Week 1 Healing Habits 2-Minute Checklist
Easing In
If you are a newcomer, welcome. To catch up instantly, please see the Footnote below about these Healing Habits for a Happy, Healthy, Hasslefree Lifestyle for Life.
MINDSET RESET
Picture how you’ll look and feel at the goal line. How to get there will come soon enough.
Within 1-2 months, a 500-calorie negative balance daily will result in 1-2 pound weight loss weekly. And that is safe medically and sustainable in practice. Cutting about 1/4 of all food portions and sweet drinks gives you at least that.
If you need not lose weight, substitute the cut portions with healthier food choices, such as from the validated Mediterranean Diet menu.
Exercising an extra 5 miles a day does the same, but it is harder and takes more time (about an extra hour). Any harder than that makes people give up quickly.
The key is getting to the above target(s) over weeks, even months, so you’ll feel no hardship. And when your body gets there gradually, it’ll tend to stay there as a new “set point” with less rebound. What follows are some hybrid ways of getting there with pleasure and ease.
Breathing Room for Relaxation
– an optional relaxation training/practice for a day to a week, then anytime at will.
To breathe or not to breathe? There is NO question.
If you can breathe, you can relax. The out-breath relaxes the most. For now, just observe your breathing and do nothing else for a few minutes, and you’ll relax naturally.
EATING
To spare your body proportions, pare your food portions.
Metacardio®
Each time, pour away less than 1/10 of your sweetened drinks and make up the volume with plain or carbonated water. Gradually get to a 1/8 reduction by one week. Back off a tad if you can tell the difference in taste. Most people can’t.
At each meal, put away less than 1/10 portion of it before you even start. Gradually get to a 1/8 reduction by the end of this week—that’s ½ of a ½ of a ½. Most stomachs can’t tell the difference. Back off a tad if it makes you too hungry.
Reading Nutritional Labels: Size Matters
The key is the Serving Size. For 10 servings per container, you need to multiply the calorie count (and all other contents) by 10 after eating the whole thing.
Warning: Their ‘Serving Size’ is often smaller than your ‘swallowing size’, maybe even your ‘sampling size’.
MOVING
Add a few more seconds to your usual activity routines, like walking back into the house. Sing some verses of a favorite song while doing it for timing. (A pop song is usually about 3 minutes long.) After a few days, you’ll know what your comfort level is, for the time being, by how many times you repeat the song. No pain. No strain. Just sing.
GOAL: Take your own pace to eventually get to 10,000 steps a day. (That burns about 500 calories—your daily deficit goal.)
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 to spread energy
Stretch to spread help
Smile to spread joy
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
If you can dream it, you can become it."William Arthur Ward
Podcast (2-3 min) – Do Dreams Come True?
Textcast –
Before you fall asleep tonight, try to picture all the ways you’ll be better in less than 3 months—in body, mind, and spirit. Dream of your success at the end. Trust the means are now at hand.
What’s the use of taking your problems to bed? Write yourself a blank check. Dream away!
QUOTES & QUIPS
“Don’t fast; life is too fast already.
Slow down; eat slowly,
and slowly lose weight and weightiness.”S. Bhaerman
Quick fixes don't last; lasting changes aren't quick.
Metacardio©
REMINDERS:
Safe and realistic weight loss goals:
1-2 pounds in 1 week, 3% in 3 months, 6% in 1 year.
Don’t drop your Body Mass Index (BMI) below 20; under 18 is unsafe.
See you tomorrow.
Image curated from iStock on subscription
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.)
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 1 Day 2
Don’t make a wish. Make it your purpose.
MINDSET RESET
Like what you eat? Keep it. Just cut portions by 1/8 within this week if you want to lose weight.
Go on a “Hunger Strike,” and you’ll lose the “Hunger Game.”
Try new tasty, healthy snacks to quell hunger pangs, e.g., from the many choices on the Mediterranean Menu.
From these snacks, pick your favorites as regular add-ins to your daily meals. If you need not lose weight, just swab in enough healthier choices to make up the cut meal portions.
Breathing Room Now Breathe
sharing various well-tested techniques to help you build a habitual breathing exercise routine
Billions of people who have tried and stuck with breathing practices vouch it is the best freebie for wellbeing every day.
MOVING
Weigh and record every morning – research shows this alone can double your success in weight loss or maintenance. Weight roller-coastering can make you sick—medically speaking.
Just walk; and stop before any discomfort or strain.
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 for your purposes.
Stretch for your goals.
Smile for no reason at all.
EATING
Dilute to Delude
Sugary drinks and juices often account for 25% of excess weight in heavy people. Water them down gradually and ‘pull your sweet tooth’ painlessly over weeks. Once you get to plain or carbonated water, everything you eat will taste sweeter.
Major Food Groups
Sugar has 4 calories per gram—better to stay below 5 grams per serving.
Protein also has 4 calories per gram—generally desirable.
Fat has 9 calories per gram—less desirable.
Saturated, Trans, and Hydrogenated fats—least desirable.
Choose Mono- and Poly-unsaturated fats. (Think fun boardgame “Mono-Poly”)
QUOTES & QUIPS
"Better positive change in small increments than
negative changes in large excrements."Steve Bhaerman
To make a dream come true, first wake up,
then put your feet on the ground.Metacardio©
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast – Common sense, uncommonly practiced
Textcast –
Before you fall asleep in bed tonight, picture in your mind how much better you will look and feel within these 3 months, losing 1 to 2 pounds a week if you so desire, but fitter and happier in any case. Pose happily in front of a full-length mirror and consider it a reflection of your better future. Why?
The same logic as playing basketball applies to your current effort. It only works when you keep your eyes on the ball and the goal. Tomorrow, you’ll hear about a scientific study that reinforces this common sense.
REMINDER:
Prolonged sitting is like cigarette smoking health-wise.
See you tomorrow.
. . .
Week 1 Day 3
Fulfilling Isn’t Just Feeling Full
MINDSET RESET
Eat when hungry – Duh!
Only when hungry – Ohh.
If you’re starving, eat—it’s the right time.
High caloric density—it’s the wrong food. (Unless you’re fighting in Ukraine.)
Breathing Room This Too Shall Pass
If you fall asleep at it, that’s often the best nap you’ve had in a long time, and you really needed it. It’s certainly better than any short sugar rush or caffeine jitters.
MOVING
No pain, no strain; and that's good.
If exercise is not a repeated pleasure, like dancing, you wouldn't do it regularly. Be smart to make it so. For today, just walk a comfortable distance, any distance. Sing a favorite song of yours while doing it.
Why bother counting steps daily?
Many clinical studies have shown that step tracking increases daily counts and health benefits long term. It’s literally a step-by-step process to health.
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 to reach what you want.
Stretch to reach for the stars.
Smile to reach into hearts.
EATING
Over-snacking leads to overweight blowups.
Under-snacking leads to hunger overshoots.
Sugary snacks lead to hunger re-strikes.
Lean proteins fill your stomach better and longer than sugars.
Many proteins are plant-based. Meat-based proteins are often also fatty. Go nuts—they make great snacks.
QUOTES / QUIPS
“Out of mouth, out of mind,” by leaving 1/8 behind.
Right after, your stomach won’t feel the difference;
weeks later, your belly size will.Metacardio©
A jolt of junk food craving is NOT a burning desire for lasting joy.
Want instant gratification short-term
or constant gratification long-term?Metacardio©
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast – Science on Scoring Hoops
Textcast –
Half a basketball team in a study spent extra time practicing “shooting” hoops by simply sitting still with eyes closed, imagining. They scored better in a real game against the control half. Of course, they were skilled and well-practiced to start with.
The mind can add success to the body; it can’t do everything for it. “Dream practice” only works on a foundation of actual training and practice.
Sweet “hoop” dreams!
REMINDER:
Take a selfie this week for comparison later – full body, front and side views in thin clothing. You may think more of yourself when there’s less of you to look at by the end of 12 weeks.
Even if you don’t need to lose weight, healthier eating, and moving habits will still give you a fitter physique, particularly a smaller belly where harmful biochemicals are produced from excess fat in there.
See you tomorrow.
Image generated by Bard AI.
. . .
Week 1 Day 4
Many Turtle Steps, Not One Hare Brain
MINDSET RESET
Beat the rabbit like a (ninja) turtle with small, persistent steps.
Breathing Room Boomerang Attention
Hit a chime to recapture your attention from runaway thoughts, and let the fading sound carry you back into silence.
MOVING
Step Into Fitness Walk, don’t run (unless you’re already fit).
You may be closer to the 10,000 steps target than you think.
Even a very sedentary person averages 2500 steps a day.
Getting off the commuter 1 stop sooner, parking 1 block farther, exiting the elevator 1 floor lower can add 2500 steps.
A 15-20 minute walk after lunch and dinner will give you another 5000 steps.
Bingo! You’ve made it.
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 – Your body will not mind
Stretch – Your mind will enable your body
Smile – Your spirit will uplift your body and mind
EATING
Less processed foods are better for you. They are usually recognizable in their natural forms, like an apple.
Ultra-processed foods are like pre-digested grubs. Yuck!
QUOTES / QUIPS
Don’t have a fit if you don’t fit in!
After a long spell of not out-fitting your outfits,
you deserve a smaller new outfit you can fit into.Metacardio©
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast – Dream performance
Textcast –
Consistent practice is the key. No short sprints, feeling bad, and giving up. People can feel the difference in body function within a few days of practiced activities, definitely within a couple of weeks.
Imagine what you’ll be like in 3 months! Think of the many activities and places you could get to with ease that you found difficult before, leaving your old self behind in the dust.
Dream it, and you can achieve it.
REMINDER
Zero-calorie artificial sweeteners can grow your “sweet tooth”, and even increase certain cancer risks. Water it down—gradually. The WHO banned them in
See you tomorrow.
Image generated by Bard AI.
. . .
Week 1 Day 5
Joyfulness Is A Printout Of Your Inner Programming
MINDSET RESET
Breathing OK?
If you can breathe, you can relax
Simply quieting down and watching yourself breathe naturally without extra effort will calm you down effectively.
If you have trouble doing that, additional techniques may help. Check out our
Breathing Room You, Your Own Guardian Angel
Be your own guardian angel floating above, watching over this beautiful baby—you—breathe. Do not disturb.
MOVING
Keep your routines and add a tad more today.
Counting your steps instead of thinking runaway thoughts is like a walking meditation.
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, alone if you must.
Stretch, if you’re alone in your space.
Smile, and you won’t be alone anywhere.
EATING
Keep cutting portions and your stomach will shrink. By contrast, once stretched by a new idea, your brain won't shrink.
Before grocery shopping: Pre-plan what you will and won’t buy. Plot out a route. Don’t shop when you’re hungry.
Shop more on the store perimeter. Avoid the middle and ends of isles, eye-level shelves, piled-high and check-out counter food items.
QUIPS / QUOTES
No diet, y'all!
A diet won’t make you better.
ALL of you must get better.Metacardio®
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast – One body-mind-spirit
Textcast –
People talk about the body, mind, and spirit connection. In this program, you will experience there is not really any connection, per se. Instead, it is one whole ball of wax.
Compromise one aspect of it enough, the other aspects will be impaired, too. Improve on one aspect, the whole also gets better. That’s why a diet doesn’t work. The whole inseparable, indivisible, single entity—YOU must get better all around.
And you will, and everything will then fall into place.
May your entire dream come true.
REMINDER
Another Ex-excuse:
“Just a reminder makes me hate the way I feel.”
Why else would you want something better, for life?
See you tomorrow.
Image generated by Bard AI.
. . .
Week 1 Day 6
Fitness Is Inner Beauty Facing Outward
MINDSET RESET
Hurry-worry-sorry is a sickness. It does not help you get faster or better. Taking time to focus does.
Breathing Room What next, Genius?
Blanking on what thought will come next? That’s meditation!
ACTIVITY
Keep your routines plus a tad more without hurrying.
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:
Deny negativity with your stand.
Defy gravity with your stretch.
Deploy levity with your smile.
EATING
Banking on Food Scanning a food label is like a quick glance at your bank balance. Can you afford it? Can you afford not to scan it?
QUOTES / QUIPS
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
Laozi
A hurry-worry-sorry life will be short but would seem long.
Metacardio©
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast – Your life’s dream
Textcast
It’s free, so might as well dream big.
Keep taking small steps to fulfill big dreams. As you reduce your weight and/or inactivity, you will reduce the burden on your body and mind. Various old limitations will be far reduced or even gone.
With the amazing body-mind-spirit that’s in you, that is you, how do you intend to apply it to a better life, a higher purpose?
Stay on course. Earn your “paycheck” for life. And cash it.
REMINDER
Sleep 7-8 hours, or else you might gain (or re-gain) weight but lose good health and brain function.
See you tomorrow.
Image generated by Metacardio.
. . .
Week 1 Day 7
It Takes Many Stitches To Make A Beautiful Garment
MINDSET RESET
Getting healthier, fitter, trimmer, and happier is more of a mind game that gets you into healing habits through physical discipline.
Breathing Room Don’t stop breathing. Letting it out relaxes you the most.
Breathing Practice can be your Re-sync / Re-set / Re-start / Refresh / Reprieve / Unplug-Replug / On-Off / Pause / Home / Ctl-Alt-Del switch for your body Intel CPU (central operating system).
MOVING
Keep your routines plus a tad closer to your 10,000-step goal.
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:
Be stiff with your stand.
Be flexible with your stretch.
Be a puddle with your smile.
EATING
Eat “confetti” – colors, textures, variety, lightness, and fun.
Food Shopping Tips Summary:
(Serving) size matters the most on labels.
(Serving) size matters the most on labels.
Saturated fat literally means over-stuffing, fattening.
Consider trans and (even partially) hydrogenated fats deadly as TRANS-continental HYDROGEN bombs.
1 gram of carb or protein = 4 calories. Fat = 9.
Simple carbs give you a fast sugar high followed by a rapid hunger plunge. Lean protein and fibers are better sustainers.
Generally, stay in the 5-20% range of daily values for carbohydrate, protein, and fat.
Over-processed food is like pre-digested food. “Yuck!”
Choose colored and textured foods you can recognize, not all gooped up or ground down.
Pre-plan your grocery trip. Pre-set what you WON’T buy. Prefer the periphery and not the eye-catching traps.
Scan the food label like a quick check on your bank balance. Junk foods are like junk bonds. Spend within your calorie budget. Overspending carries high interest rates. Save yourself from yourself for yourself.
QUOTES / QUIPS
Free Wait Training -
Enjoy those unavoidable, unchangeable moments of delay. They might be your only free time for the day.Metacardio©
Ah, go to health!
To hell with matter-o-carb-deal.
To health with Meta-Car-dio.Metacardio©
THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Podcast – Make your dream come true.
Textcast
Sages over the ages teach us from their own experience that when they find their true life purpose and work at it, the entire universe seems to mobilize everything to help make it happen. Unless you quit, you can’t fail.
You have identified your purpose to live a healthier, happier life. How can that be in conflict with the cosmos? So, everything should be working in your favor to help you achieve that purpose. Unless you quit.
Keep picturing what your ultimate life purpose is. And let your improving body-mind-spirit enable you to get there. Allow this book and everything else in the cosmos to help you along the way.
REMINDER
A stitch may look feeble and inconsequential. An uninterrupted string of stitches is very hard to break. They hold up your pants and even a heavy curtain. Here, you are making easy stitches every day. In no time, you’ll be able to raise the curtain and show the unbreakable you.
Images generated by Bard A.I.
Coming Up Next :
Week 2 - (Neuro-)Looped into a Moving Habit
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.)