Seve Rules

SEVEN RULES FOR A HEALTHY, HAPPY LIFE

Below are seven things that I believe are essential to balance mind, body and spirit. These seven rules are a result of personal experience, discussions with others, and research. These rules fall into three categories:

1 Things I have already tried and proven to myself that they are worth continuing

2 Things others have proposed and they sound reasonable and worth pursuing.

3 Things that I know are good for me and I am willing to try even though I really don’t want to.
I am going to adhere to these rules as strictly as possible and will be sharing personal experiences relating to this balance through-out 2009 and 2010.

True happiness comes when mind, body and spirit are in perfect balance, and after all, isn’t happiness the purpose of life?

THE SEVEN RULES

1. Proper Eating
2. Proper Sleep
3. Appropriate Exercise
4. Proper Breathing
5. Focus, Meditation, Contemplation, Education
6. Self-Mastery
7. Appropriate Interaction With Others

The human body is in a constant state of change. Every second of every minute of every hour our cells are either decaying or regenerating. The good news is we are in charge of which they do. If we eat poorly, avoid exercise and run on too little sleep, we assist in the process of decay. On the other hand, if we eat healthy foods, exercise appropriately, and allow our bodies to recharge through sleep, we provide our cells with the energy and the building blocks needed for regeneration.

PROPER EATING

Eat only natural, unrefined, unprocessed foods.

How much should we eat?
Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince, and dinner like a pauper. This means, make breakfast your biggest meal of the day, lunch your next biggest and make dinner a light meal.
Eat nothing after dinner (allow your body 10-12 hours of fasting every night – if you eat breakfast at 7:00 – 8:00 AM, then eat nothing after 7:00 PM – This makes your first meal of the day a true “Break Fast”.

Eat meat only in winter. Winter begins when the leaves begin to fall from the trees and ends when you see the new buds in the spring.

1/3 of your daily food should be raw – fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc. When ever possible, eat your food raw, but at a minimum, make 1/3 of your food raw each day.

Your drink of choice should be water. Fresh fruit and vegetable juices are good way to get your raw foods for the day.

Make sure they are FRESH juices, not store-bought, processed juices which your body sees as little more than sugar.

There is a lot of debate on how much water one should drink everyday. Seven glasses a day? Well, what if you’re 5’ 0” and weight 110 lbs., should you drink the same amount as a man 6’ 4” 190 lbs.? I think the answer is clear, different amounts for differ people. Here is what I have determined. One of the great things about water is that it flushes out toxins. Keeping that in mind, it seems right to me that we each should drink enough water to turn our urine a very pale yellow – that indicates that we are drinking enough to flush out toxins through-out the day. For the 6’ 4” man that will be a good amount more than for the 5’ 0” woman.

Another thing I have found beneficial is to drink very little water with my meal. Water dilutes. So it stands to reason that water would dilute the acids in your stomach needed to digest your food. Drink water one hour after a meal.

Infusions are also a good drink. Herb teas (cold or hot) – avoid black teas and anything with caffeine.

Avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup or aspartame. Read labels. You will be amazed how many things contain these.

A variety of grains can be eaten year-round. Eat whole grains. One thing to be aware of is that “whole wheat” bread does not always mean whole grain. Read the labels.

Along that same line, “pure honey” does not always mean that it is 100% pure honey. Again, read the label. “Pure honey” sometimes means that it is “pure honey” mixed with corn syrup. Make sure it is 100% pure honey with nothing added.

Honey is the ideal sweetener. It is much sweeter than refined sugar, and, unlike refined sugars, it is not addictive.

No dairy. Cow’s milk is for calves. If you feel you just can’t live without dairy, goat’s milk is much closer to human milk than cow’s milk is. I have substituted dairy with rice milk, coconut milk, almond milk, etc.

PROPER SLEEP

Sleep is essential for a body to recharge and regenerate.

This is a tough one for me. These sleep guidelines are things I have read or received from others.

They sound right and I’m willing to give them a try, but this is going to be one of the hardest of the seven rules.

Here are some things I am working on.

Get in a habit
Habit or routine is very important when trying to change or improve our behavior. Habit is extremely important when it comes to sleep.

Create a regular bedtime routine to prepare for sleep (brush teeth, set the alarm, etc.) and abide by it strictly.

Set and keep a regular bedtime and wake-up time to get the same amount of sleep each night.
Staying in bed longer than the body needs to sleep causes insomnia.

Reserve the bedroom for bed activities only
Do not watch TV, work, etc. in bed. If you do these activities 30-60 minutes before bed, in another room, these activities will help you relax.

Create the ideal environment

1. Keep your bed room as dark as possible.

2. Keep the room cool (not cold)

3. Do not wear a watch or have a clock in view. If you must have a clock for an alarm, turn it away from your view. If you wake in the night, don’t worry about what time it is, just go back to sleep until the alarm goes off.

Sleeping well starts during the day

1. Get at least 30 minutes of bright sun light every day.

2. Exercise will help you lose weight and improve your sleep.

3. Do not take naps during the day – 80% of nappers sleep worse at night than those who do not nap.

4. Eat light at night – avoid sugar.

5. Avoid caffeine through-out the day.

6. Avoid sedatives. They aggravate apnea.

APPROPRIATE EXERCISE

Let’s face it; you cannot remain healthy without exercise.
Let’s face it; it can be boring.
Let’s face it; it’s hard to find the time.
Let’s face it; we all know we need to do it.

Here’s what I have found over the past two years about exercise.

1 Proper exercise makes all of the other seven rules easier.
2 It doesn’t really matter what the exercise is as long as you exercise.
3 If you start small/easy you will be amazed at how quickly you will increase your ability to do more.

Check this out: kuer.org/kuer_podcasting

KUER in Salt Lake City produces a daily radio program called “Radio West” (one of the best radio programs anywhere). There are two very good podcasts here on food/exercise.

One is: 04/21/08 Aging in the 21st Century

And the other is: 10/24/08 In Defense of Food

PROPER BREATHING

Dr. Andrew Weil received his MD from Harvard Medical School and has become an internationally recognized expert on mind-body interactions and is the author of nine books.

Dr. Weil says: "If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly."

An article by Carol Krucoff, "Better living through belly breathing" ran in The Seattle Times, May 10, 2000, section C3:

Slow, deep breathing is a powerful anti-stress technique. When you bring air down into the lower portion of the lungs, where the oxygen exchange is most efficient, heart rate slows, blood pressure decreases, muscles relax, anxiety eases and the mind calms.
Experts in the field of mind-body medicine say that few people in Western, industrialized society know how to breathe correctly. We are taught to suck in our guts and puff out our chests, which causes the muscles to tense and respiration rate to increase. As a result, we are a nation of shallow "chest breathers," who primarily use the middle and upper portions of the lungs. Babies breathe from the belly, but with age, most people shift from this healthy abdominal breathing to shallow chest breathing.
Breathing is the only bodily function you can do either consciously or unconsciously. Studies have linked focused breathing with reducing hot flashes in menopausal women, relieving chronic pain and reducing symptoms of PMS. Some hospitals have begun teaching relaxation breathing to patients treated for a wide range of conditions.
Check this out: stop-anxiety-attack-symptoms.com
This is website gives short, but good instruction to proper breathing.

FOCUS, MEDITATION, CONTEMPLATION, EDUCATION

Mind, body and spirit must be in harmony. Meditation, contemplation and education serve to strengthen the mind and the spirit.

Check this out: learningmeditation.com/

This site gives some good information to begin meditation.

Education – I freely admit it; I was a very poor student in high school. However, I never let my schooling interfere with my education. I probably would have been a better student had I actually attended class.
Three years after high school, I enrolled at the University of Utah. Because I had such poor grades in high school, the university accepted me on probation. I had to get at least a 3.0 GPA for the first two semesters. After my first semester, I got a letter in the mail. It was from the Dean’s office. This is embarrassing to say, but I was so uneducated in the ways of school, that I had no idea what the letter meant. The letter was informing me that I was on the “Dean’s List”. I was worried. I had been on a lot of lists in high school and assumed this was bad news. My reaction was, “Oh, crap. I’m in trouble.” I assumed that I must have not met the 3.0 requirement. I determined to do better next semester. At the end of the second semester I got another letter from the Dean’s office. I was on the list again. I decided to just keep my head down and hope they would forget to kick me out. After the third semester and the third letter from the Dean’s office, I went into the Dean’s office to beg them to not kick me out. I took the letters in and showed them to the woman in the office. I asked her what the letters meant. She looked at me like I was the biggest idiot she had ever met. She looked up my records and said,
“You’re on the Dean’s list because you’ve had a 4.0 GPA for the last three semesters.”
“Oh,” I said, “so the Dean’s list is a good thing?”
It was clear that she couldn’t figure out how someone so stupid could have a 4.0.
I went back to my high school and asked to see my records. I graduated (after night school and summer school) with a 1.8 GPA. Aggghhhhh. I looked through my records and found that I had taken the SAT when I was a junior – I didn’t remember doing that – I had scored in the top 3 % of the country on the SAT.
The point of this story is to point out that schooling is not the only, or even the best, way to gain an education.
As I said before, I never let my schooling get in the way of my education. The same can be said about spirituality. I have never let my religion get in the way of my spirituality. Don’t get me wrong, I participate in organized religion, but it is a small part of my spirituality.

SELF MASTERY

To varying degrees, each of the other six rules requires self mastery. One of the best and proven programs of self mastery is the 12 Step Program used by addicts.

1.) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.
2.) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3.) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4.) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5.) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6.) Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7.) Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8.) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9.) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.) Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11.) Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12.) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Following these 12 steps makes following the Seven Rules for a Happy Health Life much easier.

APPROPRIATE INTERACTION WITH OTHERS

Stress is a big hindrance to not only our mental and emotional health, but to our physical health as well. Stress can cause blood pressure problems, digestion problems and weight gain.
During the space of about six months during 2008 I was under a lot of stress. During that time I did not change my eating and exercise habits but gained seven pounds.

Many cultures/religions have a variation on the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” If this simple rule is followed life becomes mush easier which leads to happiness.

The Dalai Lama has said that he has reached the point in his life where, when someone does something to him which is mean or hurtful, he can honestly say, “If that makes him/her happy, then I am happy for him/her”. Isn’t that amazing? I have tried to adopt that attitude over the past year. IT AIN’T EASY! Even though I am far from being able to honestly say, “If that makes him happy, then I’m happy for him.” when I do say it, it does make me feel better and eases the stress of the situation.

Two Perfect Years

Beginning January 1, 2009, I am going to go two years eating perfectly.

Why two years? Our bodies renew themselves every two years. Old cells die and are replaced buy new cells. After two years, we are completely new; all cells have died and been replaced by new ones. There really is no such thing as aging, only growth or decay. If you give the new cells good food and exercise, I propose that those cells will replace the old ones as strong and healthy as, or stronger and healthier than, the old (growth rather than decay) So, I decided to see what would happen if I spent those two years eating perfectly and exercising like I should.

I'm going to keep this blog during the two years. I will list my statistics, -- weight, body measurements, heart rate, vital statistics (HDL LDL, etc)

If you want to listen to an interesting podcast on this subject, download Radio West from KUER "Aging in the 21st Century". It's fascinating. Also listen to "In Defence of Food" on Radio West.

Check out this blog weekly in 2009 and 2010 -- for one thing, it will keep me on track knowing that people are checking up on me. Between now and then I will be listing the things I will be eating and not eating (I'm still in the process of zeroing in on what it will mean to "eat perfectly")

Check out my other posting "The Year of Eating Healthy". It details my experiences during 2007.

The Year of Living Healthy

On January 1, 2007 I determined that I would go one full year without eating sugar. After about two months I added a few things to my resolution. I decided to add exercise and changed my eating from no sugar to nothing un-natural. It wasn't as hard as you would think.

On January 1, 2007 I weighed 269 lbs. On December 31, 2007 I weighed 206. My resting heart rate went from 78 to 61.

Eventually, I refined my eating and exercise to the following 4 things. (I will elaborate on each of these things later)

1. I ate nothing refined or un-natural.
2. I ate nothing after 7 PM
3. I ate only when I was hungry and only until I wasn't.
4. I exercised at least 45 minutes at least 4 times a week.

NOTHING REFINED OR UN-NATURAL
When you start to look at what is in the food you eat you will be amazed. It is shocking how many chemicals we put in our mouths everyday. Did you know that table sugar is refined more than heroin?
There are so many good healthy things to eat, I really didn't miss junk food. I replaced sugar with honey (check it out tho. Sometimes honey is not 100% pure honey. Read the label. Sometimes it's corn syrup with honey)
I ate only whole grains. Again, look at the label of the whole wheat bread you buy. It's amazing how many brands have high fructose corn syrup in them.
Eat at least 5 fruits or vegetables every day. Avoid the iceberg lettuce and go for the darker ones. Eat you greens first; they help process the other foods.

NOTHING AFTER 7 PM
This one was hard. For the first three or four weeks I was thinking of food from 7 PM until I went to bed. But soon, I realized that eating after 7PM was just habit and boredom.
I found that I slept much better because my body wasn't working all night trying to digest food. Also, I was ready to eat a good breakfast when I woke. I had never been a person who ate a good breakfast, but after not eating after 7 PM, I was able to eat a good breakfast which is extremely important to good health.

I have refined this to be this -- give your body 12 hours of rest from food. If you eat breakfast at 7 AM then eat nothing after 7 PM, breakfast at 6 AM, then nothing after 6 PM, etc. This makes your breakfast a real "Break Fast".

EAT ONLY WHEN YOU'RE HUNGRY AND ONLY UNTIL YOU'RE NOT
This sounds like a "duh" thing to say, but think about the number of times you have stood in front of an open refrigerator wondering if you're hungry. How many times have you walked away because you couldn't find anything to eat and then returned 5 minutes later thinking something new might have materialized. The truth is, you were bored. The only exception I made to this rule was to eat a good breakfast even when I didn't think I was hungry. Eating a good breafast jump starts your metabolism and gets you body running.

EXERCISE AT LEAST 45 MINUTES AT LEAST 4 TIMES A WEEK
OK, you're not going to start with 45 minutes 4 times a day if you haven't been active for the past few years. I started with walking 20 minutes a day. After the first week, I increased it to 25 minutes. On the third week, 30 minutes, etc. Until I was walking 50 minutes a day. After about 8 weeks, I started running 2 minutes and walking 48, than the next week, running 3 minutes and walking 47, etc.
I have to say that I am not a fan of running. I find it very boring. So, I had to come up with good ways to break the boredom. I listened to podcasts. A good 60 minute radio program helps the time go by much faster. Some of my favorites are from NPR.org (National Public Radio) -- "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me", "Car Talk", "Fresh Air", "This American Life".. There are other very good ones on PRI (Public Radio International. "Radio West" is one of the best radio programs on the air. Another thing I like to do is take an old favorite movie and convert the audio to an MP3 file and listen to it while I exercise.
Other ways I broke the boredom was to run different places. There are dirt trails in the hills behind my house that make for a good hike. Racquetball is a good workout.
DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT
We do many things that are a good workout that we forget to list in our "workout" column. Mowing the Lawn is one of those things. Just pick up the pace when you mow and you will find that you're getting your heart rate up.