Monday, May 29, 2006

Health: Breaking the habit

There is a famous saying: Humans are creatures of habit. Maintaining health is part of human activity and hence is a habit. But there is also another famous saying Old habits die hard. The two sayings together indicate us potentials as well as traps. First saying indicates we can achieve things by habituating them and once done they are hard to break.

So for better health, we have to break a lot of habits like
  • Being lazy (eg. not workingout regularly)
  • No physical activity immediately after eating (eg. sitting comfortably after eating)
  • Underestimating calorie facts about food (eg. when nutrition facts are missing)
  • Being embarrased for looking at nutrition facts (eg. when buying or eating)
  • Being embarrased keeping track of your diet (eg. among friends)
  • Eating to reduce stress (eg. eating chips, nuts)
  • Eating when not needed (eg. not skipping dinner for an extravagant lunch)
  • Not considering snacks as a significant intake (eg. ignoring a pretzel/banana)
  • Qualifying food based on taste instead of nutrition facts (eg. Pepsi/Diet pepsi)
  • Not paying attention to popular warnings about health (eg. obesity/smoking)
  • Mishandling of achievements (eg. stopping workout for no reason because you know you can workout)

Though this post is intended to be a sequel to my health posts the power of habit is true for many aspects of life.

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