The 4 Secrets To Survival — Excuse Me, Health And Wellness

I can’t exactly say that I’m a shining example of health.

As a physician and family man, I think I do okay: I exercise regularly, including martial arts at least twice a week, don’t smoke or drink, and try to moderate my stress levels (haw).

But I don’t weigh what I did when I was a high school senior, and drink more coffee to get through the day than I’d care to admit. I eat too many carbs, get too little sleep, and don’t eat enough organic food.

These may not sound like much, but they should.

Nevertheless, I can still recommend 4 of the most important ways to avoid an early grave, and have a fine old time doing it (there are 7, but the final 3 will be in the next post). Partly because I’ve seen a lot of people do it right and do it wrong. Partly because the medical field has seen a lot, and has the studies to back up the advice it’s trumpeting from the mountain tops.

But also because, hey, the advice is so sensible and my self-respect has increased enough that I’m finally adopting the following principles myself.

1. Don’t Be Stupid

Hopefully a no-brainer, the biggest bang for your health buck is to avoid the so-called “big sins of commission”:

• smoking
• drinking
• unprotected sex
• running with a bad crowd.

If you avoid these 4 things, you essentially eliminate the things most likely to kill you before the age of 40, and many of the things afterwards: car crashes involving alcohol, AIDS, death by violent confrontation, and heart disease and cancer.

2. Get At Least 8 Hours Of Sleep A Night

I’m going to bounce around a bit from the inarguable to the debatable, but trust me on this — you need those hours of rest and recovery, regularly.

Physicians are plenty guilty of disobeying this rule, but just because we’re stupid doesn’t mean you get to be. The quality of your waking hours depends on a foundation of sufficient sleep. Don’t get enough, and everything else is compromise, your body swapping out the good stuff for a patchwork of “hopefully good enough” stuff.

Think up three of the best qualities that you’d like to be. For me, they were being

1. Creative and insightful with work projects
2. Attentive, observant, and insightful — hard to put one over on
3. Benevolent and forgiving with family

Now remember how hard you had to work to simulate those qualities when you were tired and strung out.

You CAN function with a lack of sleep. But you shouldn’t let it be a habit, or you’ll have no reserves for when times really get tough.

3. Shake Your Groove Thing

Preferably daily, with variation, but at least thrice weekly, you’ve got to move your body through space.

The American College Of Sports Medicine recently revised its minimum activity recommendation: 30 minutes daily of brisk walking or its equivalent, or 20 minutes three times a week of running or its equivalent plus twice weekly strength training.

Please take a moment and think, if you actually come close to this.

There is, quite literally, an infinite variety of ways you can exercise your body — there are an infinite number of ways you can do just yoga, or vary a weight training regimen, or run, or do martial arts. I’ll be addressing what I’ve found to be especially efficient and beneficial ways in future posts, but suffice it to say, unless you live and work on a farm, you need to explore and discover for yourself, a personal bodywork modality that you can do for life.

4. Become A Food Nazi

Did anyone ever tell you, “Work out a lot, so you can eat whatever you want?”

It’s kind of true, but not really. Both from a weight reduction as well as a “maintaining a healthy you” standpoint, there’s no way around it: you have GOT to pay some serious attention to what you put in your mouth.

I love a Quarter Pounder With Cheese as much as the next person. And if I see another Olive Garden commercial at 9:30 PM, I’m going to fall down in a rabid, ravenous, late night fit.

But look around you. Count how many of the next 10 people walking by you on the street look overweight or obese. Unless you’re in Amish country or the Olympic Training Center, about 70-80% should be typical.

Obesity is arguably THE major health crisis facing Americans today, and as a physician who listens to some serious bodywork coaches who train the athletic elite, I can unequivocally say, if you are eating randomly and unmindfully, you are almost certainly doing it wrong.

And this isn’t even getting anywhere near such topics as food for cancer protection, mood preservation, longevity and libido, and exercise recovery.

There’s More To It

But for the time being, these are The Cardinal Four I want to direct your attention to: avoiding the deadly sins, resting deeply, staying active, and eating properly.

This is the four-legged table upon which further discussions of Health and Fitness rest. If any of these is missing, then the whole foundation gets weakened. You could make a strong case that Health can be attained by focusing on just these 4 issues. If you become serious in your search for better health, you’ll find, as I have, that you’ll keep encountering these 4 cornerstones again and again. They really are that critical.

Next time: the 3 Essentials For Higher Health.