Living a healthier lifestyle
I have never touched a cigarette. I don’t do drugs. And two years ago I also stopped drinking alchohol.
The first two were pretty straightforward. The combined influence of my parents, government scare-labels on cigarette packs, and the school system’s “Just Say No” was effective in scaring the crap out of me about the bad health effects of smoking and drugs, so that's a path I never went down.
Alcohol was a bit different - it’s more normalized in our society and everybody I knew was a drinker, at least occasionally, so for my 20s and early 30s I didn’t really think about it in the same way. Frequently I'd see magazine articles about how "a glass of wine a day is actually good for you".
So while I was never a heavy drinker to begin with, I would sometimes have a glass of wine in the evening after work and think nothing of it. Or have a drink or two when out for dinner with friends.
Then in late 2022/early 2023 Canada came out with updated guidelines on the safety of alcohol and it was like a lightbulb went off for me. “Oh obviously alcohol is a total poison and really bad for you. If I don’t smoke, why would I drink?”
And from that day on I stopped all casual drinking. And also felt a bit stupid that I ever assumed it was safe.
Around that same time I also began a regular exercise routine. This wasn’t really related to the stopping of drinking - I had been struggling with anxiety, and research shows that regular time exercising outdoors can really help with mental health (it worked for me! Two years in and while I’m not a pillar of mental health, I’m less of a mess.)
But the effects are the same: Healthier me.
However… there’s still a lot of things that I do that are not healthy.
- I eat sugary snacks.
- I eat red meat. I do try to limit my red meat consumption and more frequently choose plant based foods, chicken, and fish, but I still have red meat around once a week on average.
- I eat random junk food like chips sometimes.
- While we mostly eat whole foods (minus the sugary snacks ), ultra processed ingredients sneak into our diet sometimes via flavoured sparkling water and mass-produced bagels.
On the one hand, I don’t want to live my whole life freaking out about my diet and trying to perfect it.
On the other hand, a lot of this stuff is 100% bad for you and has zero benefit. And I would like to live to a ripe old age and be physically and mentally fit enough to enjoy it. This is both just for myself (having a fun late-life sounds better than a short one or a sickly one!), and also so that I can be a helpful parent/grandparent when my kids are adults, and not just a burden to them.
Eliminating these additional foods is a challenge. I am absolutely addicted to sugar. I have cut it out for a month or two here and there, so I know it can be done, but the cravings are strong and I've never sustained it for longer than that. Red meat is a bit more do-able, but I fear not as impactful. Ultra-processed food is absolutely everywhere and usually the most convenient option (Note: We don’t eat straight up pop-tarts and processed cheese in our house or anything… but my understanding is that even things like flavoured sparkling water qualifies as ultra-processed!)
But I would like to try. Sure, you gotta enjoy life, but I think in this case I could still enjoy life while also being even healthier than I am today.
I am curious though: What is your philosophy on balancing a healthy lifestyle with life enjoyment? I don’t have comments enabled on my blog (yet) but send me an email if you’d like to share, and I may share answers in a future post.