Healthy Mode: Revision Wonderzine develops good habits
We all from time to time try to train ourselves to useful: we go for a run at eight in the morning, and then we wake up half the day, mentally say goodbye to fast food and the next day we eat a huge pizza, decide to go to bed early, but suddenly the new season of the beloved series comes out, and the evening, to put it mildly, is delayed. To understand that a healthy lifestyle is “not spam and really works” (well, or does not work), we need a systematic approach, but it lacks time, strength, money, but mostly patience and self-control. Within two weeks we checked on ourselves the most popular rules of healthy lifestyles and honestly told us what came of it.
Refuse from coffee, Coca-Cola and energy
I got a refusal of caffeine, but you could drink a cup of tea a day, which I did only three times. Before that, I drank from two to four cans of power engineers daily. My love for them started by chance: once I made a mistake that everyone ever do - entered the wrong number in the vending machine and got a red bull instead of a chocolate bar. I liked his taste so much that I replaced them with many drinks and water. With the refusal of coffee and cola, things were much simpler: I drank both of them no more than three times a week.
Before the start of the experiment, I climbed into Google to see what was waiting for me. I was promised headaches, decreased appetite and increased thirst at first, and then - improved sleep, well-being and relief from anxiety. On the first day I went to study the store shelves near the office
for something interesting without caffeine. Sadly noting the appearance of the red sugar-free bull, which I like very much, I picked up some kind of drink with aloe. He was not bad, but after drinking it, I still felt that something was missing. When I returned for a can of something else, a young man at the cash register asked me: "But what about the power engineer? ..."
In the store, I took some kind of drink with aloe, and when I returned for something else, a young man at the cashier asked: "What about the energy drink? ..."
By the evening of the third day, my head began to hurt badly. When I finally got to the house, the pain became quite unbearable, and even the pill did not ease my suffering. The only thing that helped me was to go to bed, for the first time in many, many years a couple of hours earlier than after midnight. Despite the early retreat, getting up in the morning the next day was insanely hard, but waking up in the mornings for me since childhood was a great test of willpower. During the whole first week I felt rather sleepy, but did not die - instead of a can of energy or a cup of coffee, I chose a ten-minute walk, a chocolate bar or a little procrastination. My productivity declined: it was difficult to take on big business, concentrate and do everything quickly. Headaches periodically, once every two or three days, returned. It was terrible, because the only thing that helped me in the very beginning was sleep. By the second half of the experiment, the head did not hurt so much, and the citramona pill was enough to begin to live, not to exist.
My experiment lasted even a little longer than planned, since I caught a cold and stayed at home for a couple of days with water and tea. I do not feel any serious changes in myself. I began to eat a little less, drink a little more, I also like sleeping and a cot. True, now I don’t remember about the energy sector at all until I see them. Perhaps this can be compared with attachment to a person, which disappears some time after separation. What was strange to me was that I missed coffee much more. This was the first thing I bought on a cold morning after the end of the experiment.
Meditate for 20 minutes a day
In meditation, I have always been frightened off by the flure of "spirituality," but this prejudice still keeps me from practicing yoga. I understand that both practices are, first of all, training for the mind and body, that they are not obliged to be accompanied by the repetition of mantras, stirring up incense sticks and, all the more, supported by religious teachings, but I can’t do anything, or rather, I didn’t even try to help myself. More interesting was to step over his snobbery. Adherents of meditation and scientists promise that regular classes help to combat anxiety, improve sleep and concentration, develop empathy and generally increase stress resistance. Exactly what is needed.
It is believed that for greater efficiency you need to meditate for at least 15 minutes a day. I stopped at 20 minutes and chose two popular applications for classes - Calm and Headspace. Both have a limited set of free lessons of various lengths and directions: from simple relaxing meditation to practices that aim to:
teach a kinder and more careful attitude to yourself and others. In Calm, a woman talked to me and you could choose background sounds, and in Headspace, the man gave instructions in silence, and before the lesson they showed a short educational cartoon about brain work.
The most difficult was to find a place for meditation: for the first lesson I had to hide in the bathroom
The most difficult thing was to find a place for meditation: for the first lesson I had to hide in the bathroom - there was no other space where I could stay alone for half an hour. In order not to waste time and freeze, I plunged into a warm bath. Another time, she settled right on the floor in a lotus position, huddled somewhere between a washing machine, a plunger and cleaning products. Comfortable such a place can not be called, but then I was surprisingly comfortable. It is believed that during meditation it is worthwhile to allow thoughts to come and go without hindrance, not to develop them, but instead focus on the breathing and sensations in the body. It's not easy to do, and I'm still not sure what I am doing. But there is no doubt that after 20 minutes of even, deep breathing, I feel better: calmer, lighter and even more cheerful.
Over time, I moved to meditate in the room on the sofa, where I was immediately surrounded by dachshunds from all sides, and the husband playing in the Destiny ceased to distract from the practice. I want to think that this is also the result of regular classes - that I began to concentrate a little better. Almost every time I manage to relax: I notice this by the way the tension in the cervical region goes away and the head is thrown back a little, so you have to make a little effort over yourself so that it does not lie back - something like this happens when you fall asleep on a plane or car. As for applications, I liked the Headspace approach more: funny, simple, practical, as if doing gymnastics, but for the brain.
I am sure that you can not develop a habit through force. If you are unpleasant, boring and have to force yourself, nothing happens, leave this case right away. Therefore, I arranged for myself “time off” when I was inconvenient to meditate (I urgently needed to go to visit and drink wine) or I felt bad (after meditating on the bathroom floor I came down with ARVI). I didn't blame myself for that. I am not sure that I will continue to meditate daily, but I will definitely leave this habit with me for days when I urgently need to indulge or when I just want to sit quietly on the couch alone with myself and breathe deeply.
Go to bed at the same time, one hour before bedtime, stop using electronic devices
On the rights of the editor of the material, I chose the habit I had long dreamed of acquiring, on the sly: the rest, and so on, with me — apart from giving up coffee (even though I sometimes get anxious about it). We have already written about the importance of sleep quality and how to improve it. It is promised that by learning to fall asleep at the same time, you can adjust the daily rhythms and, as a result, feel more cheerful. Falling asleep easier and faster will help, among other things, to refuse to use the phone, computer, tablet and other devices, the radiation from which the brain perceives as sunlight.
I didn’t want to set unachievable goals, so it was decided to go to bed around 23:30, and an hour before that I would tie up with the Internet and my own texts. On the first evening, I obediently removed the laptop and the phone to hell - I do not keep other gadgets. She took the book Zadie Smith, abandoned in the summer, and remembered how well she could be on the couch - with hot tea and without notifications about messages. Running Ahead: Just-read Zadie Smith and Edward Fraenkel's nauchpop "Love and Math" became a major achievement
an experiment. Since I am writing my dissertation on literature, I read little “random” books for pleasure: in rare free hours I want to talk to real people, drink wine, or just lay down. And during these two weeks I looked through all the Taschen albums and a bunch of different artbooks, many of which remained intact from the date of purchase.
When I started the experiment, for some reason I expected that everything would stop being sick at once, and the psyche would become iron.
On the second evening of the experiment, I read with joy again. The third meeting was scheduled with a friend in a bar, but it turned out that I was freed at 11 pm and was already asleep by midnight, which means that I almost did not retreat from the rule. In the morning it was a little easier to wake up, but I didn’t notice any other changes. At some point I, of course, began to violate the conditions: the walk would be delayed, the department would require an urgent report (do not wake up for this at six in the morning). Sometimes none of the paper books fit and just wanted to re-read a piece of Limonov's Edichka from a laptop for the maintenance of mental strength for the night, and in the next tab there was a Facebook feed from time to time. One fine night, insomnia overtook me, which used to happen only once, and I did not sleep until half past five in the morning. From this, the regime was a little broken, and gradually the stubbornness faded away, giving way to life. Dawn was later, and wake up - harder. Later woke up - later went to bed.
I did not scold myself for failures and, when it was possible, continued to follow the rule. Not for the sake of minimizing the error in the experiment and not out of guilt (it came after the expiration of the term) - I just suddenly saw the result. When I decided to adjust the regime, for some reason I expected that everything would stop being sick at once, and the psyche would become iron. Naturally, none of this happened, but there was a direct effect, for the sake of which scientists recommend to sleep “correctly”: I felt cheerful all day. Even falling asleep at two in the morning and getting up at eight in the morning is probably a cumulative effect. Earlier in the afternoon, I wildly wanted to sleep, but now I have enough energy until late evening.
I really want to continue to control the regime. From time to time, even the feeling of guilt is turned on before one's own eyes and other organs: why read the reviews of the Shimmers and check the instagram at half past one in the night - there is nothing to do? In general, I plan to finally buy a Kindle with a non-aggressive backlight and bury it under a blanket in the evenings.
Avoid foods with added sugar.
For the experiment, I had to give up all the food in the production of which sugar is used, only the products in which it is naturally contained should be included in the diet. For example, I could pour cottage cheese with honey (it is a pity that I hate honey), but there are honey flakes - no. The conditions sounded depressing, but in practice everything is not so scary: I had to refuse mainly from flour, convenience foods, fast food, ketchup and other ready-made sauces, sugary drinks and desserts. This is quite a reasonable and healthy approach to nutrition. Limit foods with added sugar and nutritionists recommend: simple carbohydrates in large quantities are serious harm. I did not set myself the task of completely abandoning sugar (I am sure that without him I would quickly collapse from fatigue). In addition, I did not observe the daily rate very much: for breakfast or lunch, I usually ate bananas, in which there is quite a lot of it.
It quickly turned out that sugar is added everywhere — even to where it would not seem necessary: in canned corn, fish mousse, sausages, or pasta with shrimps. Because of this, due to inattention, I violated the conditions of the experiment a couple of times. The most difficult thing is that it is impossible to be confident in the composition of the food that you are not preparing yourself. The manufacturer of cereal and dried fruit bars proudly says that sugar does not add to the products, but we certainly cannot know this - dried fruits can be made with or without added sugar. In general, it was necessary to choose uniquely "safe" options. In the cafe
I took the salad for the first time in my life without a dressing, and on a visit to my friends I seized hummus, a pack of fresh carrots and nuts, so as not to be tempted by the chips. But without sugar in my body, I endured alcohol much better - I drank dry wine and almost did not feel intoxicated, and in the morning I felt fresh as never before.
It quickly became clear that sugar is added everywhere — even where it would not seem necessary
I expected that in the course of the experiment my eyes would no longer swell in the mornings (but no - apparently, one must also go to bed at the time) and I will feel a bit more cheerful (it happened, although the effect was not immediately noticeable). True, the first time I somehow terribly wanted to eat - perhaps this is a psychological moment, and maybe earlier, due to snacking on sandwiches and sweet, I did not notice how much I actually eat. It also seemed that due to the experiment, the tooth enamel became lighter, and, although this is a subjective feeling, I am sure that the condition of the teeth without sugar is only improving. Refusal from sugar requires first of all awareness and self-control - if you are okay with this, it is not difficult to cope. On the first day of the experiment, I refused burgers, which, in honor of my birthday, was brought to the office by our art director Nikita, and then declined the invitation for a piece of cake, although I terribly love sweets.
During the experiment, I finally stopped eating breakfast with sandwiches, began to eat less sweet (I hope to finally get rid of this addiction) and, it seems, even unnoticed for myself, I lost a little weight, although I didn’t strive for it at all. It turned out that if you spend a little more time searching for ingredients without sugar, you can cook almost all the dishes I'm used to. I don’t think that I can completely abandon the products with added sugar (can you resist pizza at a party with friends?), But I hope to finally begin to more consciously approach the diet - it never hurts.
Drink two liters of water per day.
I have always been surprised that the issue of water causes fierce disputes. Can I drink during exercise? Is it necessary to compensate for coffee with water? How much water is allowed to drink while eating? Personally, I decided everything for myself: I don’t feel like I’m about to drink, and I’m not forcing myself. This causes genuine horror in many people, so usually I just do not support the theme of water, if it arises. Aggressive water adepts around a lot more than it seems. They like to give unsolicited advice and exclaim every time: “You don't like fruit and don't drink water yet? Is there something wrong with you?” I associate this with a general "healthy" boom, the radical manifestations of which personally frighten me. Nutritional rules that contradict each other, tons of books about a healthy lifestyle, green bloggers, raising their lifestyles to the ultimate truth - I do not think that this leads to a bright future.
I don’t have a cooler at home, I don’t buy water for a walk and in the sense of taste for me there is no difference between Vittel and the "Holy Spring". At the same time, I do not think that I am less healthy than others. It is believed that if you drink a lot of water, you can adjust the water balance in the body and, as a result, improve the condition of the skin, as well as maintain your metabolism and even get rid of headaches. Drink as much water as possible and advise those who control nutrition.
This is understandable: there are no calories in the water, and it gives an artificial sensation of saturation. "If you want to eat, drink some water." Nevertheless, there is not a single qualitative research that would prove that two liters of water per day is an obligatory norm of a healthy person, and it is not clear if this norm exists at all.
There is not a single serious study that has proven that two liters of water a day is a must.
If it were not for this experiment, I would hardly have begun to drink water. Whether I would feel better, whether the weight or the condition of the skin will change - perhaps this is what I wanted to find out first. The best part is that around me there were those who sincerely wanted to help: I was advised to dilute the water with cinnamon, drink it with lemon, try more different types and much more. C unaccustomed to it turned out that I drank half a liter of water in the morning and tried to fit the remaining one and a half almost before bedtime. Naturally, after such a quantity of liquid drunk, I could not immediately go to bed. Later, I changed tactics and began to drink water in the office - where I spend the most time.
To be honest, the feeling that I literally choke on water did not let me go until the very end, and I literally counted the days until the end of the experiment. В какой-то момент мне стало казаться, что моя кожа стала слишком хорошо выглядеть для этого времени года, но, проанализировав ситуацию, поняла, что, возможно, дело скорее в новых патчах Shiseido, чем в двух литрах чистой питьевой воды. Хочу сказать, не поменялось ровным счётом ничего, кроме настроения. Обязанность пить воду давила на меня психологически, это не абы какой вызов. Я бы не хотела это повторять - разве что если бы кто-то на научном уровне доказал, что от огромного количества воды моя жизнь станет качественно лучше.In the meantime, I, perhaps, will return to the old installation: if you don’t want something, you don’t have to force yourself.
Exercise regularly
My mission was to do a ten-minute exercise every morning and spend an hour workout three or four times a week. I will say right away that I did a total of six “big” workouts: apparently, this is my limit, because for the fourth lesson a week there was neither strength nor time. Everyone knows that it is cool to go in for sports regularly: a lot of publications - from scientific to glossy - lead dozens of arguments in favor of morning exercises: physical fitness, healthy heart and blood vessels, vigor, good skin condition. Recently, scientists have found that an hour of physical activity each day reduces the risk of premature death, so that anyone who plans to catch the second half of the century should more often get up from the couch.
“Yoga Federation” is located two steps away from my house, but in six months I reached it zero times. Because I really appreciated the situation and decided that I would be at home. I didn’t have to go far for a training guide - I discovered our material in which girls talk about their favorite YouTube channels for fitness, and chose two: Superhero Fitness with fun
Kira Lashe’s workouts and the Boho Beautiful yoga channel with exercises of varying degrees of intensity against the backdrop of tropical landscapes. Lasha's trainings are short and lethal, so after them I switched to yoga: when the muscles are already heated with dances and squats, the “pigeon posture” and other asanas for thigh disclosures, which I usually do not get, are much better.
In home workouts, a lot of advantages: no need to think about what to wear, no one will look at you, and a couple of meters separate you from the shower
In home training there are a lot of advantages: no need to think about what to wear, no one will look at you, a couple of meters separate you from the shower with all the necessary banks, and if something is not clear, you can rewind and look at the explanation again. I already had a yoga mat (I managed to get covered with dust), so I didn’t have to buy additional equipment. In the second week of the experiment, my boyfriend brought a strange stepper simulator from his parents. I used it twice: it turned out that this thing is well combined with watching the series.
The effect of the experiment was quite predictable: yes, charging in the morning makes me a person much faster than sticking in the phone, yes, after it is not so cold and I do not really want to go back under the covers. I did not notice any serious changes in the body, although there is an opinion that my butt has diminished. At the same time, my hands became a little stronger: before, I could be wrung out from the floor zero times, and now there are as many as three. With all my strength I will try to consolidate the habit of doing yoga exercises - of all the ways to start a weekday, this seems to be the most painless.
Cooking healthy breakfast every day
It's great that I got the task of cooking breakfasts, because I don’t know anything about my diet - it seems that when I am hungry I just eat everything edible that happens to be near. This, frankly, does not lead to anything good: most often I arrange one full meal a day and 50 snacks, therefore I always risk either eating, or not eating. So, a little more than two weeks, I cooked my breakfast.
Two obvious trends emerged in the first couple of days - oatmeal required attention and time, and I was late for work, but the energy and ability to concentrate became noticeably more. But there is one thing (this is the second tendency): the need to cook in the mornings inhumanly infuriates, and since I refused to generously sprinkled with sugar, I had to choose between healthy food and a clean stove - I must say, in favor of the first. By the fifth day, I guessed that oatmeal with yogurt or an omelet can be cooked in the evening, then in the morning it remains only to crawl to the refrigerator. Repeatedly
I tried to make a sandwich, but because of the morning rush it turns out to be an incredible freak that does not cause him to eat it. Lightly fry the bread (not lightly - I fell asleep on the chair and everything burned down), mash the avocado, find that the neighbors ate your cheese at night and get upset - too many experiences to start the day.
The power mode is an intuitive thing, and you should not follow it strictly according to popular recommendations.
I know that I don’t want to eat much in the morning, especially for those who are always sleepless like me, but during the day the appetite grows, and in the evening a grandiose zhor happens, causing insomnia. In general, breaking the vicious circle of an impressive breakfast helps. The most modern protein breakfasts didn’t suit me very much: the naughty shakshuka in the morning made me want to immediately go to the chill-out, and not to start a vigorous working day. The breakfast queen is ascetic oatmeal: I have always loved her, and during these two (hellish) weeks I loved even more. In oatmeal, you can always mix nuts or fruit, it does not irritate my touchy stomach and is indeed doping for the next four hours.
Unfortunately, in the morning I need (or want) calories more than can fit in me in the form of oatmeal, so in the last three days I switched to a ruddy baguette with butter and have no regrets. This does not save from a midday sandwich, but eating in the evenings has become very rare - a few hours before bedtime, fairly harmless drinks or fruits. It is not necessary to stuff food into myself every day at 09:00 - after two weeks of sampling, I found out that before 11 am I don’t want to eat well. This is how a midday sandwich came into my life: apparently, the body has already come to terms with the fact that it will not go to sleep, and naturally requires you to fill the firebox at the same time.
The joy of the first week of overcoming oneself has been replaced by the understanding that the diet is an intuitive thing, and it is not worth observing it strictly according to popular recommendations: it is very disturbing and does not add well-being. But the non-violent introduction of the habit of eating tightly in the morning I liked it and even seemed to succeed. Power mode does not work completely without sleep mode and physical activity, and with this I have not so much a problem, but a completely missing relationship. But if I know when, how much and what I eat, I can answer for my conscience with burgers and donuts. Overeating, resulting from an imbalance in meals, is now easier to distinguish from the desire to pamper yourself.
Walk 8 thousand steps a day
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends active movement, such as walking, at least 150 minutes a week in addition to sports training to maintain health. In practice, this recommendation usually takes the form of advice to do every day at least 8, or even 10 thousand steps. For some, such a rate seems nonsense - one way to work for many takes a lot of strength. But there are others - those who sit almost all day (and then also lie all night). I take the last: it so happened that I live very close to work and spend the lion's share of time on it. For me to go on a weekday more than a couple of thousand steps is a real feat, although I really like to walk and whenever possible I always choose the hiking route. You need to do this: a long sitting in the same position will not give anything good.
At first my task sounded like this: to do 8 thousand steps a day and to go out for a short walk during the working day. I failed the second part of the plan right away - my work does not allow me to be distracted for a long time. But I did not lose hope: I installed Google Fit, I determined my goal and started to fulfill the norm. It is believed that the steps I need take 40 minutes a day. Either the application does not know how to count, or I walk slowly, but it took less than half an hour to cover the required distance. So, I diligently moved: at the cottage
in the rain, back and forth, along a short lighted street, through the cold around the district, through squares and alleys. Every day, despite hunger, cold or fatigue, I measured my five kilometers, even if it meant that I would get home closer to ten o'clock in the evening.
For me to go on a weekday more than a couple of thousand steps - a real feat.
The latter became the main problem, since all my time was spent on working and walking. Monitoring health is important, but partly meaningless when there is no more strength left for anything. Walking is nevertheless very pleasant: it's nice to knead the body, it's nice to meet local dogs day after day (now I know where a very cute pug walks), it's nice to look around and unload my head. I often included a favorite podcast as an accompaniment - and time flew by.
Meanwhile, the application reported flattering statistics: according to his calculations, I was more active than 84% of the population of Moscow (many people do not even suspect that they have Google Fit, which literally follows every step). It prompted me no less than the cherished circles with a tick. The main thing that I understood is that one small decision leads immediately to many changes. For two weeks I didn’t feel healthier or sportier, but I ate outside the house instead of ordering pizza, went to the store to cook at home, escorted my friends to the subway, talking with him more than usual. And this is a good result, agree.