50+ Lifestyles

Health Minute with CASI

Fall into a Healthy Habit

We all have habits, good and bad that come out sometimes or on a daily basis. Some are easier to break then others and some can just be all around unhealthy for us mentally and physically. We can all have control over what we do; it’s a little thing I like to call “mind over matter.” Our mind can control our actions by performing a “good habit” or a “bad habit.” Enough stating the obvious. Let’s fall into a healthy habit.

Remember in school when we critiqued people using the three positives for every negative? Do this for your habits. For every bad habit you have, see if you have three good ones to counteract it. Grab a pen and paper and write down your 3-1 for these categories: Eating, Exercise & Education. Some of you may find there are more positives than negatives. Others may find their negatives are starting to over rule their positives.

By physically writing your habits down and seeing them, it will allow you to visually see what habits you should keep doing and what needs to be transformed into something new and healthy.

There are simple ways to adjust your habits for all three categories.

Eating:
• Start by making your portion sizes smaller for all your meals. This will allow you too still eat what you enjoy.
• Others may want to challenge themselves by starting a new diet by selecting more fruits and
vegetables or cutting back on certain items like carbohydrates or sugars.

Exercise routine:
• Adding healthy habits can be as simple as adding walking into your daily routine
• Adding hand weights, stretches
• Going to a new work out class: yoga, zumba, or tai chi. All these types of classes have
modifications for seniors to make it a safe plus effective exercise.

Education:

There are fun and social habits to increase your education to keep your mind young and active. Simple habits to get into are:
• Reading, joining a book club, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, painting
• Challenging yourself to learn a new language.

These are just a few choices to choose from to add more healthy habits into you daily lifestyles that aren’t strenuous or difficult. Just remember, bad habits aren’t broken overnight. You just need to keep reminding yourself about mind over matter and implement those new habits daily.

I challenge you to join me in adding three new healthy habits for this fall.