Week 7 Healing Habits Daily 2-Minute Checklists
Not Letting Special (Stressful) Occasions Do a Number on You
Week 7 Day 1
Line Up
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MINDSET RESET
Special attention on Special occasions
This week, you’ll get into the mind game, not the end game, of dealing with party food, drink, and stress on those countless stressful ‘special’ occasions.
With the proper priming and preparation, you can make parties perfectly pleasant. They’re for enjoying yourself, not destroying your health. Partake in the pleasures and part with the pressures.
“Don’t wait! Start on your dream, your impulses,
your longings, your special occasions today.
Because this is your moment.”Mary Anne Radmacher
Some people can count on quieting the ticker-tape mind by counting their breaths, say, from 1 to 10.
MOVING
If you don’t have beautiful scenery where you walk or anything else to do on your exercise machine, try counting your steps or reps, say, from 1 to 10, or whatever you feel like. Repetitive counting makes it a meditation.
If the idea of exercising does a number on you, do a number on it. You can reap double benefits by double-dipping. Walking meditation is one such example.
Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand and be neutral.
Stretch and be “nurtural”.
Smile and be natural.
EATING
Within this week and next, gear up your dilution of sweet drinks with water or seltzer to 1/4 or more.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast (NUMBERS) Counting the ways Nature is doing a number on us.
Textcast –
Words are the language of humans; Math is the language of the Universe. Not doing the numbers, you can still get the math by which Nature scores life and reality—all without a calculator.
Ever wonder why a newborn’s full readiness for the world takes exactly 40 weeks? And the menstrual cycle is 28 days? And why the 7-day week feel so natural? Recognizing specific numerical patterns can help you score higher on health, wellness, and harmony in life.
“Numbers are the highest degree of knowledge.
It is knowledge itself.”Plato
REMINDER:
Set the pedometer on your smartphone or get a clip-on to count your daily steps. Walking only 2,000 steps a day already begins to accrue health benefits. On a sedentary day, an average person still does 4-5,000 steps. So, the ideal 8-10,000 steps should just be a 20-minute cakewalk. (Unless you eat the cake, too, then it’ll be twice that.)
See you tomorrow.
Footnote for The Newcomer:
Healing Habits for a Happy, Healthy, Hasslefree Lifestyle for Life are success stories collected from some 2000 of my patients and coworkers in a non-profit private clinic after-hour coaching program over 25 years. This series of posts are Metacardio Methods’ daily checklists in that 3-month program.
Pick and choose which of the items are useful for you to follow. The nutritional suggestions are as applicable to weight loss as transitioning to a healthier eating habit.
Where relevant, all suggestions have been updated to current national health guidelines and state-of-the-art expert consensus. Wisdom from sages over the ages remains perennial.
The basis for these suggestions is discussed in long-hand on 15 prior posts here. All are archived under “Metacardio”.
. . .
Week 7 Day 2
Behind Line
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MINDSET RESET
Pre-Partying Preparation Pointers
Don’t go hungry, go happy. A feeding frenzy from feeling famished can make a frantic fool of you. Make a head start ahead of the start. Just before you go, eat a small snack, e.g., lapping up some leftovers without “over-lapping”.
Go to a party properly dressed, not painfully stressed. Comfy shoes will ease your walking/working the room. Skin-tights under your party attire can be an under-cover reminder not to over-stuff yourself.
This is particularly good to do before a party, especially a stressful one, to upgrade your calm and poise. “Taking a breather” before you need one will be…well, like a breath of fresh air.
MOVING
If you don’t get to exercise because of a party, let the host know you’re taking a friend from the party out for a “walkie-talkie” in the vicinity to reconnect.
Sedentary Sickness Stopper
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand and say, “Om…I’m destined to do this.”
Stretch and say, “OMG, I can really do this!”
Smile and say, “Ooh, it feels so good to do this.”
EATING
Save your waistline by shaving ¼ off your food line.
You can waste not, and still waist not.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD:
Podcast (NUMBERS) 1-5. From one to many. No math required.
Textcast –
1, graphically a circle, initiates it all, and to it all comes back in full circle, returning to unity.
2 is the dual nature of all reality, as in yes-no and yin-yang. Your body functions by this gas/brake, make/break dual system in proper balance.
3 is how life propagates. When the male triangle overlaps the inverted female triangle, a star—the child—is born. And every event in life is a 3-part story—intention, process, and outcome.
4 contains our reality. Everything within the 4 corners of our universe is in Einstein’s 4th-dimensional space-time continuum.
5 is a common way Nature regenerates living things, like many pentagon-shaped plants and veggies. That’s how life often replicates itself. (More later in the week.)
“The study of the unit is among those
that lead the mind and turn it to the vision of reality.”Plato
“Everything that originated from the tree of knowledge
carries in it duality.”Zolar
“One births Two; Two births Three; Three births Everything.”
Laozi
The universe has us surrounded on all four sides.
Let’s call a truce.Metacardio©
REMINDER:
Another Ex-excuse
“My folks told me to clean my plate because there’re people starving.
By the numbers today, more people get sick and die from overeating than starving.
Sugar-powder claims more lives than gunpowder in this century.
To feed the hungry, isn’t it better to give them your food than eating it all?
See you tomorrow.
. . .
Week 7 Day 3
Frontline
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MINDSET RESET
Moving Ahead, Leaping over Landmines
Head for the host(s) first, friends after, strangers next, munchies last.
Drink less, eat least; talk more, listen most.Anti-tipsy tips: Liquidate liquid landmines, like eggnog, ciders, and punches, by diluting them with ice and water. To be festive, sparkle up with sparkling water, flower petals, fruit peels, etc.
Try this 4-7-8 timing: 4 counts for the in-breath, 7 counts for holding it (without straining), and 8 counts for the out-breath. After you get going, stop counting.
MOVING
During your workout before the next party, use the time to plot a partying plan.
Sedentary Sickness Stopper
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand and deplane your plan.
Stretch and display your play.
Smile and deploy no ploy.
EATING
The number on any number of decadent desserts is 10 miles—the distance to walk off the 1,000 calories commonly loaded onto each serving.
Sparkling water is champagne for the champ with no pain but all the sparkles.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast (NUMBERS) 6-10. From tiling to totality. No calculation needed.
Textcast –
6-sided shapes (hexagons) are very common in natural structures, like most human cells, many plants, all honeycombs, snowflakes…
7 seems odd but is somehow practical and magical, like musical scales, days in the week, colors of the rainbow, and wonders of the world.
8 neatly upholds symmetry and harmony. The chess boards and our chemistry periodic table are 8 across. Most traffic signs are octagons to get your cooperation. Laying down on its side, as if surrendering, 8 becomes infinity.
9 can be somewhat mysterious. A labyrinth is based on 9 points. ‘The whole 9 yards’ is just about all of it.
10 denotes completion or totality. Bodily and mathematically, we have 10 digits for counting to ‘the perfect 10’.
You get less by counting numbers
and more by seeing their relationships.
What is truly valuable cannot be calculated.Metacardio©
REMINDER:
Your health and well-being are all of you—body, mind, and spirit. When you have it, you won’t care about the number on the scale. Although, in the beginning, that number trend may help point you in the right direction.
See you tomorrow.
. . .
Week 7 Day 4
Food Line
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MINDSET RESET
What’s for Dinner? Small Plate, Big Taste.
Favor family-style dining so you can get only what you want on your plate. Out of respect for people’s dietary restrictions and food sensitivities these days, don’t pile food on others’ plates; and ask for the same favor in return. Piling it on a weight loser is not a fair winner.
In a buffet, use a small plate, put on fluffy stuff first, and dessert dead-last. Sample unfamiliar items in bite-sizes, like those with unusual colors and textures that may be good tasting and good for you. Use bread as a “fig-leaf” to cover up your private unwanted items for discard later, like greasy or salty bites and calorie-dense dynamites.
Are only a few minutes enough?
Coming up short on quantity, go long on quality.
MOVING
Google the ingredients in popular party eggnogs, punches, dips, sauces, and spreads, and you might get tipsy and puffy enough just browsing.
Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand, and show how good wit won’t quit.
Stretch, and share a good quip.
Smile, and spread good humor quick.
EATING
Eat less, enjoy more.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast (NUMBERS) Proportional to presentable. A beautiful relationship.
Textcast –
The most presentable proportion in Nature is the Golden Ratio, a.k.a. many names below. In it, the ratio of the whole to its bigger part is the same ratio as the bigger to its next smaller part. That is, the whole and all its parts relate to their neighboring parts in exactly the same proportion. Doesn’t that sound like harmony from within?
Your heart muscles, the fetal position, a storm vortex, and planets’ distances from the Sun are also in that Golden Mean. If you look good, your facial features and most body and limb segments are in that Divine Proportion. Many flowers, the Nautilus shell, and numerous world-famous architectures are constructed in that Golden Proportion.
Our nature resonates with Nature’s proportions. To look the right proportions, you must eat and drink the right portions—mostly in moderation.
“Avoid extremes—keep the Golden Mean.”
Cleobilus
“Use the Golden Mean
as a means to the Golden End,
and leave behind your olden backend.”Steve Bhaerman
REMINDER:
Another Ex-excuse
The buffet tells me, ‘All you can eat’.
That pushes you to pay extra heavily for it, just not in dollars.
Instead, you can call it, ‘All I care to eat’. That empowers you to enjoy, not destroy, yourself.
See you tomorrow.
. . .
Week 7 Day 5
Dead Line
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MINDSET RESET
Dessert? Sweet, not Deadly.
Food for thought in a thought-free food fair: quibble over quality, not quantity.
Being sweet without bingeing sweets: bring desirable desserts to share, and take deadly desserts home to store. Any dessert you can’t desert, dissect or discard.
Short on time? Who’s counting?
Set a timer so you don’t discount your downtime countdown.
MOVING
On your next walk, pick just about any pretty thing in Nature, like a flower or a snail, and you’re looking at the Fibonacci Golden Proportion. See THOUGHT FOR FOOD below and become a mathematician of Nature without doing any math. Be enchanted by the math-a-magical!
Sedentary Sickness Stopper
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand and show resolve.
Stretch and sigh, relax.
Smile and share relief.
EATING
A numbers game: It takes 30 minutes (1.5 miles) to walk off 1 can of soda.
If the idea of diet/exercise does a number on you, do a number on it.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast (NUMBERS) From Fibonacci Rabbits to Nature. Fine breeding for all.
Textcast –
The Fibonacci Sequence is as easy as 0,1,1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55…
Any number on it is always the sum of the previous two.
Down the list, divide any number into the next, and you get the Golden Ratio.Hand-draw a big 5-point star as in kindergarten.
You can keep drawing an infinite number of stars within its inner pentagons.
The ratio of any line segment to the nearest shorter segment is the Golden Ratio.
So, you can get this ratio any time without remembering it or using a calculator.
Golden Triangle, Rectangle, Spiral, Ratio…They’re all in the family.
That’s how Nature breeds pretty things—like you, as you’ll see tomorrow.
You don’t have to ask “Whose?”
Just say “Ooo!”, and let go.You don’t have to ask “What?”
Just say “Ahh!” and behold.You don’t have to ask “Why?”
Just say “Wow!”; and it’ll unfold.Metacardio©
REMINDER:
Another Ex-excuse
“I just woke up one morning and got __ pounds heavier.”
Thank heavens it wasn’t immaculate conception.
It won’t take you 40 weeks to unload it—this program only takes 12.
You do have to really wake up, though.
See you tomorrow.
. . .
Week 7 Day 6
Your Line
Image generated by DALL-E. (None of the text is AI-generated.)
MINDSET RESET
They Really Want to Tell You… Make a Talk. Take a Walk.
Stuffing your face isn’t facing your stuff.
Mingling un-mangles you from your mouth.At a party, listen to anyone talk, recap briefly to them at intervals, let them repeat while you relax, and re-learn if you really like. It will be their best conversational experience, one they won’t soon forget, even if you do.
Thank the host for the occasion to re-engage an old friend with whom you’ve just returned from the outside for a nice walk and a long talk. Now, everyone should be feeling pretty good.
“There are exactly as many special occasions
in life as we choose to celebrate.”Robert Breault
“Making special occasions more special
can become your specialty.”S. Bhaerman
Isn’t it nice that, for this little while, you don’t have to talk, or listen, for a change?
MOVING
See THOUGHT FOR FOOD below for a fun Fractal exercise on your next walk.
Sedentary Sickness Stopper
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand and be self-assured.
Stretch and be self-sufficient.
Smile and be self-satisfied.
EATING
Onion rings can make you cry – just step on the scale and try.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast (NUMBERS)
Fractals–Making magnificent from minimal—in Nature, your body, and Pixar.
Textcast –
Pick any tiny branch from a tree, and in your mind’s eye, see another similar branch come off it, and another one off that branch, and on and on. It’ll grow out to look just like the original big tree.
Magnify the tiny bumpy patterns on the edge of a grain of sand on a beach, and you’ll see the entire shoreline looking just like that from an aerial view. Pixar pioneered this repetitive FRACTAL math to CGI magnificent mountain ranges in movies.
Nature builds complex, magnificent structures by self-same repetitions from tiny, simple starters. Didn’t you start out as a single cell yourself?
Many geniuses turn out to be ordinary people who have put at least 10,000 hours of repeated focused practice under the belt. Maybe there’s a method to the madness of the 10,000 steps a day. And similar wellness M.A.T.R.s in building healing habits?
“History is fractal.
The closer you look, the more complicated,
yet always repeating patterns.”Ted Nelson
REMINDER:
Mother Nature is beautiful and bipartisan. Her way works both ways. If you keep repeating your bad habits endlessly, her Fractal math (see above) may turn you into a sand trap rather than a paradise beach.
See you tomorrow.
. . .
Week 7 Day 7
Off Line
You really have the time? Or energy?
MINDSET RESET
Party right, from the start. Exit left right. Aftermath math.
Enter right with prepared thinking, or else exit left as if you’d been drinking.
Leftovers are not lasting memories. Laughed-overs often are.
100 calories = 1 mile. How many extra miles of walking have you overeaten? Re-do the math for doing over after overdoing—so you won’t overdo over and over.
Breathing is something you have to do right because you can’t do it over.
Don’t panic. If you’re still breathing, then you did it right.
MOVING
On your next walk, see how many fascinating numbers, shapes, patterns, and relationships from this week’s podcast/textcast you can spot. They’re everywhere, especially in Nature, beautiful things, and your body.
Sedentary Sickness Stopper:
(Sadly, Sitting and Sitting is Sickly as Smoking)
Stop Sitting Still. Stand-Stretch-Smile. Smarter Still, Stroll.
Set to do this for Several minutes every Second hour or So:
Stand and shoo it off.
Stretch and shake it off.
Smile and shrug it off.
EATING
A less juicy drink, a more juicy you.
Cut your sweet juices by a 1/4-1/2. Or just drink water, straight.
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast (NUMBERS) Your Number Is Up. Out of one, many; and out of many, one.
Textcast –
Everything in Nature counts, but Nature doesn’t count, i.e., it doesn’t do accounting. Only humans do math, yet not many grasp math’s patterns and significance in everything. Keeping account of mathematical relationships can add much wisdom to one’s wellbeing.
Seeing the relationship between one and many through numbers, you might see the world as one single body, and you are one cell in it. We all must live in inter-relationship and inter-dependency of everything in this one entirety. There’s no escaping from this universe. So, we might as well have one another’s back in this whole.
“One principle must make the universe
a single complex living creature, one from all.”Plotinus (Greek philosopher)
REMINDERS:
A feast for your eyes with the math patterns in Nature, and your body fulfills you.
A feast for your thighs with aftermath problems at a buffet only fills your body, full.
Another Ex-excuse
“I hate math. Can’t count calories and steps to lose weight.”
You and most people. That’s why Healing Habits work.
Building your eating and moving patterns into a lifestyle is what counts, not numbers, even those on your scale.
Uni = One
Verse = Song
Universe = One Song
Sung in countless scales and melodies.
In harmony or discord—that is our music to play!
Metacardio©
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See you next week.
Metacardio© 2024
. . .
Coming Up Next :
Week 2 - In Control of Your Destiny, Not Leaving It to Fate
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Get the 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.
