Eat and drink the right stuff

Healthy salmon salad, natural human food
© Ali Elangasinghe

The Happy Guide diet is a big step back to eating natural human foods — the foods we evolved to eat over millions of years; primarily fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, meat, poultry, seafood and eggs.

Our bodies thrive on these foods because they’re the foods we’re adapted to.

Some modern foods are allowed but the ones that cause the most damage — gluten grains and most dairy, need to be avoided by most people to be in the best of health.

A simple plan that gets the most out of your diet without feeling restrictive is a good way to go. And good diet habits means that preparing food becomes a no-brainer, and you get all the benefits without the stress. A typical day might be… Continue reading “Eat and drink the right stuff”

Exercise benefits list

Man jogging in park, getting exercise benefits
© Ed Yourdon

I came across this exercise benefits list today, and as I’ve been meaning to compile one, I thought I’d post it up.

I’ll add to it as I come across other benefits. It’s a great motivator — to just read the list and see all those benefits for your time and effort…

The biggest one isn’t there so I’ll mention it now — feeling good :-) Continue reading “Exercise benefits list”

Quantum leap or baby steps?

Baby steps, small changes
© Bill G

Sometimes it’s better to take a quantum leap (big change) and sometimes baby steps.

99% of the time though, baby steps are better.

That’s because your ability to follow through depends on your level of commitment.

Thinking about where you are right now — how committed are you? How much “backlash” are you willing to take?

If the answer to that is “not much” then baby steps are the way to go. If there’s no urgency to change, baby steps can still take you to a happy and healthy place, with very little in the way of discomfort.

It amazes me how time flies — the weeks go by quickly! If you make a little change each week then it soon mounts up… Continue reading “Quantum leap or baby steps?”

The best habit?

Listening, girl in field
© Egor Gribanov

I’ve been meaning to write something about this for a long time so here we go. Now this isn’t set in stone but it’s what I’m thinking at the moment. The best habit in the whole world EVER could well be…

LISTENING

And what I mean by that is “the perpetual awareness of the space in which thought happens.”

Most of us think WAY too much to be happy. If we’re lost in thought, we lose the present moment and hence our joy of life… Continue reading “The best habit?”

The secret to effective cardio

If you’re trying to get fit, you need to know that your workouts are effective. You can do this by monitoring the intensity…

Either by watching how hard you’re breathing, monitoring heart rate or by going by how hard you feel you’re working (Perceived Rate of Exertion – PRE).

Monitoring your heart rate is the simplest and most effective way to make sure that the exercise you’re doing is at the right intensity for you. The other two are more subjective methods that rely on judgments. For example, a common maxim is to train so you’re slightly out of breath — so you can still just about talk but not sing :-) Continue reading “The secret to effective cardio”

Why is there so much suffering in the world?

Why so much suffering in the world?
© Dhammza

Last night I was researching — like I do, a lot.

I was looking again at cancer — the causes, the solutions. Again it was crystal clear to me the enormity of human suffering as well as the enormity of the obstacles that face us.

Behind closed doors is where all this suffering takes place…

Families torn apart by children with cancer, folks unable to move from their bed because of obesity, massive rates of depression.

An astonishing 1 in 4 Americans suffer mental illness.

It all makes me so sad because 99% of all this suffering is totally avoidable and POINTLESS. If it has a point, it could be that it shows us where we’re going wrong but we sure are slow to wake up to the facts… Continue reading “Why is there so much suffering in the world?”

How to get rid of fear and scary thoughts after watching a scary movie

Just a movie…

A lot of feedback from our unwanted thoughts post was from young people scared half to death from watching scary movies.

So here’s some specifics for that particular problem. This was the actual list I sent a young girl so scared she slept with a bible.

I’ve kept this post very short to get to the solutions straight away…

Know this:

  1. You’re not alone — most people freak out after watching scary movies, even adults.
  2. YOU ARE SAFE. You aren’t in any more danger now than you were before… it’s just a movie.
  3. You won’t feel scared for long. It will soon pass.
  4. Scary movies are made to scare you, that’s their job.
  5. Part of your mind can’t tell the difference between a movie and real life. It’s THIS part that freaks out, but YOU know… it’s just a movie. Because of this, it’s best to be careful what you feed your mind — what you watch, think and imagine! Continue reading “How to get rid of fear and scary thoughts after watching a scary movie”

Health is everything

Voice of wisdom, health is everything
© Matteo Parrini

This quote is from a comment made on another website. It’s a beautiful summary of what Happy Guide is about — our philosophy.

This extract from that comment is the voice of experience. The voice of someone who’s learnt the hard way — through trial and error. True words…

“…Eating or exercising a certain way will not give you a healthier body for life unless there are lifestyle habits in place that are sustainable for life… Health is not one thing; it is everything and it starts with a person’s mindset.”

What she means by the second sentence is that everything feeds into health. Everything you do (or don’t do) either contributes to, or takes away from, your health. And that is day after day, year after year… Continue reading “Health is everything”

I HATE change

© HckySo

“I really hate change — I really REALLY hate change” I heard someone say yesterday.

That’s normal. That’s most people. But why do we dislike it so much?

The reason is that sudden change is unpleasant because we have no map…

Suddenly the rules are unclear, we don’t know how we fit into the new scheme, we are adrift, unsure. And it takes a while to learn the new set-up and become comfy with our place. That’s why most people hate change… Continue reading “I HATE change”

9 ways to get rid of unwanted thoughts

9-ways-to-get-rid-of-unwant

This is about the ongoing saga of my friend who struggles with unwanted thoughts and phobias and has been given the (I think unhelpful) label of OCD.

If you’ve not seen the original unwanted thoughts article then it might be worth checking that out first…

What’s happening as he works through his problem is that actually, his progress goes in spirals — sort of 2 steps forward, one step back type of thing.

His last setback was actually caused by just one late night. Just the lack of sleep for one night has made it more difficult to stay on top. Everything affects everything else… Continue reading “9 ways to get rid of unwanted thoughts”