 10 years ago, the book rushed to the top of the French bestseller list and spawned a dieting revolution.
Today, more than 1.5 million French women swear by its dramatic and long-lasting results.
Politicians, film stars and high-profile models, including Gisele Bündchen and Jennifer Lopez, live the Dukan life, all of them seduced by its promise of permanent slenderness while eating what you like.
The basic rules
The Dukan Diet starts with a short Attack phase, where you eat nothing but protein – just meat, fish, eggs and non-fat dairy products.
This is the kick-start that gives you the initial impetus and sets the tone for the other phases.
This stage produces immediate results – you can lose as much as three kilograms in five days.
You can stick to the Attack phase for as little as one day or as long as 10 days, but if your goal weight is 12 to 20 kilograms away, then five days produces the best results.
If you have about six kilograms to lose, two or three days on the Attack phase works well; if you are looking to slim down by only three kilograms, a single day in the Attack phase (where you’d be expected to lose one kilogram instantly) is often enough to get you started.
A short-term, protein-rich regime purges the tissues of excess water, dulls the appetite (if you eat only protein, your body produces ketonic cells, which are powerful natural appetite suppressants), while maintaining muscle tone.
Proteins are relatively low in kilojoules (compared with fats and many carbohydrates) and their complex structure means the body has to work hard to digest them – you will burn more kilojoules processing protein than any other food.
After one to 10 days in the Attack phase, dieters move on to the Cruise phase. This is the workhorse stage of the diet, where you alternate pure protein days with days when you add vegetables to your protein.
Weight will fall off at a rate of about one kilogram a week, but with a range of meat and vegetables to choose from, you won’t be hungry.
No more constraints
When you reach your ideal weight the Consolidation phase kicks in, releasing dietary constraints and putting fruit, bread, cheese and starchy foods such as pasta back on the menu.
You are even encouraged to have two totally unrestrained celebration meals a week.
This is a doctor’s recommendation and an important part of the diet’s acceptance that you can relish food and stay slim forever.
You won’t lose weight in this phase, but nor will you gain weight.
Consolidation has been designed to stop you going back to your former eating habits and to set your body’s equilibrium.
If you stick to the plan for five days, for every 0.5 kilograms you lost in previous phases, your body will consolidate the weight loss.
When your time in Consolidation is up and your weight has stabilised, you are free to eat and drink whatever you like for the rest of your life, but you must adhere to that one Dukan rule: protein only on Thursdays. Forever.
Phase one: attack
Have you ever wondered why most French women appear to be effortlessly slim? The answer could lie in their diet.
Not the Mediterranean diet, but a weight-loss program that has been taking the country by storm.
When French nutritionist Dr Pierre Dukan introduced his Dukan Diet there 10 years ago, the book rushed to the top of the French bestseller list and spawned a dieting revolution.
Today, more than 1.5 million French women swear by its dramatic and long-lasting results.
Politicians, film stars and high-profile models, including Gisele Bündchen and Jennifer Lopez, live the Dukan life, all of them seduced by its promise of permanent slenderness while eating what you like.
The basic rules
The Dukan Diet starts with a short Attack phase, where you eat nothing but protein – just meat, fish, eggs and non-fat dairy products.
This is the kick-start that gives you the initial impetus and sets the tone for the other phases.
This stage produces immediate results – you can lose as much as three kilograms in five days.
You can stick to the Attack phase for as little as one day or as long as 10 days, but if your goal weight is 12 to 20 kilograms away, then five days produces the best results.
If you have about six kilograms to lose, two or three days on the Attack phase works well; if you are looking to slim down by only three kilograms, a single day in the Attack phase (where you’d be expected to lose one kilogram instantly) is often enough to get you started.
A short-term, protein-rich regime purges the tissues of excess water, dulls the appetite (if you eat only protein, your body produces ketonic cells, which are powerful natural appetite suppressants), while maintaining muscle tone.
Proteins are relatively low in kilojoules (compared with fats and many carbohydrates) and their complex structure means the body has to work hard to digest them – you will burn more kilojoules processing protein than any other food.
After one to 10 days in the Attack phase, dieters move on to the Cruise phase. This is the workhorse stage of the diet, where you alternate pure protein days with days when you add vegetables to your protein.
Weight will fall off at a rate of about one kilogram a week, but with a range of meat and vegetables to choose from, you won’t be hungry.
No more constraints
When you reach your ideal weight the Consolidation phase kicks in, releasing dietary constraints and putting fruit, bread, cheese and starchy foods such as pasta back on the menu.
You are even encouraged to have two totally unrestrained celebration meals a week.
This is a doctor’s recommendation and an important part of the diet’s acceptance that you can relish food and stay slim forever.
You won’t lose weight in this phase, but nor will you gain weight.
Consolidation has been designed to stop you going back to your former eating habits and to set your body’s equilibrium.
If you stick to the plan for five days, for every 0.5 kilograms you lost in previous phases, your body will consolidate the weight loss.
When your time in Consolidation is up and your weight has stabilised, you are free to eat and drink whatever you like for the rest of your life, but you must adhere to that one Dukan rule: protein only on Thursdays. Forever.
Phase two: cruising
This next phase consists of two alternating diets. This is the workhorse stage, where you alternate pure protein days with days when you add an array of unlimited vegetables to your wide selection of meat, fish and no-fat dairy products. Expect to lose about one kilogram a week.
The most efficient way to work this stage is to spend one day on the pure protein Attack diet, and the next on a protein and vegetable diet, switching between the two, one day at a time, until you reach your chosen weight.
However, some people prefer to work to a rhythm of five days of protein followed by five days of protein plus vegetables, or, if you have only a little weight to lose, try two days of pure protein a week (say Mondays and Thursdays), with every other day protein combined with vegetables.
Now you can introduce the following vegetables – raw, steamed, boiled or baked (in foil) – with your meat or fish: artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage (white, red, Savoy, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprout), capsicum, celery, celeriac, chicory, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, French beans, leeks, mushrooms, onion, pumpkin, radish, salad leaves (lettuce, rocket, watercress), sorrel, soy beans, spinach, swede, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnip, zucchini.
In principle, you can eat as many of these vegetables as you like, whenever you like, but if you want speedy weight loss, it’s best not to eat vegetables with complete abandon – it’s better to eat until you no longer feel hungry.
Carrots and beetroot are on the list of vegetables too, but they are quite starchy, so avoid having them with every meal and, while you’re in this phase, steer completely away from starchy vegetables such as potatoes, rice, corn, peas, beans, lentils and avocado (it is technically a fruit anyway).
Don’t worry if your weight loss plateaus occasionally on the days when you eat vegetables. This is merely the water levels resetting themselves. Stick with it. The weight will fall off.
Phase three: consolidation
The third stage of the Dukan Diet – the Consolidation phase – provides an important period of transition between hardline dieting and a return to normal eating.
Clinical evidence shows that the high-risk period for regaining weight after a diet is about five days for every 0.5 kilograms lost.
But don’t despair – if you have missed meat pies or curry, or if you have been longing to finish your meal with a real dessert, your time has come to indulge again.
In the Consolidation phase you follow a more open diet, but one which is not yet free from all constraints. Nourishing yourself is not just about taking in enough kilojoules to survive; it is also about enjoying eating.
It is now time to reintroduce this biological pleasure which was taken away from you.
Eat as much protein and vegetables (together) each day as you want without any restriction on quantity, time of day or combination.
•Add one serving of fruit per day (avoid high-sugar fruits such as bananas, grapes, cherries, dried fruits and high-fat nuts).
•Enjoy two slices of wholemeal bread per day, spread with fat-reduced butter.
•Have one serving (40 grams) of hard cheese per day (but avoid blue cheese, soft cheese or goat’s cheese).
•Factor in one serving of starchy foods per week in the first half of your Consolidation phase, increasing to two servings per week in the second half. This includes pasta (a 225-gram serving with tomato, not creamy, sauce and with no oil), couscous or polenta (225 grams cooked in stock, not butter or oil), lentils, beans, chickpeas, rice (ideally brown) and potatoes (but only occasionally and without butter).
•Broaden your meat repertoire to include any quantity of lamb, roast pork and ham (remove all fat first) once or twice a week.
•Let your hair down and plan and enjoy one celebration meal a week in the first half of the Consolidation phase, increasing to two meals in the second half. In this meal you really can eat whatever you want – and you should choose foods that you’ve missed during the weight-loss period.
•But there are two important conditions to this celebration meal: never have second helpings of the same dish and never eat two celebration meals in a row (if you splurge on Tuesday night, at Wednesday’s breakfast the success of your diet is on the line). Have one of each: one starter, one main, one dessert and one glass of wine. Have reasonable quantities of each dish and alcohol, but have only one of each.
•You should still stick to having one pure protein day per week, say, Thursdays. This is your insurance policy against gaining weight again.
•Have two tablespoons of oat bran per day (as a pancake or sprinkled on food).
•Walk for 25 minutes per day (longer if you enjoy it and have time).
Phase four: stabilisation
When you have successfully completed the Consolidation stage of the diet (five days for every 0.5 kilograms you lost in the Attack and Cruise phases), you are ready for the fourth and final stage of the Dukan Diet.
Your new slim body will have given up its extreme reactivity, wanting to extract every last kilojoule from everything you eat, and your metabolism will be calmer.
But experience shows the likelihood of regaining weight will remain if you do not incorporate into your lifestyle a number of habits specifically designed to deal with this risk.
The Stabilisation stage of the Dukan Diet offers permanent slenderness in return for four simple, extremely effective but non-negotiable measures that you should follow for the rest of your life.
Stabilisation rules
•Go back to eating whatever you like, but continue to use the basic rules of the Consolidation phase as a safety platform (eat unlimited protein and vegetables, one piece of fruit a day, two slices of wholemeal bread, a portion of cheese, two starchy foods and two celebration meals a week). Use this as your back-up if you are under threat of regaining weight.
•Pick one day a week for the rest of your life when you eat nothing but protein. This is the key that allows you to eat normally for the other days of the week. (Drink at least two litres of water to flush the digestive system).
•Vow to walk briskly for 20 minutes every day.
•Increase your daily oat bran intake to three tablespoons and stick to it for life.
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Lose Weight Easily in Just Seven Days
A Simple Diet Program to Lose Weight Easily in Just Seven Days
Weight loss is one of the top-most concern of many individuals. Ever changing modern work style does not leave us with enough time and opportunities to take care of ourselves and our body. The weight lossprogram or the free diet plan that I will share with you in this post consists of a seven day diet regime aiming to reduce your weight by 3-4 Kgs a week, consider it a rapid weight loss diet. This could be very helpful for bloggers, Internet addicts and IT professionals who spent lot of time working on their computers without burning any calories off their body. Anyone can follow this free diet program as it does’nt aim at quick weight loss. Losing up-to 3-4 Kgs of weight a week is healthy weight loss. If you have been considering various weight loss solutions such as weight loss surgery, I recommend that you try this weight loss diet first and then only look at any other solution if it does’nt work.
Please note the following points before you take up this weight loss diet regime.
- If you are not comfortable, you can discontinue the diet program on any day.
- You must drink at least 7 glasses of water everyday unless specifically mentioned to drink more in the regime below.
- Continue this program till you lose extra weight. Once you attain proper weight, you may either continue or discontinue the diet regime and follow it whenever you need to.
- This is one of the top 10 diet plans if you are aiming at gradual and healthy weight loss.
- This is a low carb diet plan. If you are suffering from any illness and require high carb diet, consult your doctor before you follow this weight loss plan.
- Don’t blame me if you don’t lose enough weight. Just continue the regime for another 7 days.
Seven Day Diet Regime Targeting a weight loss of up to 4 Kgs a week
Day 1 [Fruits] Day one of your diet regime will start with all fruits diet. You may eat fruits of your choice and in any quantity. There is no limit. Eat till your stomach is full. In case you don’t find fruits in nearby stores, you can substitute it with packaged fruit juices but avoid fruit juices that have preservatives in it, they don’t really do any good in this case. On day one, you must eat fruits ONLY and don’t forget to drink at least 7 glasses of water.
Note: The only fruit that will not be on your plate is Banana. Every other fruit is ok except banana. Don’t limit it to just one fruit, have as many different fruits you can.
Day 2 [Vegetables] This is all vegetables day. If you prefer, you may have raw or/and cooked vegetables. Eat as much as you want to, no quantity restrictions. If you want to cook the vegetables, you may do so but avoid using oil while you cook. 7 glasses of water today also.
Day 3 [Fruits and Vegetables] On day three, you will eat a mixture of fruits and vegetables. No quantity restrictions, eat till you fill your stomach. Also, eat one banana today, just one!
Day 4 [Vegetables, Bananas and Milk] Today you will eat 6 bananas, 3 glasses of milk and small quantity of vegetables. In the morning, your breakfast will start with 2 bananas and one big glass of milk. You will follow this in the afternoon for your lunch. In the evening eat 2 bananas, eat vegetables and drink one glass of milk.
Day 5 [Rice and tomatoes] Today you will have one cup of rice, six full tomatoes (medium size) and since you are having lots of tomatoes, drink 10 glasses of water today.
Day 6 [Rice and Vegetables] One cup of rice and raw/cooked vegetables of your choice. It’s recommended that you eat rice in the morning and for rest of the day, eat vegetables.
Day 7 [Fruits, Vegetables and Rice] On day seven, eat fruits, vegetables and 1 cup of rice. You may substitute fruits and vegetables with juices as well, but that is to avoid.
This diet regime works well by burning more fat than accumulating it and since it avoids all sorts of food items that eventually gets converted to fat to become a part of your body, the weight loss is faster and harmless.
Related Articles
- Raw Food Weight Loss (fitnesstipsforlife.com)
Using mental discipline to lose weight
The quickest way to start losing weight is to start believing that you can. It takes mental discipline as well as a healthy diet and exercise to lose weight and keep it off. Achieving mental discipline is not as hard as one might think and you can start right away. Discipline is defined as “the ability to do the right thing even when no one is watching”. Mental discipline could then be defined as “the ability to control your thoughts when you’re not thinking”. Using mental discipline to lose weight is the ability to stay strong in a moment of weakness. Unfortunately, moments of weakness occur rather frequently when dieting. Imagine that your diet has been quite successful and your target weight is seemingly reachable in less time than previously imagined. Suddenly, just when success is in sight, a weekend from hell occurs and before you know it, you’ve skipped two workouts and consumed every Little Debbie and Pringle in sight, and when no one was watching, you secretly ordered take-out.
Having a strong sense of mental discipline may prevent that disaster from ever occurring. Occasionally we will give ourselves the green light to be bad. Then we make promises to ourselves such as working out harder during the next workout or skipping lunch or dinner, which is extremely unhealthy. Having mental discipline keeps your mind strong and your willpower in tact when you are consistently challenged during the course of a day. By properly programming your mind, you become able to override and overcome ingrained eating habits, and your energy level will naturally increase because you’ve stuck to a healthier diet. Skipping workouts is less likely to occur as well; in fact you’re likely to start looking forward to them.
Create a vision of yourself having already lost the weight you feel you need to lose. Think about what you are wearing. Think about how you would feel. Confident? Ready for anything? Train yourself to think of this vision when you wake up, then keep the vision on your mind when you are in the shower, as you get ready for work. Think about this vision on your bus ride or drive into the office. After a couple of days, it becomes natural and easy. Remember, a belief is nothing more than a series of thoughts. It won’t be long before you start believing this vision is an attainable version of you! Suddenly, eating healthy is easy and working out is no longer the chore it once seemed. Achieving mental discipline will stop the sabotage from occurring and losing weight will no longer be the proposed chance of failure it once was. If you have decided that losing weight is your goal, and you want it bad enough, you must first believe that you can lose weight. Most people program themselves for failure not even realizing it. With mental discipline, and a strong desire to succeed, anyone can lose weight, and keep it off.
Habits that Will Change your Life
Developing good habits is the basic of personal development and growth. Everything we do is the result of a habit that was previously taught to us. Unfortunately, not all the habits that we have are good, that’s why we are constantly trying to improve.
The following is a list of 30 practical habits that can make a huge difference in your life.
You should treat this list as a reference, and implement just one habit per month. This way you will have the time to fully absorb each of them, while still seeing significant improvements each month.
Health habits
- Exercise 30 minutes every day. Especially if you don’t do much movement while working, it’s essential that you get some daily exercise. 30 minutes every day are the minimum recommended for optimal health.
- Eat breakfast every day. Breakfast is the more important meal of the day, yet so many people skip it. Personally, I like to eat a couple of toasts in the morning along with a fruit beverage.
- Sleep 8 hours. Sleep deprivation is never a good idea. You may think that you are gaining time by sleeping less, when in reality you are only gaining stress and tiredness. 8 hours are a good number of hours for most people, along with an optional 20 minutes nap after lunch.
- Avoid snacking between meals. Snacking between meals is the best way to gain weight. If you are hungry, eat something concrete. Otherwise don’t. Update: for clarification, I mean don’t eat junk food between meals, but eating real food it’s ok.
- Eat five portions of fruits and vegetables every day. Our body and brain loves getting vegetables and fruit, so I highly recommend eating as much of them as possible. Five portions is the dose that’s usually recommended by many health associations.
- Eat fish. Fish is rich of omega 3 and other healthy elements. At least one meal per week of fish should be enough for getting all these nutrients.
- Drink one glass of water when you wake up. When you wake up, your body is dehydrated and needs liquid. Make the habit of drinking one glass of water after you wake up in the morning. Also, drink more during the day.
- Avoid soda. Soda is often one of the most unhealthy beverage you can find. Limit your consumption of soda as much as possible and you’re body will be grateful for that.
- Keep your body clean. I don’t advise spending your day in front of the mirror, but a minimum of personal care does never hurt.
10. If you smoke, stop it. There’s no reason to smoke anymore, and quitting is possible.
11. If you drink, stop it. Same as above. Don’t think that alcohol will solve your problems. It never does. The only exception is one glass of wine per day during meals.
12. Take the stairs. This is just a hack that forces you to do a minimum of exercise. Instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs.
Productivity habits
- Use an inbox system. Make the habit of keeping track of all the ideas and things that comes to mind. You can use a notebook to do this, and then sync everything on your computer.
- Prioritize. If you have a list of things to do, where do you start? One way is to prioritize your list. If you are in doubt, ask yourself: “If I could only accomplish one thing today, what would it be?”
- Plan, but not too much. Planning is important, and you should decide in advance what you are going to do today or this week. However, planning for more than a few weeks is usually inefficient, so I would not worry too much about that.
- Wake up early. Waking up early in the morning is a great way to gain extra time. I personally like to wake up at 5 am, so that by 9 am I have already accomplished what otherwise would have taken me many days..
- Check your email only twice per day. Email can easily become an addiction, but it’s usually unnecessary to check it every 10 minutes. Make an effort and check your email only once or twice per day, see if the world will still rotate as before after you try this.
- Eliminate unimportant tasks. Being busy all day does not mean you are doing important stuff. Eliminate every activity that’s not important, and focus on what really matters.
- Clean off your desk and room. Having a clear room and desk is important to maintain focus and creativity.
- Automate. There are a lot of tasks that you need to perform every day or every week. Try to automate them as much as possible.
- Set strict deadlines. When you do something, decide in advance when you’re going to stop. There’s a rule that states that you will fulfill all the time you have available for completing a task, so make an habit of setting strict deadlines for maximizing your productivity.
10. Take one day off per week. Instead of working every day, take one day off per week (for example sunday) where you are not going to turn on your computer. Use that time for doing recreational activities like going for a walk.
Personal Development habits
- Read 1 book per week. Reading is a good way to keep your brain active. With just 30 minutes per day you should be able to read one book per week, or more than 50 books per year.
- Solve puzzles. Quizzes, word games, etc. are all good ways to exercise your brain.
- Think positively. You are what you think, all the time.
- Make fast decisions. Instead of thinking for one hour wherever you are going to do something, make your decisions as fast as possible (usually less than 1 minute).
- Wait before buying. Waiting 48 hours before buying anything is a tremendous money saver, try it.
- Meditate 30 minutes per day. A great way to gain clearness and peace is through meditation. 30 minutes are not a lot, but enough to get you started with meditation.
Career habits
- Start a blog. Blogging is one of the best way to put your word out. It doesn’t have to be around a specific topic, even a personal blog will do.
- Build a portfolio. If your job is creating stuff, building a portfolio is a great way to show what you are capable of. You can also contribute stuff for free if that applies to your work.
What do you think? What are the habits that changed your life?
Use Common-Sense Lifestyle Tips for Longevity
Most of us would all like to live longer and have a better quality of life. To have the gift of good health in your later years, it makes sense to take care of yourself in your youth. Here are some common-sense lifestyle tips and natural remedies to help grow old youthfully.
Drink More Water
Water makes up approximately 60% of the human body, and there is water in every cell of the body. We cannot survive without water for longer than a few days. With age our sense of thirst gradually diminishes, and the water content of body decreases so many elderly people are somewhat dehydrated. Dehydration is linked to allergies, hypertension, general aches and pains and of course bad digestion.
Eat Healthy
Easier said than done for some, but a healthy diet is essential to your well-being. The old saying “You are what you eat” rings true when we see the rise in dietary related diseases. Don’t be caught digging your grave with your teeth. A balanced diet of fresh, whole (non-processed) , organic and preferably raw food should be a large part of your diet.
Basic Guidelines For A Simplified Balanced Diet
- Avoid white flour products
- Eat whole grains such as brown rice, quinoa, millet etc.
- Avoid sugar – rather use honey, agave, xylitol or stevia.
- Eat a variety of legumes (beans, lentils etc.)
- Avoid all hydrogenated fats (margarine etc.)
- Avoid fried foods
- Include low-starch vegetables preferably eaten raw.
- Include foods rich in omega-3 fats.
- Include low-fat, organic protein sources (fish, spirulina, organic whey protein, quinoa)
- Include fresh organic fruit (especially from the super food range) and raw nuts.
- Avoid colourants, flavourants, preservatives and artificial sweeteners.
Whole foods are better than processed. Refined foods result in both a measurable loss of nutrients and an unbalanced food, which creates imbalance in the body when eaten. Living food (such as fresh fruit and vegetables) are more nutritious and better than “dead food” (such as canned foods). Foods grown in “live soil” (organic food) is better than food grown in “sterile soil”. This has largely depleted trace minerals in foods.
How Does Eating Sugar Make You Old?
Eating sugar causes your body to secrete high levels of insulin. Insulin and the stress hormone, cortisol, are two hormones that can dramatically speed up the ageing process. Sugar depresses the immune system; it contributes to atherosclerosis, and it causes oxidative stress by creating AGEs (advanced glycosylated end-products) . These accumulate in body tissues such as the skin (causing age spots), arteries, kidneys and brain. In other words, eating sugar makes you old.
Do Exercise
Exercise is one of your key weapons in the fight against premature aging. Medical studies prove time and time again that physical exercise is a key factor in the prevention of chronic disease as well as beneficial for mental function. The main benefit of exercise is the increased oxygen to the brain, heart and other organs which in turn increases their well-being and functioning. Bouncing on a mini-trampoline is a well recommended form of exercise that can be done in the comfort of your own home and at a time that suits your schedule.
Detox
The body detoxifies itself naturally through the skin and other organs of elimination. Assist your body with its cleansing ability by making some lifestyle changes. You need to minimize your exposure to external toxins: changes like drinking pure water, eating organic food, avoiding sources of air pollution and exposure to tobacco, and limiting consumption of alcohol, preservatives, caffeine, sugar and processed foods. Simple measures like bathing daily, dry brushing, exercising, keeping hydrated, supplementing with herbal remedies that support the organs (like milk thistle for the liver), deep breathing and eating healthily are good routines to follow.
Get Some Sunshine
Natural Vitamin D is another key weapon in the pursuit of good health andlongevity. Sunlight is the best form of Vitamin D and its levels in the body affects the entire body. Modern science is now realizing that vitamin D does more than just aid the absorption of calcium and bone formation. It is also involved in multiple repair and maintenance functions, touches hundreds of different genes, and helps to fight infection by regulating the immune system. Vitamin D deficiency is a growing epidemic across the world and contributes to many chronic debilitating diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer,inflammatory bowel disease and depression, as well as cognitive impairment in older people. Avoid synthetic Vitamin D2 in supplements like fortified foods as high doses have been found to be toxic.
Get More Sleep
Good quality sleep is essential, in fact some say that it’s the best anti-aging tool. While we sleep,the body “recharges” and repairs. The 24-hour circadian rhythm is our internal clock and governs the body’s functions.. This clock helps the body to adapt to the time of day and to environmental changes. Studies have shown a co-dependency between the circadian clock and the body’s metabolism and cellular performance. Disrupted sleep patterns can adversely affect healthespecially mental health. Some effects include short-term memory loss and impaired creativity as well as weight gain or loss and an increased risk ofdiabetes and heart disease. Lack of sleep weakens the immune system and may cause decreased production of melatonin, which is produced by the brain during sleep.
Take pleasure in living healthily and make good choices in nutrition, exercise, weight management, mental attitude, work and relationships. This will stand you in good stead for your later years
Rules Of Eating
Some believe that food combining is the basis of good health. But is there any scientific validity to this idea?
It’s our mothers and grandmothers who stopped us from eating fish and dahi at the same time, or cautioned us against drinking milk after we had eaten melon. Old wives’ tales apart, various theories about food and eating abound. Some suggest that combining different food groups has an adverse impact on the digestion and health, and even promotes weight gain. The idea of appropriate ‘mixing’ is reinforced by modern diet theories that stress the right mixing of food and eating of certain foods at certain times of the day.
Some nutritionists and health experts have gone one step further and broadened the definition of a ‘balanced’ diet to include the appropriate mixing of foods: Trophology is the study of combining food based on its energetic and nutritional properties, and advocates simple principles on mixing foods according to their important constituents. But is there really any scientific basis to the idea of food combining? We decided to find out what experts think and also talked to several people who believe that combining foods appropriately has improved their health.
RAW FOOD CLEANSE
Raw food expert Soorya Kaur is critical of the regular Indian diet of daal- roti , which she calls acidic. Herself a raw food eater, she believes that ‘living’ food such as fruit, vegetables, sprouted nuts, seeds and grains can keep the body disease free. ” Our diets should have 70 percent of alkaline food and 30 percent of other foods whereas most people do it the other way: They eat wheat products, pulses, sugar and drink coffee or tea which are all acidic in nature and cause many health problems,” says Soorya, who not just prepares appetising meals from raw foods for her detox programmes but also delivers it at home for those interested.
Kaur’s 7- day Raw Food Cleanse programme begins with raw foods along with dishes made with raw foods.
After that it moves on to a day of only green vegetables and fruit. Next, a day of juices only which comprise of 10 different liquids to drink. The remaining days will include a day of fruit only. In the final days you go back to the full spectrum of the foods enjoyed on the first two days. Throughout this process, you are provided with 2 full meals a day, yoga classes and consultation. For those, who might find it difficult to survive on raw foods for long once the programme is finished, Soorya recommends cooking food at 48 . C which preserves the nutrients.
” I tell people never to mix raw foods and cooked food together. Instead they should keep them for separate days or for separate meals and also to eat cooked food minimally,” says Soorya. Milk and milk products are avoidable, as she believes them to be genetically modified and impure. ” Hormones which are injected to cows and buffalos make the milk unfit for human consumption,” says Soorya. She also advocates a ‘Detox Juice Cleanse’ program aimed at cleansing and detoxing the body. She believes juice allows you to draw the maximum nutrition from fruit and vegetables.
BLAME IT ON MIXING
According to some theories, inappropriate food combinations are to blame for obesity and stomach disorders. Our digestive tract becomes confused when we eat more than one form of concentrated protein or starch at a time, leading to incomplete digestion and toxicity. In fact random food combining is also believed to result in chemical imbalance, the underlying cause for most health problems.
These ideas have led to the formulation of diets that stress keeping food groups separate.
The Fit for Life diet which was hugely popular in the ’80′ s is the best known in this category. Fit for Life is a diet plan rich in fruit and vegetables and recommends eating fruit from the time you wake up till noon. You are not supposed to mix fruit with any other food. While there is more choice for lunch and dinner, again one should not eat more than one concentrated food at a time so proteins should not be mixed with carbohydrates. And there should be at nearly a break of 3 to 4 hours between meals. This is because both proteins and carbohydrates require secretions of very different digestive juices for complete digestion. And the mix of both the juices in the stomach leads to incomplete digestion of both carbohydrates and protein.
It’s believed that the proteins putrefy and the starches ferment due to the continuous presence of bacteria in the digestive tract. Also, they should be accompanied by raw vegetables. The diet asks people to avoid all kinds of dairy products and drinking water with meals as it dilutes stomach digestive juices.
The desi version of Fit for Life is advocated by Mumbaibased Dr Vijaya Venkat, who has been living and creating awareness about eating carefully since the mid 1960s. ” Fit for Life is a documentation of principles of natural hygiene which I have been following for ages. The book established the fact that humans are essentially fruitarians. It also encouraged me to tell the world that all this while I have been on the right tract,” declares Dr Vijaya Venkat.
Vickie Rai turned to Dr Venkat’s diet two years ago when she developed a malignant lump in her breast for the second time. She stopped her medication and began on the diet. Three weeks later, she went for an ultrasound and was delighted to receive a clean chit of health. ” First the lump in my breast went but with time my other health problems also reduced. My frequent visits to the homeopath for constant cold and cough problems also declined.
What worked best for me was the lime shot Dr Venkat’s advises after every meal,” says forty- four- yearold Vickie.
Ayurveda also goes against the mixing of variety of foods.
According to this system, each food has its own taste ( rasa), energy ( virya) and post- digestive effect ( vipak). So, when two or three different foods of different taste, energy and post- digestive effect ( proteins, carbohydrates and fats) are mixed, it disrupts the digestive power ( agni) and hamper the digestion. This results in indigestion, fermentation and gas formation.
On the contrary, if we eat these foods separately at different times of the day they are digested quickly and easily as the agni gets stimulated. ” Each individual should eat according to his constitution i. e. vatta, pitta and kapha.
And, equally important is to have an appropriate combination of food as each food substance demands different degree of digestive power to be digested. For instance, water melon is digested relatively much faster than milk. So mixing both can disrupt the digestive power,” explains Ayurveda specialist Nilima Jain.
THE COUNTER VIEW
Most doctors and nutritionists rubbish food combining theories, saying that they lack scientific basis. ” I am not aware of any clinical study which proves that having carbohydrates with proteins or any two concentrated foods at a time can cause digestive disorders. It’s a myth that gastric enzymes change the digestive tone or decreases gastric juices.
Contrarily, eating more of one kind of food sometimes can lower the secretion of other enzymes,” says Dr M P Sharma, Head, Internal Medicine & Gastroenterology.
The diet regimes also suggest that an alkaline diet ( fruit and vegetables) rather than acidic diet ( cereals and pulses) can prevent deadly diseases which are an outcome of eating foods that result in an acidic ash residue. An acidic diet is also blamed for causing an imbalance in the pH levels leading to digestive problems. However, doctors reject these ideas as halfbaked theories. ” It’s the internal environment of the stomach that controls the digestion and not food. Moreover, our digestive mechanism is too strong to get disturbed by eating two different kinds of foods together and even if it does, the body rejects such food.
The job of the gastric juices is to neutralise the food we eat, so both acidic and alkaline foods are neutralised by the stomach,” Dr S P Thakur, senior consultant, Gastroenterology.
According to Dr Thakur, medicine doesn’t recognise acidic or alkaline diet or the argument that pH levels in the body get disturbed by certain kinds of acidic food. And, those who are selling such theories to people are misguiding them. Body’s pH levels are affected under certain health conditions such as infections or diabetesor kidney problems and not by the foods. So, to stay healthy it is important to have a balance diet.
Rather than losing yourself in the various (often contradictory) theories put forth by health experts and doctors, we advise you to trust your own body. You could try some of these diet plans and see if they work as well for you as they did for some of the people we spoke to.
Wait and watch, keeping an eye on how you feel for some weeks before you establish a conclusion. While eating in the ways advocated by these plans is unlikely to harm you, some foods or eating habits may aggravate health conditions so it is always better to discontinue them till the time you feel better.
