So i had the super good fortune of almost dying in June of 2018. Here is all the neato stuff that came of it: I got to appreciate that a very strong and healthy body was able to mitigate against giant long term adverse effects of my septic shock/sepsis/tumor, ad nauseum. Now, taking care of my health is very locked and loaded for me 4EVER. Secondly, i got to shift from caregiver to care recipient with my husband at a critical and incredibly lucky time when he had just recently come off the “death watch” list for his own rare cancer diagnosis and treatment. Men are a little bit trickier to get to take ownership back of their lives after illness. I think it is a love of mothering thing. Thirdly, my beloved, freshly graduated from university daughter with the idea that most young women are victims…well, she was the one who saved my life. If u want to improve mother/daughter relations, i highly recommend having your girl chase the grim reaper away for u.
I should also remind u that i am not your normal health advocate who is living a perfectly shiny life. as previously mentioned, i live a life of mild to moderate debauchery & “Yep, I did that.” but…if u want to make occasional poor choices, u gotta have a pretty strong foundation of regularly good choices to stay healthy.
Health is the most important aspect to success. We all have limiting factors. Some more than others to be certain…but we MUST optimize health in order to live our best lives.
Here are the cornerstones to get the job done & how to mash them together to save some time. If u have psychological blocks to some of this stuff, we will start slow and build later into this blog.
- Work your BUTT off to live in a safe place. If u don’t have safety, u don’t have anything. U may have to share a bathroom with 9 messy roommates that each have 3 cats. No problem. Do it anyhow.
- Do physical activity outdoors until u sweat for at least 30 minutes a day.
- Eat real food. So, basically, when u go to the grocery store, u only care about fresh fruit, veggies, meat if u do meat (not processed meat). Only visit the other aisles for condiments, grains and legumes. Lets say u are broke. It is still cheaper to eat real food than junk. Buy a 5 lb bag of potatoes, 3 dozen eggs, a 5lb bag of oranges, a condiment u like and a bag or two of green beans and iodine free salt. this will cost u about $30 and give u enough energy calories and nutrition to go a week. U gotta mix it up every week to introduce new nutrition but this is a starting point. I will show u a zillion recipes for this stuff later on. Your body needs real nutrition to create healthy cells. If u r using food for entertainment right now-get over it. that cheap fix is probably keeping u from having actual fun.
- Take a shower every day and keep hand sanitizer and my “live cootie free” necklace handy at all times to prevent against viral and bacterial infection.
- Carry mace and a loud horn. Never forget that 1% of the male population is incarcerated. That means that at least 1% of males walking around in Men’s bodies are actually lousy criminals willing to injure others. Don’t be prey. Be a shark.
- If circumstances permit it, please try to learn judo or basic off balancing techniques. The nice thing about freaking bad guys is that they are usually in motion and have one foot off the ground. Scream, yell, mace ’em, kick em between the legs, throw them…do whatever the hell u want to a predator. Make them worry about the fact that u may be a shark.
- Work on your brain and strive to develop desired workplace skills. This will give u the chance to pivot if u r in a stressful job because cortisol is the enemy of health. PS: always be looking for job options. Be in an aggressive growth and change mode. This puts pressure on your employer to keep using u to your highest ability and financially rewarding u accordingly…those things help with stress.
- If u r making unhealthy choices, the most important first step is to take a vacation from unhealthy friends. It is the easiest way to start your own change journey. Honestly, don’t even worry about substituting them right now by finding a new posse. Just let this be “YOU” time. It will take extra time to live healthily. Groceries, meal prep, fitness, hygiene…these all take time. Just fall a little bit in love with yourself for 21 days (the time it takes for a full cellular turnover. the time it takes to lock in new habits with an entirely fresh body) & don’t worry about a social life. Once u r living differently, u will be in a better spot to find meaningful new connections.
- Get on Meetup or the equivalent and join all groups that sound interesting to u. Doesn’t matter if u are good at the stuff or not. New members are golden and appreciated and if there is a skill level requirement, it will be disclosed up front. Go bowl, play tennis, paddle a kayak. try new stuff on for size because the cool thing is that these new friendships that u form will have a great extra benefit of building u active buddies. Combining physical activities and friendship is a super easy time hack. U can even see about sharing meal time prep chores etc…but active people who are interested in doing stuff are essential to a joyful life of discovery and adventure.
- Rinse and repeat as needed.