'The first wealth is health'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
I remember vividly at the beginning of the year, that I recommended a subtle approach to our health and wellness resolutions for 2012. That way, we would be able to hold on to our desirable and lofty New Year resolutions without getting exasperated about the sheer number of issues that needed to be fixed concerning making and imbibing healthy lifestyle choices with the consequent positive effect on our health and well-being.
The principle we agreed to adopt was Kaizen – a Japanese word for improvement or change for better. All you had to do or strive for was gradual small improvement of just 1 percent per day. This was meant to take off the pressure of getting overwhelmed with making so many changes at once.
Now that we have run the full course of the year, it is a good time to take stock and see how well we fared in 2012 before going ahead to making lofty resolutions for 2013.
Old habits are hard to break and I was determined not to be part of the 78 percent of people who failed to actualise the New Year Resolutions they set, as shown by a 2007 study by British Psychologist, Richard Wiseman of Bristol University.
The psychological effect of improvement is morale boosting plus the psychological effect of achievement.
My top 3 areas of improvement in 2013:
I. Breakfast is key: The nutritionally savvy knows that you are supposed to eat Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dinner like a Peasant. Breakfast is a valuable meal. By the time you wake up in the morning, your body has been without food for about 7-10 hours, in essence, has been in a fast. Your blood sugar level is at rock bottom. The brain needs constant supply of sugar to function properly.
• Benefits of eating breakfast
• Eating breakfast is the secret to staying healthy.
• It gives an energy boost to start the day.
• A great dose of morning fuel.
• It boosts metabolism.
• Aids weight loss.
• Prevents starvation.
• Removes the temptation to eat snacks before lunch time.
• Have more physical and mental energy throughout the morning.
II. Nothing Raw after 4p.m: No salads, fruits, raw nuts and seeds after 4p.m. "Raw foods are hard to digest because they contain a lot of vitality which requires a lot of energy to breakdown"-Dr Harald Stossier. Our digestive system is more active in the morning, getting progressively more sluggish and inefficient throughout the day. We must therefore respect our natural body clock and eat in harmony with it to support our natural ability to heal, which in turn slows down the ageing process. Braising, steaming or gently boiling vegetables considerably improves digestibility.
III. The Early Bird Dinner latest by 7p.m: I have tried to improve on this aspect for several years, but I finally mastered it in 2012! You will agree with me that it is a nice feeling going to bed without feeling stuffed full of food (and falling asleep right on your couch , supposedly catching up with the news of the day!). You do not experience any discomfort or bloating that makes you toss and turn all night. Instead of having a good night's rest which should ideally regenerate the body, you wake up more tired than when you went to bed. This is compounded by the fact that any food the body cannot digest ends up fermenting or putrefying in the digestive system! (yuck)! Eat dinner early in the evening, you would be the healthier for it and shed some weight as well.
Share with us lifestyle habits you mastered in 2012 and have had a positive effect on your health and well-being! Wishing you a healthy 2013!
