Here are my 10 Practical Steps to Getting Healthy.

Getting healthy is perhaps the most common New Year’s resolution. People usually go through the emotions of getting healthy. You may talk about getting healthy but take no action. Often, the resolution to get healthy fades out in a couple of months. Then, you’re back at square one until the next New Year arrives.

Getting Healthy Is Simple

Getting healthy is not complicated at all if you are serious about it. However, most people make it quite complicated. First, you damage your health for an entire month, then you make a resolution to get healthy, but then certain requirements have to be met before you can embark on the journey to getting healthy. Those requirements usually include money, time, convenience……… If, however, you are lucky enough to have money, time and convenience, you start on the journey to getting healthy. You take actions – buy a gym membership, join a weight loss program, get your cholesterol level checked, see your doctor…….. You set certain goals-what your weight should be, what your cholesterol level should be, what your blood sugar should be……….. You may even buy electronic gadgets that counts your footsteps, keep track of your calories, heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar……….Often you stay in this hyped up mode for a few weeks. Then you are back to your unhealthy habits. You “reward” yourself and indulge in unhealthy choices. You also justify your unhealthy behavior. “Oh, it was Valentine’s Day”, “It was my birthday”, “I was on a vacation”…….

On your next appointment with your physician, you get quite disappointed. You have not achieved your goals-your weight, your blood pressure, your blood sugar, your cholesterol…….. You make another resolution to get healthy, but your efforts to get healthy are sabotaged by another holiday, birthday, vacation…. Most people remain stuck in this roller-coaster ride.

The Root Cause Why You Are Not Getting Healthy

It is clear you want to get healthy, but your lifestyle behavior keeps sabotaging your health. Obviously, one has to look at the lifestyle itself. What is a lifestyle? It is how you live in a given society. It controls your eating behavior. You eat certain foods cooked in a certain way from day to day as well as on so-called special days. How much rest/exercise you get. How much time you spend vacationing, entertaining, socializing…….What is the basis of your lifestyle? It is your conditioned mind, isn’t it? Your conditioned mind controls your behavior – eating behavior, exercise behavior, rest-sleep behavior…. It’s your conditioned mind that lures you into eating unhealthy foods on so-called special days. The human calendar is loaded with these special days – religious and national holidays, birthdays, anniversaries……

Freedom from The Conditioned Mind is the Recipe for Getting Healthy

Your conditioned mind controls your behavior. It creates emotional attachments to certain foods on certain special days. Often these foods are unhealthy. Logically, you know to abstain from these unhealthy foods, but your conditioned mind lures you into eating those unhealthy foods. It traps you into an unhealthy lifestyle.

You need to be free of your conditioned mind if you truly want to live a healthy life, but first you need to understand –  What is the conditioned mind? You are not born with this. You develop it as you grow up in a society. I call it the Acquired self as compared to the original self that you are born with. The original self eats for physiological reasons. In contrast, your acquired self eats for psychological reasons.

In order to understand the making of your Acquired Self and how to be free of it, please refer to my book, “Stress Cure Now.”

10 Practical Steps to Getting Healthy Now

1. Keep your mind where your body is. Pay attention to three S’s: Space, Silence and Stillness Don’t overthink. Have downtime of at least 30 minutes everyday. Take Stress Buster every day.
2. Do your computer work during the daytime. After sunset, stay away from the bright screens (computers, TV, smartphones. etc.)
3. Get a goodnight sleep, 8 hours at least. Avoid caffeine and take Magnesium glycinate to have a sound sleep. It even helps anxiety, muscle aches and prevents frequent urination at night.
4. Take a good daily Multivitamin such as Glupride multi, Vitamin D3 , Vitamin B12 (especially if you are a vegan/vegetarian), a combination of active vitamin B12 and active Folate if you have genetic trait of MTHFR mutation, DiaHerbs and Zinc if you are a diabetic.
5. Regular exercise, at least 30 minutes of walking, jogging, running according to your physical fitness and age.
6. Avoid Alcohol. It is a toxin for the brain, nerves, liver and pancreas, an established medical fact.
7. Avoid junk, processed and fast foods. Avoid sugar, soft drinks, energy drinks, desserts, white bread, white rice, packaged foods, canned foods……….
8. The best food is what you prepare yourself. Have eggs, yogurt and fresh fruit in the morning, a balanced meal for lunch and dinner which should contain vegetables, quinoa, brown rice, kefir (or yogurt), fruits, nuts, lentils, fish or other meats (but avoid processed meats.) Have organic produce as much as you can afford. Grow your own vegetables and fruits if possible.
9. Your natural beverages are water, coconut milk and regular milk (avoid if you are lactose intolerant).
10. Stay on more or less the same routine every day. Remember your body does not know the difference between Monday or Sunday, New Year Day or Christmas, Eid or Deewali, or other religious, national or cultural holidays.