Health in Mind Archives – Herbal Nitro®

10 Must-Dos for a Healthy New Year’s Resolutions [2019]

Sure, there are thousands upon thousands of things we could set as our New Year’s Resolution, but if the list were over 50, we would probably just bookmark the page and never read the list. Because we want to make a change in our lives–especially around the new year–we need bite-sizez bits of wisdom, and that’s what this list is for. So here’s that bite-sized list: 10 things you must try in the year 2019 that are wonderful for your health.

1. Make your bed in the morning.

A few years ago, Admiral William H. McRaven spoke at the University of Texas for the Commencement Address and gave an incredible speech about something so minor. The video is 6 minutes long, but in essence this was his point: Starting your day off with an accomplishment will change your outlook for the day.

It doesn’t really matter whether you “make your bed”: it matters that you do something. This next year, you are going to fail–not just you, but all of us will. But what will you do when you fail?

In 2019, my failures will be catalysts for my success.

If that means getting back up and try harder, then 2019 is going to be a year of huge growth for you; and that’s a fact, not a tarot card reading.

2. Walk each day, as much as you can.

It may seem impossible to add one more time slot into your busy life… but this one is vital.

The health benefits of walking 30 minutes a day are sundry: in addition to improving your cardiovascular health… You’ll be able, if done outside, to enjoy the beauty of the world around you. That’s not on this list, but let’s make it #11.

3. Try a colon cleanse.

I’m not going to talk much about this one; you’ve probably heard of the colon cleanse benefits by now, whether online or in the news. Doing a natural colon cleanse, however, whether that’s by rigid diet or

natural supplements, has huge benefits for your digestive system and overall health. Plus, if you have other health-related resolutions this year, it will be a great addition to them.

4. Start looking at the nutrition facts.

Now more than ever, we need to begin looking at our nutrition labels, whether or not we’re “counting calories.” But if you’re a skeptic about the label, you’re not alone. More than half of Americans think food labels are sometimes misleading, which means there’s a 50% chance you think the same.

The 15-calorie label for our weight loss product.

Whether you’re watching trans fats, sodium, or calories, it’s the right time to learn what your food labels mean. According to a study conducted by OnePoll, 33% consider transparency of labels a huge trust factor. So this year, learn the jargon: it’s the healthiest thing to do.

5. Keep your hands empty.

Now I like to fiddle with stuff: I like to hold something in my hand. But like many things in life, it can become a bad habit… especially when the thing in my hand is a phone.

Have you ever picked up this habit where you have your phone in your hand at all times, even though you’re not using it or expecting a call? Wielding your phone like this makes it seriously difficult to engage with people: why should someone expect you’re listening if you could, at any moment, glance at your phone and check your texts? This year, think about the silent message you’re sending. Chances are… that notification can wait.

6. Say “hi” to passersby.

According to a survey by Moscow-based cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab, 75% of people pretend to be on the phone to avoid social interaction. This is a heartbreaking statistic.

I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but when you walk on the sidewalk past someone, they won’t look you in the eye. They’ll find some way to avoid it. Maybe they’ll glance at a tree, the sky, at the ground, or most likely down at their phone that they’re holding in their hand. But here’s the bleak reality… They want to be noticed. We want to be noticed, acknowledged as humans as we were meant to be. Sometimes, all it takes is an audible “hi” to make someone’s day.

7. Learn and remember people’s names.

If you make just one New Year’s Resolution for 2019, please make it this one. It’s one of the most life-changing things you’ll experience. I know I’m not the only one whose mind goes into complete blind mode when someone tells me his/her name: I forget her name literally as she’s telling it to me. Then, you have no choice but to call that person dude, or man, or girl, or friend, or bro, etc…

But friend… You should see how much a calling someone by his name lights his face. It’s like the joy in a child’s heart when he first sees the Christmas tree lit on Christmas morning. You remembered his name. Now he knows you care. So whether it’s a server at a bar, a barista at a coffee shop, or that friend-of-a-friend you see every so often, learn to remember his/her name.

In 2018, I will affirm the worth of those I meet by learning, remembering, and calling them by name.

8. Create a schedule for talking with friends/family.

Just as we have a schedule for work or for kids, even so we also should have one for talking with those we love. As we grow up, physical distance isn’t the only think that can slowly dissolve relationships: it’s not hearing one another during the ebbs and flows of life.

Some people–maybe you–are good at staying in touch with your friends and family; others are not, such as myself. I need to pencil them in. That may sound cold, but it’s reality. It’s better to make time to call that friend you haven’t heard from in a while than to risk losing that friend forever.

9. Learn how to listen completely.

Listening is a skill: it’s not something you’re born with. We can be staring at someone in the face while at the same time wondering why glue doesn’t get stuck to the inside of the bottle. Just as Julian Treasure says in the TED Talk video below,

We are losing our way of listening.

Is that true? When was the last time you sat down, had nothing in your hand or on your mind, and completely listened to someone until he/she was done talking? It’s hard. Much like remembering someone’s name or saying “hi” makes someone feel acknowledged, listening to her completely makes her feel heard.

10. Complete this list with someone you love.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that you read 101 more New Year’s Resolutions: it just matters that you do them. For most people, we need help accomplishing difficult things in life: we need accountability. For your New Year’s Resolution, I challenge you to partner up someone and stick to a least 1 thing on this list. So when you ask your partner, “Hey, how have I changed this year?”, he/she will tell you…. Let me make a list of all the ways.

A review

Make your bed in the morning.
Walk each day, as much as you can.
Try a colon cleanse.
Start looking at the nutrition facts.
Keep your hands empty.
Say “hi” to people who walk past you.
Learn and remember people’s names.
Create a schedule for talking with friends/family.
Learn how to listen completely.
Complete this list with someone you love.

7 Simple Ways to Sleep Better

Somedays, you feel like, look like, and act like a zombie; and sometimes you feel like you could run a marathon (well… you dream about doing it). But good sleep does not come to everyone. Maybe when you were a child you slept like a baby (hahah, get it?). Anyway… if you want good sleep every day of the week, make sure you’re not committing any of these sleepy sins.

1. Set your phone out of reach before bed.

The research is crystal clear on blue light, which is the type of light that your cellphone emits. There are several types of light wavelengths in the spectrum, but blue light wavelengths specifically help boost attention, reaction times, and mood, which is great… unless you want to sleep. Keeping that bright monitor a few inches from your face at night (with the lights turned off), only amplifies the blue light effect on your body. It messes up your circadian rhythm, or your “sleep algorithm.” If you’re normal like I am (well, we’re all a bit weird), you put your phone down, turn your head the other way on the pillow, wait 30 seconds, and grab your phone again to scroll through a feed. (But if you involuntary grab your phone that much, maybe you should try a digital detox.) Rinse and repeat.

2. Cool it on the pre-sleep margaritas.

Do you fancy gin at the onset of dusk? Do you enjoy watching the strains of ruby red wine drip down the crystal frame of your glass? Maybe you just drink whatever someone hands you. Maybe you’re straight edge. Regardless of your flavor, alcohol ruins your sleep. Most of the time. For some, alcohol can actually improve their sleeping schedule–but don’t covet them. That’s a small fringe. For those who have heavier dosages of alcohol at night, they might experience disturbances in their sleep in the second half of their nocturnal sleep period. You might find that after a night of “excessive” drinking–this depends on your genetics, and provided you’re of age–you reach groggily to your nightstand, praying for a large glass of water to quench your body that is currently experiencing an internal drought. That means you overdid it.

3. Don’t exercise right before bed.

Everyone and his/her mother has told us for years that exercise is healthy for us in innumerable ways. But did they tell us when we should exercise? Well, it depends on your Netflix schedule, am I right? Yes. Studies have shown that our exercise can directly help our sleep, and can even aid in instances of chronic insomnia. But it matters when we exercise, too. If you exercise too close to the time when you’re readying to doze off, your body may not cooperate best. If the exercises you did were anaerobic or rather vigorous, your body-heat may be too high to settle you down into a staunch slumber. This means… you can exercise earlier, watch Netflix after, and then go to sleep soundly. Sweet!

4. Dim your lights in the evening.

You can do this to be romantic, sure. If it’s just you and the mirror, though… don’t. That’s going to make us all sad for you. Your circadian rhythm responds to light–and this is probably the biggest factor in your body patterns. It’s simple:

If it’s light around you, your body says it’s time to be awake.
If it’s dark, it’s time to assume your oddly gymnastic position in your bed and sleep.

If you don’t have a light dimmer, try to turn off other lights in the house if they bleed into your room. Turn your computer off and, if you’re a hero, your phone. The longer your body has to adapt to a lower light level, the more easily you will transition into shut-eye time.

5. Stop sleeping in a sauna.

It dosen’t matter if you sleep naked or clad in 8 layers: if you’re hot in bed, your sleep will suck. If you’re sweating during sleep, or if you wake up looking like an ogre leaving a swamp, maybe it’s time to ditch some of the layers. Or, if it’s summer, be a minimalist when it comes to your nighttime accoutrement. Whatever you need to do to shed the heat, do so. However, I can’t prescribe nudity for you, so if you’re going nude and someone stumbles upon your bareness: it’s your fault and I’m innocent.

6. Watch the caffeine in the evening.

Most normal people have a caffeine vice: may it be coffee, soda-pop, energy pills, etc. But again, most normal people drink that stuff in the daytime, unless they have a night shift. Caffeine, or any type of similar stimulant, is great for energy (especially when it’s natural energy) but not so friendly toward your sleep when taken at night. A study a few years ago analyzed people consuming caffeine in different time intervals before going to bed. They found that having caffeine even 6 hours before sleep can be disruptive to your sleep schedule. So even if your relatives from London are visiting in the eve, refuse the tea and tell them you’re sick or something. You want sleep, and nothing is splitting up you and your bed.

7. You worry about tomorrow too much.

Can you believe that anxiety can actually affect our sleep? Anxiety affects everything and everyone. A wise one who lived and roamed long ago said something supremely wise about worry:

So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Truly, even if something harrowing is happening to you tomorrow (and you’re sure of it…), don’t sweat it. Your sleep–your well-being–is more important than whatever tomorrow holds. So sleep soundly. But don’t let a leg hang off the bed… ’cause… you know. boogeyman.

What Does Body Mass Index (BMI) Really Mean?

Your body is a mystery, a careful craft of bone, flesh, and more–but when you don’t take care of it, it becomes much less than what it could be. Because there are so many variables in determining how healthy you are, like the food you eat, how much you exercise, your genetics, etc., you need a meter, a ruler to measure how you’re doing. Your BMI is essentially that: it tells you how you how your body is doing, at least in terms of its composition. The BMI number you’re given doesn’t depend directly on your diet on your exercise: it’s an aggregate result of your diet and exercise. It’s like the score you get on a test (but let’s not talk scantrons, please). Want to take that BMI “test”? You can do that below.

What is BMI?

Body mass index, or BMI, is a ratio-based measurement of your body that factors in your height and weight. It’s simple; it applies to both male and female; and it’s an excellent tool for you to use to track your body’s health. Some call it the Quetelet Index, named after its inventor, Adolphe Quetelet. He idealized a measuring method that would relate one’s weight and height to an ideal or standardized weight. In other words, he wanted to codify the system of body mass measuring, to make it easier for people to know how “normal” their body mass is compared to others.

Why does BMI matter?

Your body-to-weight ratio is extremely important, because there has over and again been a correlation between a high BMI and a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes II, high blood pressure, gallstones, and more. Measuring your body mass is also an excellent predictor of what your health may be in the future, especially when applied to children. You can track the pattern of body mass acquisition to take action early and prevent unhealthy habits later in life. (If you’re taking the BMI of minors, please consult the growth chart for more accuracy, as children’s body mass better correlates with standard growth charts.)

Credit: ib.bioninja.com.au

Your body mass index is on a rough spectrum from under weight to obese, though these parameters vary. For instance, there may be person A and person B who both have BMIs that mark them as “under weight,” but person A’s BMI may be 10 and person B’s BMI may be 17. Clearly, person B is healthier than person A. The same goes with your BMI related to obesity.

Should I even care?

Now, don’t take BMI as gospel. An unfortunate part of your BMI calculation is that it doesn’t factor in muscle. Let me iterate: if you actively lift weights and have a more muscular composition than someone who better resembles a couch potato and hasn’t heard of a guy named Gym, you may have the same BMI than she, but one of you looks drastically different. Take, for example, the following chart. Each of the figures is, surprisingly, 5′ 7″, weighs 145 lbs, and has a BMI of 22.8. Does that look true?

mindbodygreen.com

It is true, because again, BMI is not a panacea for measuring your body status vis-a-vis other bodies. You should still care about your BMI because there is one thing it highlights: your excess fat, which, unless you’re pregnant or are facing the most inclement conditions and tend to be out of food for long periods of time, is just that: excess. Excess, of anything other than those cinnamon Poptarts (kind of joking), is usually bad. (Read more about general excess here.)

Address your body mass

Now that you know your body mass (or if you don’t, click here); and since the national obesity level (your BMI being 30+) is around 37, we need a solution to high body fat–or to losing weight healthy, effectively, and [it would be nice if it’s] quickly. Have you ever typed in “how to lose weight” in a search engine? We did, and what we saw immediately was not surprising.

Notice the top and bottom “People also ask” questions. These are of the commonest questions asked on the internet when it comes to address your body weight. Apple cider vinegar doesn’t work: it just makes you more acidic and have some not-so-fun times on the toilet. Surgery? No. Please, love your body as it is. You don’t need to take a needle to it. The real solution to addressing a high BMI and losing weight is controlling what you eat: it’s putting your foot down on your appetite. And if you’re normal like everyone else, you may need some help with your appetite. You can find that here. Now that you know your BMI, what will you do with it?

What is Minimalism?

Minimalism is not new: in fact it’s only been recently revitalized, modernized, decorated, and publicized. Some of the chief figures of this neo-ideology are Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, and they, through clever domain registration and word-marketing, have become this generation’s centerfold on material denial. Minimalism is the art or lifestyle of living only with things we need. It means deep, thoughtful self-reflection that gets us to look at our material clutter and realize, “I don’t need those things.” Minimalism, though, is more than just a restrictive tally on personal belongings: it’s a daily check on the way we live. When it comes to “stuff,” not all Americans are experiencing surplus anymore; but for most people, there’s more than enough to go around compared elsewhere in the world. So when we sit down for Thanksgiving and recite what we’re thankful for, we can safely bet we’re barely scratching the surface of the litany of blessings we have that will go undeclared. We’re going to look at some ways in which this new Minimalism is ripe for healthy living. But first, let’s see how it’s perceived in the undertow of culture.

Minimalism in the Media

There’s another word in the mix here, and it’s almost a synonym: abnegation, the denying of one’s own rights, conveniences, pleasures, etc. Abnegation, I imagine woefully brought to people’s attention by the hit series Divergent, has portrayed something more negative than it should be. I’ll highlight the difference by a quick allusion to a popular movie, Divergent. In the series, protagonist Tris is born up in the Abnegation faction; and those ‘minimalist’ values are inculcated in her saliently. When getting her hair cut in front of the mirror, she is reminded of the faction’s exclusive restriction: that they may only look in the mirror four times per year. But in this faction, the adherents are not asked to remove their material possessions: they’re not really talking about possessions at all. Abnegation is focused on something less visible: the matters related to heart and the appetite for things we want personally and socially, like fame, wealth, celebrity-contoured features, and more. As you can tell, the emphases on these two ideals differ: Minimalism focuses on material things and abnegation on immaterial. Each has its place in a healthy lifestyle, but let’s focus on one here, and how to practically employ it.

What’s healthy about Minimalism?

As I mentioned, Thanksgiving is nearing its full-bellied arrival, and most in America will engage in a vital tradition: giving thanks for what we have. The weekend, too, is a double-whammy, with both Thanksgiving and its material-fascinated successor, Black Friday. When it comes to materials, Thanksgiving doesn’t come up, but Black Friday sure does, with an expected rise of 47% in sales from last year. If now’s not a time to apply minimalist principles, when is? Here are some things Minimalism can be when you embrace it heartily.

It’s freeing

I don’t mean freeing in a 1960’s sense: I mean it’s literally decluttering. We have too much stuff, and as days go on we treat our attics and closets as industrial compactors. Stuff goes into a box, the box goes into storage, and our money goes out of our wallets. *Consider all of your belongings that you haven’t touched or thought of this year: Can you do without them? You needn’t jettison all of your holiday decorations, but surely you have some spare DVDs or pieces of furniture whose eternal duties are to collect dust.

It’s economical

Garage sales are the clutter of the decluttering: filling your lawn or driveway with things archaic and random, broken and untouched, that a passerby who saw your makeshift sign might come and take them off your hands. You might think that lamp from ’97 that has an opulence only fitting 5% of homes is useless. Wrong. That lamp is money, as are many things in your storage that you might pass off as refuse. *Consider the funds you can gather from stale placeholders in your house, and use that money for something more useful, like caring for yourself or caring for others–may that be gift, a day out for grub, a health treatment, or a cushioned bank account.

It’s humbling

Humility. There’s the kicker, eh? It’s a humbling process to live below your means, especially when this nation elevates our nations beyond recognition and offers us an modestly priced accessory for just about anything. The next iPhone. The next 360-laptop/tablet. The next car, app, accessory, technology, ad infinitum. Many people in the world don’t have access to any of this stuff (though, the number of mobile phone owners is forecasted to be 67% in 2019). While it’s not always wise to make comparisons–since it can often bereave us of joy more than we hope–it’s good to do it once in a while; and in the scope of Minimalism, it’s mandatory. *Consider your daily activities: What do they involve materially, and what would happen if you used 25% fewer of those items? 50% fewer? Make a determined path toward a new status quo for your life, one that involves fewer things.

It’s challenging

Minimalism, when approached sincerely, is not a venture to try out for fun, blog about it, get black-and-white, stoic Instagram pictures from it, and go back to normal. It’s intended to leave a lasting impression on you. If opening your eyes to the bounty you have before you and then, by necessity, having to remove that bounty piece by piece isn’t challenging… You’re already a minimalist! *Consider the last time you conquered something difficult: physical, vocational, emotional, etc. What was your denouement, your victory lap–what did you do to celebrate? Might have it been drinks with the friends, a feast of victors, an online purchase? Look to your victories as the end in themselves: the victory is the struggle. Minimalism ends the material celebration at the victory line.

It’s inviting

A healthy bout with Minimalism is, at last, inviting in several ways. It invites you to don new lenses through which you see the world; to tackle challenges that require all of you but none of what you have; to love people and not things. Minimalism invites you to live below your means, not in line with them or with anyone else’s. *Consider opportunities you’ve had in the past, or just this week, to make a difference in someone’s life by time spent or good deed done, when some thing interfered: a low battery, car problems, a shopping appointment, house cleaning, etc. If you have to abandon minor duties to make room for person, do it. The most precious commodity is not your things, but your time.

Embracing life minimally is healthy, because it allows you to see yourself without the unnecessary things that pollute who you are inside. So give it a try! What do you have to lose? Well… probably a lot of stuff.