Part II - Health Roadmap

"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken"

That is the motto of my health road map. In my opinion, staying healthy is a by-product of lifelong healthy habits. I have seen many of my friends unsuccessfully try for several years establishing goals for workout schedules, goals for losing lbs, goals for diets, etc. Almost all of them failed every time (with some initial non-lasting success). Eventually I realized the failure did not lie in their discipline, but in the system they was trying to create to stay healthy. We are quantitative minds and tend to think of health in terms of numbers and figures (e.g., my weight should be x lbs, my body-fat index should be y%, and so on..). Though these are good numbers to measure your progress, they tend to make us short-sighted about health and the goals to achieve. Faltering from them is easy. So my goals for health are not quantitative but to continue on my healthy habits and to establish new ones. Below is my list of healthy habits I have and I wish to continue to grow on:

1. Early to Rise: To wake up at or just before sunrise. Sun has a lot of positive energy in its first rays. This secret has been known to many eastern cultures and they have capitalized on it for centuries. I have personally seen that exposing myself to the first rays on sunlight in the morning gives me a higher amount of energy all day long.
2. Early to Bed: In order to be early to rise, I need to be in bed appropriately. For me 6-8 hours of sleep is plenty and so hitting the sac by about 10pm works. Generally try and take a break from this once a week when I go out with my friends.
3. Disciplined Meal Timings: Scientifically, it has been proven that people who eat their meals at disciplined times have a much higher health quotient than others. Have experienced it myself and though I am not able to do it all the times, I plan to eventually be very disciplined about this habit.
4. No Over-Eating / Limited Over-Indulgences: Over-eating is the worst thing to do to your body. The ideal meal size is to get up from the table feeling just a tad hungry. Need to work on this a bit more.
5. Limit Alcohol Consumption: Too much alcohol (not talking about alcoholism here) destroys not only liver cells but also brain cells - making you a bit dumber every time! How true is that - it is debatable but in my mind it is true and so my alcohol consumption is going to be limited to once a week.
6. More Vegetarian Food: Another eastern concept - we are what we eat. Can't site any medical research but from my own experience, eating more vegetarian food makes mind calmer, happier and relaxed. Results may be different for different people but my experience is strong enough to work towards this goal.
7. Control of Thoughts: Filling mind with positive energy and positive thoughts and actively controlling flow of negative thoughts in my mind.