Week 0 Healing Habits Head Start Checklist
2-Minute Mini Preps. Week 0 Day 0
You can succeed in building your Healing Habits for a Happy, Healthy, Hasslefree Lifestyle for Life with ease and delight, simply by living your ordinary daily routines. Over 2000 of my clinic patients and coworkers did. But, first…
If you don’t prepare (though no need to over-prepare),
You’ll impair your repair, and you can’t pare or compare,
Thus, ending in despair with the same state of disrepair.Matacardio®
Going forward, I’ll be sending you a daily 2-minute checklist. From it, you can choose from the mini-steps suggested for the Healing Habits you want to build. If you miss a day, you can pick it up by searching “metacardio” on the Substack app since you’re a subscriber (thank you).
Today’s walk-through is like checking out your car on a few essential things before going on a 3-month road trip. You want to make sure the GPS app works, for example. Every day trip will just be a short joy ride, so no major mechanical overhaul is needed.
The few “software installs” you’ll need are probably already handy or should be easily obtainable. The rest of the preps are mostly “mental software updates” which should take only minutes to do or think about.
The food-related suggestions here and in the future apply to weight loss only if you desire it. However, they are equally applicable to transitioning to healthier but just as tasty food choices as a new eating habit while maintaining your weight.
This head-start will get you kick-started on the right foot (or left—your choice). Nothing can stop you now.
2-Minute Mini-Prep Checklist
1. Weigh Away Weight and Weightiness
Use a weighing scale on a hard surface every morning after going to the bathroom. It’s your most accurate weight, and you’ll be that much lighter. Research shows this alone doubles your chance of success. If you have to get a new scale, consider one with a Bluetooth link to your smartphone to plot the trend, which is more important than any single number.
2. You Can Count on It
Activate the steps tracker on your smartphone. Otherwise, get a pedometer. Prove to yourself you’re making big strides without having to doubt or debate. Step counting, by itself, already counts as a healing habit, scientifically. Let machines do the tracking and leave “mothering” out of it.
What you don’t measure
You can’t prove, approve, or improve.Matacardio®
3. Kick Your Tires
Make sure your comfortable walking shoes are good and ready. You won’t need any other special sporting gear for our purposes.
4. Monogamy Has Its Unique Place
At home and at work, assign only one place to eat anything. This conditioning action is more important than you might think. It builds a disciplined routine, saves you from random, mindless snacking, and spares you from cleaning after spilled crumbs.
5. Your Carb Footprint
Make a mental map for re-routing your daily footprints to avoid temptations from unwanted foods. If it’s a longer route, the extra steps can stuff your pedometer.
6. Good to Look Down on Yourself
There’s a pretty common specific body type that predisposes you to the ill effects of carrying any excess weight. Here’s a low-tech home test for it. Standing straight up, bend only your neck to look at your feet without leaning forward or sucking in your stomach. If you can’t see your toes, you are likely to have a “belly bad body biology”, clinically named Metabolic Syndrome. Don’t worry, it’s reversible. Your Healing Habits are just what you need to clear it up. See a doctor if that doesn’t help enough.
7. Out of Reach, Out of Breach
Gather up all the junk food at your disposal and dispose of it. Composting for the environment is far better than decomposing your commitment. Give the Food Industrial Complex (F!C&-U) a complex by not buying any more junk. Save the money for the fitter new outfits you’ll need soon.
8. C’mon, Who Cares to Count Like an Accountant?
For the next 2-3 days, estimate your rough daily total calorie intake—no need for NASA precision. A 250 or so calorie margin of error is OK. Many free mobile apps can guesstimate calories from snapshots of your meals. Or, simply use 2,500 calories as a ballpark average American adult male intake, or 2,000 for a female, and adjust up or down some percentages you estimate for yourself. Try over rather than underestimate.
9. Tell, Don’t Ask
If necessary, reassure the relevant people in your life that your behaviors in the next 3 months will not be drastic or disruptive. They should notice hardly anything new in you except for more energy and perhaps 15-30 minutes of daily “sanity” quiet time. They’ll only gradually see a fitter, healthier, happier, cooler, and (if you so desire) slimmer you. You shouldn’t need anyone’s permission for that.
You got this! Nine times over. Without breaking a sweat. That’s the whole idea—easy but sure. No BFD (big fancy deal)—no big production, no fanfare. Get there like the steady, trusted little engine that can, whistling all the way.
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Laozi
Let’s get started! It’s just a walk in the park, often literally, never a moonshot.
BTW taking a full-body side-profile selfie for a “before” picture may be a good idea. It’ll justify all your rewards and awards by comparing it to your 12th week “after” shot. You do want to prove, approve, and improve.
Big Bonus: Research shows that the mere acts of doing these preps alone can already yield up to 25% success if you are consistent at it. Committed intention is a powerful thing, and makes the entire process that much easier.
An Optional Enhancer:
Get the free Metacardio® mobile app on your iPhone for all 12 weeks of daily prompts with illustrative graphics, animations, audios, and videos. (All non-monetized. No one could pay me enough to have this much joy.)
Images procured from iStock, and one from NASA.