How Can We Stay Healthy in a Busy World?
This is a diary of the healthy lifestyle goals that my son, Chris, and I are making together each month. Since it takes 21-30 days to develop a new habit, making a goal for the month ahead is an effective strategy.
The buddy system is one of the main ways to get motivated. I’ve always found that if I say out loud to someone what I plan on doing, I’m more likely to do it. Because if I say I will, I feel responsible to follow through.
Age doesn’t matter. It’s never too late. You can always make progress and actually reverse the signs of aging!
Chris has My Fitness Pal app on his phone but hasn’t used it in a long time. He started thinking it might be a good idea to use it over the next month so that he can strike a balance between healthy foods and good-tasting foods.
I wanted to increase my water intake to six glasses a day. My plan was to carry a refillable water bottle with me whenever I was leaving the house.
Here’s how we did:
Chris’s Goal: To Balance Healthy Foods & Good-tasting Foods
The same as last month, Chris concluded that he did alright but not good enough in his opinion. He wants to do better. Snacks were his downfall.
During the last two months in question, he has been working on two big projects at once:
- producing and starring in a play on Theater Row Off Broadway in New York City called “Raising Jo” the week of June 5th, and
- acting and consulting in an independent movie.
So Chris has been running around the city more than usual, which means having meals off schedule and just grabbing what he can find. Snacks have to bridge the gap, and they tend to be fast foods which we all know are not the healthiest. And being busy every minute of the day, he hardly stopped to check My Fitness Pal to help with his food goals.
As an actor, Chris is very particular about his diet and exercise. Since Chris and I have been making health goals together every month for the last couple of years, he has acquired some excellent dietary habits. So now he feels disappointed when he eats foods that don’t live up to his new standards.
For instance, he had a Chinese meal one evening and felt very bad about it. When I asked why, he said the chicken was fried and the rice is carbs which he tries to avoid.
The good thing is that Chris stuck with his exercise program the first three weeks of the month, despite his hectic schedule. He spends at least an hour at the gym or running outdoors almost every day. The last week of the month is coming up to the opening of his play though, so he didn’t get to the gym as much.
Now with all this pressure overwhelming him, Chris has been becoming more and more exhausted. His goal for next month is to sleep, sleep, sleep! And he says he needs to take a vacation to a sunny place, too.
His play runs the week of June 5th, so I suggested he take cat naps until the play ends. That always helped me get through grueling schedules. After that, he can crash!
My Goal: To Drink 6 Glasses of Water Daily
I did much better than last month, which was the first time I had ever tried to drink enough water. I was pitifully bad about drinking water throughout my entire life. I never paid attention to it at all. But at least I discovered that teas are water-based and do count as drinking water, because I regularly drink herbal teas.
Most days this past month I succeeded in my goal of drinking six glasses of water a day. At first I was getting to five, but as the month went on it became easier to complete six. Actually, I didn’t measure exactly and my usual drinking glass holds a cup and a half so I probably had six or more glasses when I thought it was less. The last week, I definitely had more than six. It has become a habit to keep score on how many glasses I have.
I had included in my goal a plan for carrying a refillable water bottle with me whenever I left the house, but that did not happen. I did that one time, and that was it. I was always forgetting to pack one and would end up picking up some water or herbal tea on my way to places.
Now that I feel I have a healthy new habit, I am going back to build upon old health habits that have been falling by the wayside. Namely, I need to get back to regular exercise. It has been a busy month for me, too, and I have been saving my exercise for the end of the day which didn’t work out successfully. :/
Every summer, I love to go outdoors to swim. Since I work (on this blog; it’s a labor of love), I go out once a week. Last year it rained a lot, preventing me from going out to swim every week. I made up the days I missed at an indoor pool in the fall. I’ve never gone to an indoor pool during the summer, but if the weather is bad for swimming outdoors again this summer I resolve to just swim indoors to keep on schedule. At least it’s still refreshing, even if it’s not the same experience as the beautiful outdoors. Since it’s just not the same, if I don’t make it to an indoor pool during the bad weather I’ll have to aim for an extra day outdoors. We’ll see how it goes!
I guess it’s just the season for water for me. 😀
On the days I don’t swim in the summer, I go out walking or do at-home exercises at least every other day.
Next month, Chris’s goal is to sleep and take a vacation to a sunny place. My goal is to swim once a week; if the weather gets in the way, I intend to swim indoors or on an extra day when it gets sunny again.
Do you drink at least six glasses of water a day? Are you a pro at it? Do you carry a refillable water bottle with you wherever you go? How do you remember it? Do you have any tips for us?
What do you do in order to eat a healthy diet when your schedule is hectic and you’re on the road all day? This is an ongoing problem for a budding young actor in the big city. Please do give us your tips in the comments below!
Like this post? To read other entries in my Health Goal Diary, click here to browse past topics.
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Our health is our wealth! A vegan lifestyle makes my heart happy and healthy. I’m healthy as a horse and dance everyday to keep fit. Water is the best beverage, let’s raise a glass–cheers to your health! 🙂
Life is good! 🙂
❤️carmen
Lifelong health is beautiful. I love that you dance for fitness. Since I am drinking so much water now, I have naturally cut down on wine without effort (one of my previous goals was to do that and the habit of a glass of wine each day kept recurring :D)