61. It is cheap for people to talk about their values, goals, rules, and lifestyle. When people’s actions contradict their talk, pay attention!
Rather than start the year, as many bloggers do, by listing resolutions or new goals, I’ll heed the above advice and point you instead towards its source. 100 Tips for a Better Life contains many nuggets of gold, from general philosophies to specific tips.
As the tagline for HealthShift is physical, mental, and financial health for shift workers, I’ll preview the article with a few tips that fall into the above:
Food actually can be both cheap, healthy, tasty, and relatively quick to prepare. All it requires is a few hours one day to prepare many meals for the week.
Human mood and well-being are heavily influenced by simple things: Exercise, good sleep, light, being in nature. It’s cheap to experiment with these.
Done is better than perfect. (Relates to nearly everything but a retirement plan is a good example)
And I particularly like this one:
If you’re under 90, try things.
It’s easy to get stuck in our comfort zones and avoid new experiences. But life is short and regret is a bitch.
Of course, there are two types of regret. Regret for the things we have done, but wish we hadn’t. And regret for the things we wish we had done, but didn’t.
Research shows we are more likely to experience the latter.
Try things.
100 Tips For A Better Life | ideopunk
Know Thyself
New year, new you. Sure, it’s cliche to talk about resolutions and changing for the better as we head into 2021. But we all have goals we’d like to achieve. A new year is as good an excuse as any to spur action. So how do we ensure our chosen habits stick?
Know thyself.
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to habit formation. People are different. And so we require different strategies (rewards, accountability, change in environment, etc.). Here are some tips to help you figure out what will work best for you.
Want to Master an Important Habit in 2021? Here’s an Important Clue About How to Be Successful | Gretchin Rubin
Better Get Moving
If your new year’s resolution is to lose weight, can you do it with exercise alone? Yes, but it won’t be easy. A new study suggests that we can remodel our appetite hormones and lose weight by burning at least 3000 calories per week. That means working out six days a week for up to an hour.
Regardless of whether you can commit to such a plan, the message is clear: the more we move, the better.
To Lose Weight With Exercise, Aim for 300 Minutes a Week | New York Times
Sleeping in Shifts
Getting enough sleep every night (or day) is challenging, to say the least. Although we’ve all been told we need a continuous 7 to 9 hours of sleep every 24-hour period, there’s evidence some of our ancestors did things differently.
Throughout history, there have been numerous accounts of segmented sleep, from medical texts, to court records and diaries, and even in African and South American tribes, with a common reference to “first” and “second” sleep.
Interestingly, the appearance of sleep maintenance insomnia in the literature in the late 19th century coincides with the period where accounts of split sleep start to disappear. Thus, modern society may place unnecessary pressure on individuals that they must obtain a night of continuous consolidated sleep every night, adding to the anxiety about sleep and perpetuating the problem.
This isn’t to suggest that bi-phasic sleep is best, simply that it’s a viable alternative. It may even offer some advantages, particularly to shift workers.
Humans Used to Sleep in Two Shifts, And Maybe We Should Start It Again | Science Alert
Stay healthy-
Jason Glenn