Week 5 Healing Habits 2-Minute Checklist

Stressful Extreme vs. Stressfree Balance

Week 5 Day 1

Maximally Pure vs. Optimally Mixed

Image by Metacardio©

MINDSET RESET

Moderation for maximal wellness

• All-or-nothing mode of operation is generally unnatural. The Middle Way’s moderation mode more often optimizes health—and life—naturally.

• Letting your body work in sync with Nature gives you the perfect shape, like all creatures in the wild. Fat or thin by nature, they are never on a diet, in a gym, or with a shrink.
  

If you’re not in sync, you’re sunk.

Metacardio©

Breathing Room

• an optional relaxation training/practice for a day to a week, then anytime at will.

In the meditative/relaxed state, body functions are optimal and in sync, as medically attested.

MOVING

• Exercise only up to your limit of comfort and ease. Do another session later today if necessary. It’s the total step count per day that counts, tallied up in any number of sessions.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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 apply your ability.
Stretch and activate your agility.
Smile and affirm your amiability.

EATING

After the last 4 weeks of diluting sweet drinks by 1/8, advance to 1/4 in the next 4 weeks.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast (AIR) What? I don’t see it.
Textcast –

• Science doesn’t know what tells us how and when to breathe. We just do it correctly while alive. Think too much or try too hard, and you won’t do it right. Nature’s easy ways work best for many life purposes. Which easy ways? Stay tuned—to your own body-mind-spirit.
  

• Apart from learning the amazing science of air, a deeper appreciation of its intricate relationship with you can help you breathe easier in life. 

QUOTES & QUIPS

“Facts are the air of scientists.
Without them you can never fly.”

Linus Pauling, Nobel Winner in Chemistry

REMINDER:

Take a selfie for a month-to-month comparison—whole body, front and side. Don’t be afraid; it’s OK to lose your guts.

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 “Healing Habits Blog”.

. . .

Week 5 Day 2

Good or Bad? Yes.

Image generated by A.I. (But not any of the text.)

MINDSET RESET

It's neither or both good and bad, so cherry-pick.

• Accepting only “good” and disallowing all “bad” is a one-track mindset that brings a lot of undue stress and un-wellness.

• Like a car's gas-and-brake actions, you need pairs of opposite push-and-pull actions in the proper balance to work your body. To find that balance, like driving a car, you must get a feel for it yourself. So, stay tuned, if not to this, to yourself.

• Pain can be good, such as for a critical warning call.
  Pleasure always feels good at the time, but not necessarily later.

  Breathing Room

• In and out breaths are one example of your body’s natural, perfectly balanced, yin-yang interplay—unceasing, adaptive, opposite, not always equal, but overall just right.

MOVING

Go for Goldilocks

• On your walk, find the sweet spot in your body where you get the most workout—with the time you have, without getting over-strained. You’ll feel how it improves sweetly every day but declines bitterly if you lapse for a day or more.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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 bold.
  Stretch and behold.
  Smile and be gold.

EATING

• If you love a particular food that’s bad for you, take a longer time to savor it, but in smaller and smaller amounts. Why woof it down and waste all that flavor? You’re already paying a dear price for it.
  

• Besides, slow-eaters are usually not over-eaters because their stomachs and brain hormones have enough time to tell them when it’s good enough. 

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast (AIR) All that out of thin air?
Textcast –

• When air gets hot and rises, heavier cool air flows in to fill the space, generating wind; and from that come water currents and precipitations. The resulting weather can range from breezes to hurricanes. As weather gets into a habitual pattern, it becomes climate. As your lifestyle choices get to be a habit, it becomes your life.
  

• Under the right conditions, a butterfly flapping its wings can set off a sequence of events in the air to result in a monster hurricane. Chaos Theory in mathematics calls this domino the “butterfly effect”. Similarly, your daily habits result in your health—churning in chaos or dancing like a butterfly—your choice.

QUOTES & QUIPS

There is nothing either good or bad,
but thinking about it makes it so.

William Shakespeare

Having no pain can be a real pain.

Metacardio©

I’m not perfect, but parts of me are excellent.

Ashleigh Brilliant

REMINDER:

Another Ex-excuse

“I like being bad.”

Okay then. Get into a good enough body and energy level to stay bad, and enjoy it longer. Never mind the good that’ll bring.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 5 Day 3

Balancing Act

Image generated by DALL-E3 A.I. (None of the text is)

MINDSET RESET

No-Stress Yin-Yang

• Nature’s perfect dynamic balance of opposites over time is encapsulated in the (non-religious) Yin-Yang wisdom symbol. It’s just like breathing in and out. Have a ball in the circle of life, and the flow will carry you through.      

• Avoid excesses and extremes. Regular meditation, quiet alone time, outdoor relaxation, etc., help you re-sync your natural body wisdom with Nature, like all the diet-free, bootcamp-free, and carefree creatures out there. 

  Breathing Room

• …In and out…In and out…Allow duality to interplay; otherwise, you’d choke.

MOVING

• On your walk, think of instances where forcing things to be only the way you wanted actually made things worse. Contrast this with others, where you put in honest effort but went with the flow.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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 careful.
Stretch and be carefree.
Smile and be caring.

EATING

Sparkling water is champaign for the champ without the pain but all the sparkles.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast  (AIR) CO2 - Tiny but deadly
Textcast –

• Carbon Dioxide, only 0.04% of our biosphere, plays a critical role in human life, Earth’s carbon cycle, and our shared fate. A mere 4% concentration would kill you faster than oxygen deprivation. Its 50% buildup in the past 15 decades—the highest level in millions of years—is scorching our lands, acidifying our oceans, and killing us. Getting poached like frogs in a slow-cook pot, when are we putting out the fire?
  

• Regardless of what or who causes this CO2-toxic environment, what’s practical is that we humans are capable of lowering it to save ourselves. We’re lucky that healthier lifestyle choices also happen to reduce this deadly carbon buildup. By eating more plants and less meat, and walking more, driving less, for example, we can save ourselves as well as the planet. Such a sweet deal!

QUOTES & QUIPS

To improve is to change,
so to be perfect is to have changed often.

Winston Churchill

When you find yourself in a vicious cycle –
for goodness sakes, stop peddling!

Steve Bhaerman

REMINDER:

Nobody is useless. You give your CO2 to feed plants while alive and the rest of you after. And plants return the favor.

Metacardio©

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 5 Day 4

“This Too Shall Pass”

Image generated by DALL-E3 A.I. (None of the text is)

MINDSET RESET

Only giving up is failing

• Stressful all-or-none: “I can’t do it perfectly or even well. Why bother?”
  Stressfree Yin-Yang: Doing it up to your own limit of comfort and ease is the right balance. Perfection is the enemy of excellence.

• Drive at your own speed and brake whenever you need. You’ll get there fast enough, safely, and pleasurably. Moving toward your goal will take you somewhere; quitting gets you nowhere.

  Breathing Room

• The only way you can fail at this relaxation practice is to stop breathing.

MOVING

• Find your oxygen. See THOUGHT FOR FOOD below.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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 set your character.
Stretch and show your charisma.
Smile and spread your charm.

EATING

A refrigerator magnet:

What you’re really looking for, you won’t find it here.
What you don’t really need, you’ll find plenty.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast  (AIR) Oxygen Cycle – Life itself
Textcast

• You need oxygen to make fire, but too much can make it explode. Breathing excess O2 above the 20% level can cause blindness, seizure, and lung scarring. Good thing our industries don’t add or take away O2 from Nature because it’s just right for humans.
  

• Where people or things tend to suck all the oxygen out of the room, don’t get sucked in. Many particular favorites, like laughter, music, Nature, and love, are the oxygen of life. Find your own oxygen and make a lifetime of breathing all worthwhile.

QUOTES & QUIPS

If you find yourself going through hell, keep on going. 

Winston Churchill

REMINDER

Another Ex-excuse:

“I can’t change now. I have to take care of other people first.”

Exactly! In order to do that at all, put your oxygen mask on first.

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 5 Day 5

Maximum, Yes. But Optimum?

Image generated by DALL-E3 A.I. (None of the text is)

MINDSET RESET

Maximal isn’t always optimal. Quitting is dismal.

• The best is what’s just right for you. Let Nature, and your nature, inform you what that is. They have been. Just listen.

• Put time and math on your side to get there. They both add up.

  Breathing Room

• Taking the deepest breaths can tense you up instead, especially if you hold them in for the longest time. It’s the slow and easy out-breath that relaxes you the most. Let go when it’s time.

MOVING

• On your walk or workout, think of all the important areas in your life where more is not better—it’s just more; and where less is more—and better.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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 daring.
Stretch and be dashing.
Smile and be darling.

EATING

• With food, quantity isn’t quality. Often, it’s the opposite.
  

• The slower you savor, the better it tastes. You’ll also end up eating less but enjoying more.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast  (AIR) Nitrogen Cycle – Life, too.
Textcast

• Making up 80% of our biosphere, Nitrogen (N2) is a crucial building block of life. N2 from the air gets “fixed” into protein, by microbial actions or high energies, like lightning or deep sea heat vents.
  

• Science is working to convert plants into animal proteins, such as eggs and meats, that taste exactly like real. Some are already in a burger joint near you. Animal husbandry may morph into green gardening. If successful, this can revolutionize our health and the planet’s. Look out.

QUOTES & QUIPS

Perfect is the enemy of good.
Often, it’s the last 1% that takes 99% of your effort.

Many

I’m not good, yet; but I can be better, now—and it’s always now.

Metacardio©

REMINDER

• Weigh every morning. This habit alone helps you lose.

• Winner’s Losing Goal: 1-2 lbs/wk, 3% in 3mo, 6-7% in 1yr

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 5 Day 6

Low for High

Image generated by DALL-E3 A.I. (None of the text is)

MINDSET RESET

Contrast and signals

• Reality is brought about only by the perpetual, dynamic, and not-always-equal interplay of opposites. That is so in physics (+/-), computers (0/1), business (gain/loss), biology (life/death), common sense (tall/short), and all life experiences (up/down, here/there, yes/no).

• Demanding one without the other only gets you real stress and unreal fantasies.
  

  Breathing Room

• In some Eastern traditions, the breath is called Chi. To the open mind, it typifies a deeper mystery in life beyond what we can see or say. We can experience such miracles if we habitually quiet down and stay still enough.

MOVING

• Rest is just as important as exercise. Get enough of both.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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 begin endeavoring.
Stretch and become enduring.
Smile and be endearing.

EATING

One or two meals a week, try to eat mostly plant-based food. You don’t have to be uptight pure, just a bit extraordinary.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast  (AIR) Breath by many names
Textcast

Medicine has long observed that changing your breathing pattern alters many vital body functions, and vice versa. Just try holding your breath or hyperventilating. If you’re alive, you’re breathing. If you can breathe, you can relax. Functional MRI brain scans show that certain practiced breathing patterns can improve one’s mood and stress level. This highly powerful, low-tech tool is always yours to use for free.

QUOTES & QUIPS

If you're hotter than me,
then that means I'm cooler than you.

Anonymous

Winner takes all, the whole package:
the good with the bad, the beautiful with the ugly…
but not too much or too little.

Metacardio©

REMINDER

If there’s something imperfect about it,
then it’s more likely to be real and not a fantasy.

Metacardio©

See you tomorrow.

. . .

Week 5 Day 7

Nature's “One” Way

Image generated by DALL-E3 A.I. (None of the text is.)

MINDSET RESET

Winner takes all.

• Don’t keep the “second arrow” (self-inflicted suffering) in your head. It’ll hurt you worse and longer than the first arrow (normal pain and sorrow) that has already left your life.

• Nature’s way is like “winner takes all”. It embraces everything that always comes as a set—the good and the bad, the up and the down, the yin and the yang—and lets it go, with the flow.

  Breathing Room

• As your attention drifts, don’t yell at yourself. Just focus back on your breath. You might wonder what your next thought might be. Drawing a blank? That’s meditation.

MOVING

• At your walk or workout, pull out all the “second arrows” (such as regret and revenge) that keep on tormenting you. You can do that just in your head. They aren’t anywhere else anyway.

• Sedentary Sickness Sparer:
  (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, it’s not flashy.
Stretch, that’s not too frisky.
Smile, you won’t look funky.

EATING

What's better: a sweeter drink or a sweeter life?

THOUGHT FOR FOOD

Podcast  (AIR) All One – You'll see it when you believe it
Textcast

• Often in daily life, when we believe something to be true, then we see it. Otherwise, we can’t see the truth even in plain sight. But because we can learn, we believe in air even though we can’t see it. Doctors and Chi masters can see your health and vitality by the way you breathe.  Can you see yourself in the Healing Habits of being healthy, happy, and hasslefree? You’d better believe it!
  

• It's a believable scientific fact that we are re-breathing the same re-cycled air with every living thing on this planet from the beginning of life on earth. So, let’s all take a breather together as one and see to it that we are fit, joyous, and stress-resilient.
  

QUOTES & QUIPS

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Life is painful. Suffering is optional.”

Sylvia Borstein

REMINDER:

Another Ex-excuse

“I can’t do it perfectly or even well. So why bother?”
Nobody is perfect, and no body is perfect. Wellness is merely getting better and better, day by day. Just don’t bother to quit.

See you next week.

Metacardio© 2024

Coming Up Next : 

Week 6 – No End Game

A Free Enhancer:

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.)