Ten Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living Part 10 || Port Alberni Investment Advisor

The last goal in this series of Ten Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living is about our need for spiritual renewal.  This isn’t necessarily about any religious belief, but more about our need to take the time to participate in activities that renew our spirit.  If you’ve ever read any of  Deepak Chopra’s writings, you will know that our spirit is another way of looking at who you are.  Our spirit is what’s inside us and makes us who we are.  Our brains and bodies sometimes get in the way of letting us get in touch with our spirit or inner self.  We are so busy talking, thinking, working, and moving to and fro in our daily lives, that we often don’t stop to renew our spirit.  Reading, praying, meditating and singing are all ways that we can renew our spirit.  We slow our minds down and become more relaxed.  It is then that we can let go of stress and allow our spirits to soar.  In summary the ten lifestyle goals for healthy living are:

1.  Get enough rest every day

2.  Exercise regularly

3.  Eat your fruits and veggies!

4.  Eat whole-grain breads and cereals

5.  Choose healthy fats in your diet

6.  Achieve and maintain a healthy weight

7.  Don't smoke!  Be free of dependence on alcohol & drugs

8.  Maintain a positive attitude and cheerful out look on life

9.  Spend quality time with family and friends

10.Renew your spirit on a daily basis

Make the pledge to yourself that you will take the time to make your personal physical and mental well-being a top priority in your life, and you will enjoy a healthy lifestyle!  There is only one you, and only one life for you to live.  Live it well!

Photos by Stirling Images Photography

Ten Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living Part 9 || Port Alberni Investment Advisor

In this ninth post for Ten Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living, I want to remind you about the importance of spending quality time with family and friends – every day!  Quality time means different things to different people.  Only you can decide what ads quality to your life but the general characteristics of a person who spends quality time is someone who lives their life to the fullest.  A person who works hard, but maintains a balance between work and leisure will make time to enjoy doing the things they like most.  This is quality time.  When you can achieve this balance, you will be happy with yourself and your life, and this attitude will have a positive spin-off effect on everything you do.  Make the most of this life of yours and try to live it with as few regrets as possible.  Live and spend time with your heart.  Our relationships with the people in our lives can give us some of the greatest joys we will ever experience.  In order to enjoy healthy living, we must make time for what’s most important in our lives so that we feel our life is not one of drudgery, but one that is fulfilling, enriching and full of joy!  Here are some photos of  people enjoying some quality time together.

Photos by Stirling Images Photography

Ten Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living Part 8 || Port Alberni Investment Advisor

Your attitude is everything!  In this eighth post on goals for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, we are going to look at how important it is to maintain a positive, cheerful and hopeful outlook on life.  Our thoughts, attitudes and points of view are created in our minds, and this has a direct impact on the world we see around us.  It colours or shades our judgment.  It is our own personal world of attitude, and it affects everything in our daily lives.  If we consciously monitor our attitudes to be positive in all that we do, we will be happier and healthier as a result.  Attitude impacts everything we do – our approach to our education, job, money, our relationships with people, circumstances we face, the way we handle failure or success, our appearance, and just about every experience we have.   Each and every day, as we live, work and play, we are faced with choices.  It is the attitude that we embrace that can put either a positive or negative spin on our experiences.  We can’t change the way other people around us behave, but we can change our attitude in our dealings with them.  We can’t change the problems and conflicts that cross our path, but a positive attitude will make us stronger and happier.  One way to put things into perspective is to think about how lucky you are compared to the majority of the rest of the people in this world.  And if you don’t believe you are lucky, take a look at how people on the other side of the globe live.  Our lives are rich compared to 90% of the rest of the world.  So think about that that the next time you find yourself feeling down and put-out about the problems or conflicts you face.  You are in charge of your attitude, and your attitude can shape your life.  Someone once said that life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.  Here are two quotes that I would like to share with you as food for thought.  The first is from Martha Washington (wife of President George Washington).  "I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself, for I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstances, but by our decision."  The second quote is from Scottish writer, Thomas Carlyle.  "Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen." It’s in our best interest to smile and maintain a happy, cheerful disposition as often as we can.  We will be happier and may experience more success in whatever we do.  Here are some happy (and not so happy) faces to share with you.

Photos by Stirling Images Photography

Ten Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living: Part 7 || Port Alberni Investment Advisor

This is the seventh post on Lifestyle Goals for Healthy Living, but it is perhaps one of the most important ones - smoking, alcohol and drug abuse.  A lifestyle that includes these things is not a healthy one. In the first quarter of the last century, smoking was considered glamorous and sophisticated.  Today, it is well-known that smoking, alcohol and drug abuse contribute to ill health, and ultimately, early demise.  We need to be free of these unhealthy lifestyle habits in order to enjoy the benefits of healthy living.  Let’s take a look at smoking.  According to statistics provided by Health Canada, in 2000, 25% of Canadian teens age 15 to 19 years were smokers.  According to the World Health Organization, over 100 million deaths in the 20^th century can be directly attributed to smoking. The good news is that the numbers of Canadian smokers is slowly, but steadily declining.  The negative health benefits of smoking have been been promoted in a wide range of media campaigns in an effort to get people to stop smoking.  Cigarette manufacturers in Canada are now forced to carry picture-based warnings on their packages and laws now require smokers to light up outside of cafes, restaurants and bars.  Despite this, approximately one fifth of Canadians still call themselves smokers.  Have you ever examined what’s in a cigarette?  It’s quite disturbing.  There are approximately 4000 chemicals in a cigarette, including carbon monoxide, ammonia, cadmium and arsenic. If you were offered to consume any of these chemicals individually, you’d flat out refuse.  If a friend asked you to go out to the garage with them and breathe the carbon monoxide from a running automobile, just for kicks, you’d think your friend was suicidal.  But the fact is, if you are a smoker, you are taking a similar risk, albeit in smaller doses over a longer period of time, every time you puff on a cigarette.   According to Health Canada, Canadian teenagers smoke 1.6 billion cigarettes every year, with a cost of $330 billion per year.  Approximately 37,000 Canadians die every year of illnesses related to smoking, which is equivalent to all murders, alcohol-related deaths, car accidents and suicides combined.  That is a startling statistic!  If you are a smoker who wants to get healthy, and live longer, you need to make a serious effort to quit smoking.  After two days, your taste and smell will begin to improve.  Within three months, your lung function improves. After a year, your risk of heart attack diminishes by 50%.  Within 10 years, you have cut your risk of dying from lung cancer by 50%.  In order to write this blog, I decided to a purchase a pack of cigarettes, to check out the new packaging requirements.  I bought the cheapest package I could find, but it was still almost $8.00 for one package which means that a one-pack-a-day smoker is spending $240 a month on cigarettes!  The package had both some rather dire warnings and a graphic photograph on the package.  It was enough to frighten me from wanting to even light one up!  Here are some cigarette-smoking photos (to remind you just how glamorous it ISN'T), and some beautiful scenic photos to remind you just how beautiful life is.    If you don’t love yourself enough to quit smoking, think about the other people in your life that you do love, and do it for them.

Photos by Stirling Images Photography