Destiny Now, Fate Never!
Today’s Calamity — Your ultimatum to get healthy, fit, tough and wise
This piece is the first of a number of stand-alone DESTINY postings on how to rise above and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic by shaping up to be healthy, fit, tough, and wise. It is based on the author’s multi-decade insights as a cardiologist and founder in a non-profit lifestyle coaching program completed by thousands of patients and coworkers. All the advice comes from participants’ real-life experiences, state-of-the-art science and diverse time-honored wisdom.
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Tak Poon, MD August 19, 2020. 7 min read.
A viral pandemic is sweeping across the globe and forever changing our world and our lives. It looks as if this may be a final warning for us to build a better way of life.
Survival (and success) is for the fittest, healthiest, toughest and wisest—in this pandemic and always.
Fitness is being aware, adaptable, and innovative with whatever is at hand.
Health (root holos) means to be whole and wholly optimized for whatever life offers.
Stress resilience is a toughness we develop inside against inescapable stressors outside.
Wisdom can be tapped from limitless inner and outer sources if we learn how.
Join us in this ad-free weekly series to achieve all that by simple means, sensible choices, and sustainable habits.
. . .
Let’s get real. People don’t keep doing things they dislike just because it’s for some future good. It’s only human to avoid discomfort and indulge in pleasure. Just make sure you frog-leap out of the slow hotpot before getting cooked.
Fighting human nature is a no-win.
Instead, why not use our natural tendencies, leveraging state-of-the-art science and time-honored wisdom, to build better lifelong habits that are both pleasurable and beneficial?
That’s a win-win.
I
magine having a better eating style that makes you feel as pleased and refreshed as brushing your teeth.
Imagine an activity routine that you would miss as much as if you’ve skipped showering.
Imagine that, on your way to a healthier body, you will also be doing some mindset reset, thus becoming more resilient to stress and appreciative of life.
And you end up being the person you’ve always wanted to be.
The Real You. From MetaCardio©
With continual refinement over the past 25 years, the 2,000+ graduates of my lifestyle coaching program proved that our approach works.
In this pandemic you’ve already shown that you can and do change behaviors when called for.
So while you’re at it, why not tweak your new habits a bit to produce a better outcome for the rest of your life?
Don’t think that small and slow progress is a waste. A slight leak will eventually drain down a giant tank, drip by tiny drip. The opposite is also true. Oceans are filled by raindrops.
E
ach week, we will start with focus on a mindset re-set, then get into tasty (to you) nutritional choices and manageable activity routines, and end with health tips of the day.
All major suggestions, surprising to you as some may be, are referenced to credible sources, principally scientific. Proprietary podcasts and videos will be sprinkled in to point you towards diverse wisdom beyond mere data.
So, let’s get started with a few prep steps so that we can jump right into it next week.
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Fate is what happens to you.
Destiny is how you shape your life given this fate.
- Metacardio
FOCUS
There is no better time, maybe not even any other time, to emerge from these troubled times as a better version of yourself that you’ve always wanted. But you must first want it and then commit to it.
What you are now is what you used to do.
What you do now is who you will be.
– Metacardio
NUTRITION
Designate only one place at home or at work to eat. Take your time to savor every bite. Slow eaters enjoy more and eat less. In a lock-down, what’s your hurry anyway?
Use this week to clear out all the unhealthy food and snacks around. To resist food staring at you is hard. To desist from piling up junk that would bury you is easier.
Out of sight, out of stomach...no waste, no waist.
ACTIVITY
Prolonged sitting is almost as unhealthy as smoking. Set reminders to stand, stretch and smile for a few seconds every couple of hours.
To balance screen time with action, find something like a cement block to step up and down for a few minutes every hour or so. When you go out, walk around the block on coming and going. Whenever you think of it, move. Let your pedometer surprise you how all that adds up.
HEALTH MATTERS
Weighing yourself daily promotes weight loss. Weighing weekly is half as effective. Avoiding the scale leads to weight gain. Track the trend, not the small day-to-day variations.
Exercise by itself is NOT an efficient way to lose weight. Yet a regular moderate activity routine is essential for keeping weight off and staying healthy.
High Body Mass Index (too big), high blood sugar (diabetes), high blood pressure (stress worsens that) and weak lungs (smoking or being out of shape) greatly increase your risk of getting hit or killed by COVID-19.
These also are the very same risk factors for downers like stroke and heart attack, cripplers like dementia and arthritis, and many nasty cancers. After upending your life, they end up ending it early.
. . .
TAKEAWAY
Knowing what one should do is easy. Actually doing it may require some periodic nudging. Before you come back for this journey next week, here’s a free preview of a special podcast offered in a lifestyle-coaching app coming out soon. Enjoy, all at once or, better, one day at a time (2-3 minutes).Good Night Podcast (Destiny)
Every week we explore a different topic of dreamy, wondrous and miraculous realities usually not on people’s mind because they are often taken for granted, neglected, even ignored by our mind.
1. Extraordinary Living with Ordinary Means
2. Extraordinary Meals with Ordinary Ingredients
3. Extraordinarily Active through Ordinary Routines
4. Extraordinary Chaos into Ordinary Order
5. Failure and Success Hell to Heaven
6. Zero to Infinity Everything from Nothing
7. Every Moment Eternal Life Destiny, Now
WRITTEN BY
Doc Tak
Tak C. Poon, MD, PharmD, ABIHM, FACC
Board-certified American Preventive Cardiologist now developer of a wellness blog and a lifestyle habit-forming app at www.metacardio.org
Readers’ Out-of-Sight Insights:
I would love to post any valuable ideas or teachable moments you might want to share in this Destiny series.