Becoming healthy is a mind process

Tue, Jan 29th 2013, 11:40 AM

A Carl Bard quote says: "Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." It was with this quote in mind that registered nurse Anita Cates encouraged people to become healthier in this new year, and to make overall wellness a part of everyday life for themselves and their families.
Cates who spoke at the recent Doctors Hospital Distinguished Lecture Series said it is time for people to start making the necessary changes to achieve their healthiest year yet. She said people need to recognize that to become healthier they needed to take the process one step at a time, and to realize that they cannot expect to just wake up one morning and leap into health. And that they needed to be strong in protecting what is right for them -- carving out time to eat properly and moving. She said people should make their health a priority.
The first thing people need to do she said is to develop a mantra -- something short and sweet that they can put into context and remember, to support them when they are faced with health challenges.
Cates, whose mantra is "I will choose daily behaviors that make me stronger in mind, body and spirit", said creating a health mantra helps to keep people focused as health is not just physical wellness, but emotional, social, physical, financial and spiritual as well.
The nurse said people should place their written mantra next to their bedside and read it before they retire at night and after the have woken each morning to reinforce the importance of health.
She also said they should stop making excuses and to problem solve, because once people choose to become healthier, they are going to come across challenges and problems that need to be solved. Cates said the simple way of solving challenges when you're trying to get healthier is to change your thought process. She said that involved focusing on the individual and not everyone else, and asking what you can you do differently, how to do something better, and what the best thing for them was. And that when she too came to realize that concept herself it made everything different.
Become your own problem
Nurse Cates said people should become their own problem which she admitted sounded crazy and a little negative, but she said when she adopted the concept herself and realized that becoming her own problem meant that she had the power to change it. And that she had the power to make a difference. That she was no longer the victim of whatever circumstance she was in. She said when people do that they claim responsibility.
She told the story of a patient she saw in May 2012, who worked hard at his job and invariably ate for lunch whatever the ladies at his office purchased for him. The patient presented with high blood sugar and was pre-diabetic as a result, and who also had high cholesterol and had gained weight. She said they got him on a plan that included exercise and eating a healthier lunch, and three months later his test results showed decreased blood sugar and cholesterol.
Cates said people should think about what was getting in the way of them becoming healthy this year. And to project themselves in 2014 and look at the advice they would give themselves right now and what they would tell themselves to help them today. She said motivation is a myth.
"We all know how difficult it is to move somebody and to move ourselves especially to do anything different. When I learnt this idea [that motivation is a myth], it changed the way that I thought and it changed the way that I dealt with clients as well. In order to get going you have to do healthy behaviors first and then you feel motivated," she said.
Cates said people want to feel motivated before they go to the gym, but that in fact it's how they feel when they finish working out. She also said that people should not always wait for the right moment, and that they should switch that around to action first. She said they would feel better.
"I have noticed there is a difference between people who are healthy and who are doing healthy things and people who are not doing those behaviors and the difference is they have bought into this concept of motivation being a myth and they have pushed past those feelings and gone out through the other side and become very excited about their health behaviors. They have managed to get through and managed to get it done."
You actually only have two choices
The nurse said actually, people only have two choices realistically -- yes or no. That they are going to eat breakfast, which she said is the most important meal of the day. That they would or would not take lunch to work or that they are going to go out and walk. She said people needed to say yes to the healthy things, to trying new things and to being the healthiest they've ever been.
She also said people on the road to choosing a healthy lifestyle needed to pick their team players in order for them to win, people they can emulate and get advice from who are good role models and who they can ask for support. She said to not pick the people who will pull you down.
Nurse Cates who has been practicing for 24 years said when it comes down to health behaviors people too often give up at the first hurdle. She said they don't practice and get used to things, whether it's a different exercise or different food.
She encouraged people to walk at least 10,000 steps daily, which she said equates to five miles. To try to get in as much steps as possible she said people could be more creative with their days like parking at the furthest parking spot from their door to their destination, taking the stairs instead of the elevator and dancing. And rather than paying the pump attendant for gas she encouraged them to get out and walk and pay for their gas.
In their effort to be healthier, Nurse Cates said people should always eat breakfast,which she said is the most important meal of the days. And she said it should be consumed within an hour-and-a-half of waking.
"People who miss breakfast are scientifically more likely to be overweight and obese. You are more likely to get diabetes if you do not eat breakfast because when we're in starvation mode and haven't eaten for a long time, our liver produces glucose and it starts to rise and goes higher and higher until we choose to eat some food. So if you've gone all morning and wait until lunch time you're going to overeat and pile on more carbohydrates. The blood sugar is going to go up and the body becomes confused and we become insulin resistant. It leads to type 2 diabetes. If you eat breakfast on the other hand, you are 30 percent less likely to get type 2 diabetes," she said.
The nurse also said that bad breath is a condition that people who don't eat breakfast get. The reason for that is that the food in the stomach has been fermenting overnight with acid, and the odor comes out on the breath. She said when people clean their teeth, they only clean their mouth, and that it does not clean their stomach. She urged people to always have a little something to eat for breakfast, to break that cycle of blood glucose.
Eating healthy did not mean that people could not indulge occasionally. She said it's perfectly acceptable to have a piece of chocolate, but while you're eating that chocolate, she said to take your time and enjoy it, and recognize that a little bit of what you fancy does you good. When you do, she said you don't feel deprived or as if you're missing out.

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