Tag: healthy

Daily Recommendations Of Happy & Healthy

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To be a happy and healthy human being in this world we seem to need to combine a rather large variety of things. This combination too varies from person to person and while there are probably a few fundamentals like food, shelter and company, to be both happy and healthy may require a little more than the basic versions of these things. Perhaps being able to attach a noun modifier like good would help and add a little further clarity. We could attempt to include the idea of various possessions like a mobile phone, car or warm jacket, but it’s not worth going down that avenue as it’s validity would be questionable at best. So we stick to the three fundamentals above. There are more I imagine but right now these are the first that come to mind. Perhaps you could throw liberty in there too but unless it’s severely restricted it would probably be something we could adapt to without much fuss.

Shelter seems like an obvious one but there is a difference between a fifteenth floor inner city apartment and a countryside estate. There will be the same extreme ends of the spectrum for company too from friends and lovers to flatmates we have to endure. It is the issue of food that I want to focus on though. I definitely see happiness in food, I associate it with love and one of my favourite things is sitting around a table eating and drinking with friends and family. The happy then is covered but the healthy is were I’m a little confused. There are the obvious things like making sure you eat vegetables and wholegrains, as much organic as possible and to stay away from processed anything when you can. I have a varied level of success on all three of those but I still don’t always feel healthy. I suspect part of that is down to how healthy my gut microbiome is and I’m working on that to the point where I think I can sense and feel improvement specifically because of it. The other is whether I get my recommended daily allowance (RDA) of the required vitamins and minerals. I was looking into how to get enough magnesium yesterday and discovered that perhaps it’s not as easy to achieve this mythical RDA as previously thought. Unlike child poverty figures, it’s not possible to simply change the definition to achieve the desired outcome. Our bodies need what they need and this RDA seems to already be the minimum.

One avocado then provides 15%, a cup of lentils 30%, a two hundred gram fillet of salmon contains 15%, two bananas 20% and half a cup of cooked spinach the final 20%. That’s not impossible to imagine eating in a day but these are also some of the more magnesium heavy foods so the rest of the weeks diet would need to be of a similarly high standard. It is for this reason we must attach good to food. If you would struggle to fund such a diet, which in itself is reasonably common, then there’s a good chance you’re going to struggle to stay healthy and considering that a lack of magnesium can affect our energy and mental health, probably happy too. It seems life is complex. A good life at least. But that’s nothing a new pair of trainers can’t fix.

5k Challenge

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I may have just done something stupid. This whole doing exercise outside while it’s sunny thing has taken a hold of me and I agreed to go on a 5k run. Five thousand metres. Not something to be scoffed at. I managed three thousand last week but my knee started hurting at the end so I’m fearing the same may happen today. This time I suspect my rather unsympathetic friend may not pander to my excuses and the abuse will flow. While this is nothing new I am exposing myself enough that something is making me feel wary at the prospect of what’s to come.

But this is all part of this new healthy and energised human being I’m attempting to create. I am in my mid-30s now which is the usual time people have breakdowns and decide it’s time to exercise. And I thought I was unique. I even had a dream last night about eating too many of these pizzas we’re making and getting fat. It wasn’t exactly deep in the subconscious but that’s a fear I can’t deny to myself any longer. My belly was so fat, I can’t possible think how many pizzas I had been eating.

How much of this then is me being vain? I won’t deny there was an aesthetic element involved in the horror I felt at the enormity of my gut but I’m sure I had convinced myself previously it was all health related. The subconscious never lies though. Saying that we do start to become more aware of the aches and pains that once either didn’t exist or only existed for a short period. Now they feel like they never go away. The desire for life must be so strong in people who reach serious old age. My god everything must just hurt endlessly.

I’m supposed to be running in about half and hour and I feel so full of sandwich and the cup of tea I’m currently drinking. I’m going to do a little yoga as a warm up of sorts and crack on. I’ll report back when it’s all over.

Huh huh…huh huh…huh huh…collapse…

I was actually leading the way until about the three kilometre mark at which point I saw a waypoint in the distance and my body started to assume it was time to walk. I thought I felt a little wretch at four kilometres and by then my friend had caught up with me although saying that he had only been about five metres behind the whole time and I know that because I could hear him suffering too. We parted at the four kilometre mark and I struggled my way back and dragged myself over the finish line. It really was a battle of the mind. Having completed a few Vipassana courses in my time I can confirm the relation to meditation is an accurate one. My knees held strong though which was reassuring too. In short though; can taste blood. Tight muscles. Light head. Fucked.

The Woes Of Newly Morning People

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My alarm went off at 6.30am today. I did this out of choice. I had the wonderful idea about thirty hours ago that I would become a morning person. This isn’t a new thing, it has been attempted before and judging by this being a new shot the previous ones evidently didn’t go to plan. Quite often the issue lies with my inability to go to bed early enough and is coupled with my need for a good eight hours, ideally nine. If I’m to wake at six, at the height of the summer I would be going to sleep while it was still light outside. Lets be honest that’s unlikely to happen.

One reason I have struggled to sleep earlier is my inability to switch off the technology before sleep. There are various stories out in the ether about how we should switch off phones at least an hour before sleep, or we should dim the lights so we have evening sensitive light but for me the issue lies with the fact it’s too easy to just stare at the phone in a trance when tired. Were you to be reading a book you may need to think a bit more, would get tired and sleep, but the internet is made up of short simple articles and pictures, include it’s ability to hypnotise you and the spell isn’t broken without force of some kind.

Last night though I slept at about midnight, about an hour later than planned but earlier than it could have been and has been. I crawled out of bed half an hour later than the alarm but managed to do some yoga and drink a cup of tea before starting work at 8am, a whole hour early. Today has been completely non stop and while I didn’t get all the things I wanted to do done it wasn’t down to idleness and wasting time which makes it in a funny way acceptable. However I’m still awake and it’s already gone 11pm.

I have probably averaged six to seven hours of sleep per night these last two weeks and I am tired. I’ve only had one morning of being a morning person yet I’m struggling to see myself getting up as early tomorrow and the original plan was 6am the second day. It’s the late nights, and it’s not even that late but it is for an early morning person. It can be so hard to change habits at the best of times but when that change of habit gives you bags under your eyes then you are really making it hard on yourself.

I know I’m not alone in this world though. There are plenty of fellow reprobates out there who have attempted all sorts of things but have been too open to temptation and given up after a few days. Even those disgustingly well groomed, healthy and happy people surely must give in to temptation from time to time and not just the temptation to be perfect. As I say this it makes me feel so pleased to be fallible and to accept my fallibility. If I don’t manage this then so be it, I’ll try again or I’ll try something else. But I’ll try. I’ve had the determined focus of someone capable of achieving things these last two days. I wonder if he’ll be around tomorrow too. He might just need to set the alarm a little later though. A semi-morning person perhaps.

Fat Bastard

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I was going to talk about something serious, intellectual and philosophical. Minds would be blown by the insights, people would never be the same afterwards, life would forever be viewed through the lens of a new prism previously unknown to exist. Prior to the moment of world changing magic though I made the fatal error of some self-indulgence on one of these health and fitness websites. It appears I’m not healthy. There is something called a Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR for those in the industry. It is a way to see you metabolic age which apparently peaks at about seventeen years old and is basically a good indicator of our bodies actual age. It turns out mine is thirty-nine years old and unfortunately according to the Gregorian Calendar that is not an age I will reach for another five years. It appears all those feelings of aches and pains actually mean something other than I’m just soft, like to complain and feel sorry for myself. I am just soft, like to complain and feel sorry for myself clearly as evidenced by this piece but it’s not always nice to be proved right when it means I’m proving I’m not in good shape. Apparently I need more exercise, sleep and leaner proteins.

I also discovered I have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 26 which means I am ever so slightly overweight. I am though 14.5 stone, 90 kilograms or 200 pounds depending on where you’re from, and six foot three or one metre eighty-eight also depending where you’re from. I’m a reasonably big man, and recently I’ve been trying to build a little more muscle, not much but a little. What does this mean for my BMI then? Muscle is heavier than fat, so how can I be sure whether I am overweight or just putting on more muscle? That has always been my issue with things like BMI and why all of these things needn’t be taken too seriously or dogmatically. Apparently I should ideally weigh between 10.8 – 13.7 stone, 68 – 87 kilograms or 152-192 pounds, but after being ill for three weeks once in India I weighed 68 kilos, I could see ribs in my back. I was not healthy. This isn’t me making excuses, I know my little tummy could be shrunk back but I don’t agree with their description of a healthy weight.

The final one was body fat but I couldn’t be bothered to make the effort to measure my waist and hips just to discover what I already know. So I need to lose a little weight and become a little healthier. I wouldn’t say I’m unhealthy but clearly I can’t say I’m healthy either. Ultimately though as I suggested earlier I take these things with a pinch of salt and not a serious pinch at that either. As a species we’re not healthy. We may have eradicated poverty in a lot of the western world but we’re all addicted to at least a few consumables like sugar, salt and fat. It’s good to get a little shot of drive to give me that little boost to continue my exercise and better diet. I’m just sore all the time and tired with it. I am thirty-nine after all, it’s all part of getting old. Saying that at this rate I’ll probably be in my mid forties by this time next year.

The Times They Are A Changing, Or Not

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I went for some afternoon pints today with my Dad. There’s something enjoyable about a few afternoon beers that has been lost on contemporary society, and me too I guess. We went to a little microbrewery pub in my local town. They have a few interesting little beers but no cider unfortunately, which is exactly what I had been after, apparently people don’t go for still cider this far north. There was one thing I noticed though and it’s something I’ve started noticing more and more often in recent times; the distinct lack of any younger generation in the pub. I am thirty-four years old now and I remember ten years ago the idea of an afternoon drinking session would be met with a solid and positive response. Even more so if you went to the pub in the evening you were guaranteed to find it beaming with youthful energy. I noticed recently when in what I could class as my local if I wanted and today the microbrewery in my local town that there are a distinct lack of people in their twenties. There was an awful lot of regulars in their forties and above but few of a younger generation. To counter that of course I was in an interesting pub in Edinburgh a couple of weekends ago and felt old whereas I never used to so perhaps it’s just the boring old man pubs and towns I’ve started to frequent.

There are many reasons why we are seeing this change though. Society has evolved enormously in the fifteen years since I started university. To begin with there is no doubt I was a student in what I can only describe as the peak binge drinking period…pound a pint nights…trebles for two pounds. I recently found out that those trebles bars I used to frequent were caught a few years ago mixing their spirits with white spirit, which both explains a lot and is slightly worrisome. A night out on tenner…two big bottles of cider before going out and then the remainder on entrance to the club. I could be nostalgic about it and say times have changed but it’s probably the same now I just don’t see it because thankfully I don’t go near that kind of world. I doubt though ten pounds would get you very far now either which is probably why people can’t drink in pubs, saying that we used to drink in the house a lot too, hence the two bottles of cider trick. I feel like I’m disproving myself as I write. Perhaps I should work these things out before I write them up, maybe the writing up is the working them out. Does this just mean I’ve got no idea what twenty year olds get up to these days? That is more likely, I also have no desire at all to know and don’t want that to change.

That is the point though, times may change but we definitely change and probably faster. The cliche may be the old man horrified by modern day society but I doubt the fundamentals are that much different. We see the society we live in, so if I am a little healthier and drink less, I see twenty year olds doing the same and imagine they’re also boring and clean these days. It’s all about perception then. Or not. It could just be that without any type of scientific data or research I can form any argument based upon the limited world I see. The narrative I don’t even know exists has already taken over before I even hit my first key. When did it stop just being a few simple afternoon pints down the pub with you Dad and your dog. Simpler times…said every old man always.