Tag Archives: New Year’s Resolution

Transform Your Wellness in Uncertain Time

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Colorful Shapes for Ideas_CPD-Pixabay_2021A new year always marks a new, better beginning. we have new hopes in renewed energy, expecting new accomplishments and new happiness. Yet, 2021 is still an uncertain year; at least for sometimes, we cannot anticipate to return a full sense of normality.

The COVID-19 outbreak, the economic crisis, as well as racial tensions and consequential violence all bring a profound change in our daily life and affect our overall well-being. I’m concerned and wonder, just like many of you, when will most of us get vaccinated? what is the job and finance outlook for many folks experiencing economic hardship? How can our nation’s deep wound be healed? The challenges are in all shapes, but so are solutions.

Whatever you view our situation as a nation in turmoil or in transformation, a welcome opportunity to transform ourselves presents itself in front of us, especially for our health and wellness. I’m going to highlight a few important points.

First, lay the foundation for your health and well-being with three pillars—physical, emotional, and mental—and foster each support. The three pillars function like a tripod that establishes stability and connection. So, personalize your vitality and preventive care around each support. I won’t go through more details, as you can get some ideas from COVID-19 Era Wellbeing and Beyond: Perspectives for Year 2021.

Second, I’d like to talk about a circle of love and support as reinforcers for mental health. Mental health problems are not something new, but the pandemic lockdown and social distancing have exacerbated previous concerns of depression, loneliness and social isolation. This is one of the urgent and critical public health issues in 2021. An underpinning point is that loneliness and social isolation are linked to poor health outcomes, not only in elders but in people of any age. So, developing a circle of love and support is a great promoter of sustainable mental well-being. Even you have a very small family or are alone, you can still make a new friend or re-connect with old pals and your community. Seek for professional help when in need.

Don’t forget school kids and teenagers who are increasingly struggling with distance and disruption created by the pandemic. Their anxiety, loneliness, and social isolation may affect their grades now and result in potential trauma in the long-term. We need to steer them away from an avoidable drive down to a dark path as early as possible.

At this vulnerable time, one area of mental health involves how well your mind processes information and understand facts and data, which is an issue that has been too often overlooked or overwhelmed by disinformation in recent years. However, opening or shutting that flood gate is under your control. So, challenge your ability to detect and assess misinformation and falsehood. Remember that negative beliefs or perceptions influence your behavior and condition physically and emotionally. Consider gaining a fuller or richer understanding of another culture(s), maybe reach out to someone and exchange different worldviews, and maybe find a new meaning in your life.
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My point is that your worldview, spirituality, and personal growth can be an important element in lowering a risk for various diseases and in facing either physical illnesses or psychological sufferings. In other words, the mind and body are closely connected. Therefore, it is essential to illuminate the unattended dark and dusty corners of your mind with newfound knowledge, joy, laughter, and appreciation. All is an integral part of your well-being.

Third, strategize and manage by applying a series of squares/boxes (or areas). One can use boxes and bins for storage or office organization. We can also use them metaphorically to help in the quest for good health. You can do this by envisioning boxes that carry several risk factors of a specific disease, then tackling those areas through resources or actions. Alternatively, target lifestyle factors or areas that you want to improve. For instance, risk factors (boxes) for susceptibility to, severity of, and death due to COVID-19 include old age, obesity, pre-existing chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, lung disorders, chronic kidney diseases, and smoking, to name a few. Do you know—conversely—how COVID-19 can be a risk factor for other health problems? Research and clinical evidence show that this contagious virus can enter the cell and subsequently the body, damage the heart, brain, or multiple organs, causing lung injury and hypoxia as well as systemic inflammation resulting in overreactive immune response (or cytokine storm). There are things you can do to avoid or minimize these damages, and to prevent the transmission of infection, especially from the new coronavirus variants.

Finally, beyond doubt, with heightened fear and stress, some used-to-be top killers are sneaking into our lives. When most of us likely remain homebound for some time due to the pandemic, various health perils are prone to elevate. Unattended yet subsequent components could be high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and harmful cholesterol levels; all damage blood vessels and lead to increased probability of cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke. So, pay attention to and prevent noncommunicable diseases (NCD), because people with NCD are vulnerable to the devastating impact of COVID infection. Also, climate change is evidently an imminent threat to our well-being in several ways; as detailed in The Climate Crisis Is a Health Crisis and in Key Strategies for Cancer Prevention.

Understandably, change is often not easy or comfortable. However, if you’re determined, you can embrace the process of change. Start with baby steps. The new year could be a nice, fresh point to start. So, gear up!

To your renewed health, happiness and well-being in 2021.

 

Image credit:  Pixabay; CancerPreventionDaily 

How Small Measures Matter to Your New Year’s Resolution

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Hiker steps to Mt. peak_happy-hiker-winning-reaching-life_366801260Are you surprised? – Most people who set New Year’s Resolutions already fell off the wagon sometime between end of January and end of February. Nonetheless, statistical rates on the failure can top 88%.

Improving Health has always been one of top New Year’s resolutions for most Americans. One obvious question is – why can’t such a worthy resolution last? Also, what’s the gap?

I’m going to help you explore it by focusing on one gap, that is a lack of measurement.

There are various reasons people failed their goals, often including unrealistic or immeasurable goals (too big to reach), and/or unmeasurable goals (somehow unable to be measured objectively).

So, let’s move to your measures for health resolution on following topics.

  •        Why are measures important?
  •        Define your measure with small steps in mind.
  •        Contemplate and compart specific components or areas with small actions.
  •        Three musts for winning health results

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Why are measures important?

Talking about measures, one can immediately connect to numbers or numerical values.

Measures are ubiquitous in life. In science, rigorous measurements are critical for accuracy and precision of the findings. Business (e.g., sales) needs measures or calculations to evaluate its performance, quality, profit or loss. Similarly, the NFL has its measures for success too, including time of possession, execution of players (e.g., passing yards, rush yards, speed, etc.), among others. Likewise, personal health is examined or determined through a variety of measurements.

Therefore, if you want to improve your result, you need to measure from the beginning. If you measure, you can repeat whatever you do well, and refine if you want to mend or do better.

Define your measure with small steps in mind.

It’s desirable to “improve health”, “lose weight” or even “lose 30 pounds”, but these goals are vague and sometimes unrealistic, especially when pursued without measurable actions.

Dramatic changes rarely turn out well. Consider how realistic it is changing from a “couch potato” to a “gym rat” or from a meat-lover to a vegan? In fact, I didn’t jump from white rice in three daily meals to my breakfast with whole grains, nuts and fruits, sometimes proteins, overnight or over months.

Small steps are critical to measuring your health improvement, and closely connected with concrete measures. Importantly, small steps prove to be an effective strategy for you while measuring, and a key to success in many areas of life.

Take high blood pressure as an example. If your blood pressure is high, you need to do multiple things to lower it, and even prevent it. You need to reduce salt intake, have a healthy diet, exercise at least 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week, support a healthy weight, and moderate alcohol consumption, just naming a few. Then how do you meet each requirement?

Let’s just talk about ways for salt restriction. It’s not easy for many folks; after all, food without salt is boring, right? However, there are small steps to reduce salt intake unless you go “no salt”. You may choose to cut half of your daily salt or pick “low-sodium” items, or instead of pouring salt over your plate, sprinkle with parsley, cilantro, spice or herbs like rosemary, drizzle with olive oil or honey if you wish – all can adjust the food flavor and maybe even make it better. These are only a few tiny, baby steps to reduce your salt intake towards lowering blood pressure.

One way to ensure small steps work is to set up a system for measurements. Based on your detailed plan, you can use a score system, and rate those reasonable steps on a scale of 1 to 5, for example. Alternatively, you may prefer a week log to monitor your diet and exercise. If you want to measure how you get more active, it could be something like “walk 20 minutes or 2 miles a day, do it after dinner, go over it each day, reward myself at the end of each month.” Then rinse and repeat this routine. Do whatever works better for you. Moreover, give yourself a pat on the shoulder or a treat as a reward.

The smaller, the more specific a step is, the more measurable it is, and the more meaningful it’s towards your goal. Ask yourself how much, how far or how often you want to make change and when expect it to occur, and at what level you feel comfortable or stretch a bit? Remember to make small, gradual change over time.

Contemplate and compart specific components or areas with small actions.

Another way to take small steps and make incremental progress for a healthy lifestyle is to break into sections or box the areas that require your attention, because your health improvement should be personal. So, go after your major concern or root problems. Here are some ideas to consider:

  • Ease Stress resolution: First, uncover sources of your stress – Is the clutter-loaded desk or office driving you crazy? Or are the posts on social media that upset you most? Do work-related issues trigger your sleepless nights? Next, how you calm and combat stress should include different approaches, unique stress-relieving techniques, modified diet, and etc. Again, start small.
  • Healthy Weight resolution or more specifically – Dump Belly-Fat Resolution
  • Well Kitchen resolution
  • Green Lifestyle resolution
  • Cancer Prevention resolution

For cancer prevention resolution, you’ll be amazed how much you can achieve. You can learn and become aware of various cancer risk factors, you can make small modifications on your diet, you can keep moving and be more active. You can quit smoking and limit alcohol if you haven’t done so. You can also get vaccinated (e.g., HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer), and get screened (e.g., for breast, prostate, and colon cancer if applicable).

Getting vaccinated or screened is seemingly a small step; however, it’s an immediate action resulting in a big gain with long-term benefits. So, you can cheer yourself with a high-five!

A recent study (conducted by Dr. Schiff’s group at Harvard University, reported on J. Healthcare Risk Management, 2019) showed that many cancer diagnostic errors (greater than 50%) often involve a failure or delay in routine screening and diagnostic testing. So, it’s imperative to take control of your own health.

There are other aspects involved in your well-being, but you get the idea.

Three musts for winning health results

1.      Act NOW. Don’t procrastinate.

That’s also why it’s easy and effective to implement small steps. Replacing sugar-dense beverage with water is actionable for losing weight. Adding one or two more servings of veggies/fruits each day is more manageable than going meatless.

2.      Be disciplined and integrative.

Stick with the positive changes, gradually add more, and make them a daily habit or routine. Meanwhile, it’s not about one switch. If you quit smoking or eliminate alcohol, but keep prolonged sitting or stay less physically active, don’t control stress, you still won’t be in a good shape.

3.      Be patient. But be joyful.

Don’t expect the result sooner than what it should take to happen. In addition, some changes can be necessary yet uncomfortable or inconvenient, find fun ways to do so. However, don’t force yourself to the things you dislike or are ill-suited to you. Don’t ignore your emotion. Are you happy at the end of the day? What’s your feeling about new choices or changes? Hope you truly enjoy them.

Lifestyle modification is a journey rather than a destination, the journey with many, many small steps that lead you to a bright destination for your wellness.

So, take one step at a time, practice one day at a time, so as to add up many small steps from point A to point B.

The bottom line is that small steps are measures for your big or huge gains. With concrete measures, you can surely keep your health resolution or achieve any goal you set.

The book “Key Strategies for Cancer Prevention – Options to Help You Stay Healthy and Happy” is packed with tips for small and attainable actions, which lead you to achieving concrete, measurable goals for your heart health and cancer prevention.

 

Image credit: shutterstock.com

How Bottlenecks Affect Weight Management

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Wt. loss w-water_M_PixabayThe Bottleneck Effect on Weight Gain

From time to time, most of us have gotten stuck in a traffic jam or a slowdown when driving through so-called bottlenecks. These bottleneck areas often result from the merging of a three-lane to a two-lane highway, a lane closure due to construction, a stop signal, or an accident in busy traffic. Afterwards, the cars begin to speed up again.

Like traffic bottlenecks, other bottlenecks occur in our life that affect our health, including our weight management.

With the start of a new year, many people likely made a new year’s resolution for reducing to a healthy weight, given the fact that obesity is a growing epidemic in the U.S. and worldwide. Weight gain is a big challenge for many, many people.

We have previously addressed the various health consequences and cancer risk of obesity. In this post, I suggest a new approach to help you with weight gain or weight regain.

Let’s picture you as a problem-solver and use your willpower to get your resolution done.

First, the complexity of obesity

I understand your frustrations and struggles, especially given that genetics is nobody’s fault. Based on what science tells us, many factors can contribute to weight gain or weight regain after a weight-loss triumph. What I focus on here is behaviors, of course, without throwing biology out of the window.

Visualize this simple model of energy balance: Energy intake = Energy expenditure, or Calories in = Calories out. (See the schematic illustration below.)

Imagine what happens when energy imbalance occurs: Calories in > Calories out, then you gain weight.

Now consider this situation: suppose that you eat healthy and exercise regularly, but as you’re aging, your pounds start piling up, and you wonder where did they come from?

Energy balance & imbalance_CPD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scientific evidence shows that many factors may regulate your weight, some of them being:

  •           Eating a fat-, sugar-, salt-rich, red-meat-heavy, or a processed-food-oriented diet
  •           Overeating, whether out of habit or for emotional comfort
  •           Sedentary lifestyle
  •           Exposure to environmental pollutants or chemicals (natural or synthetic)
  •           Intensive stress (work, finance, or personal life, etc.)
  •           Lack of sleep, particularly obstructive sleep apnea
  •           Aging
  •           Medication(s) you take
  •           Chronic conditions

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No doubt, each individual’s condition is unique. That’s how you can be a problem-solver for your weight gain and be a part of the solution.

Where is your bottleneck?  

A starting point is to identify the bottleneck for your weight gain or regain. For example, maybe you eat less and move more, but you are in your golden age when your body’s hormones change—a bottleneck.

Or you may be exposed heavily to environmental chemicals (at work or home) that tilt your body toward getting obese by promoting fat production and reducing metabolic rate—another bottleneck.

Or maybe you do have a healthy weight under your watch, but unexpectedly, you then take a drug for some treatment that alters your metabolism (as many medications do), causing a different kind of bottleneck.

So, you get the idea.

Moreover, what happens if those folks with debilitating pain are unable to exercise as needed despite eating healthy? That’s not just a bottleneck, but more like a funnel clogged at the bottom—leading to limited or minimized energy expenditure. In this case, consult your physician for pain relief and to deal with the underlying problem(s).

Whatever it is, there is a likelihood that somehow or somewhere there is a bottleneck(s) for your weight gain or regain that is likely to be associated with your disrupted energy balance.

Finding the bottleneck is certainly helpful, but not the final solution. Next, you need to re-set or re-tweak your behaviors and lifestyle based on your body’s recalibration to adjust to your situation. Make sure that your solutions are specific and realistic.

A healthy lifestyle is a journey, not a destination

Living a healthy lifestyle involves individual choices and behaviors. Modifying your behaviors is within your control. Keep in mind that every step counts. For instance, you may eat less, but do you eat right? By that I mean that you need to eat the right products (nutrition) in the right portions. In addition, beware of not just weight per se, but also how much and where the fat is distributed on your body. Any quick fix for weight loss is not a long-term solution.

Equally important is your perseverance with a balanced diet and regular exercise. Persistence can not only benefit your weight stability but also reduce your risk factors for various chronic illnesses including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

The bottom line:

With this new approach in a new year, you can be a problem-solver by discovering your bottleneck(s), and tackling the challenge(s) on a weight-management journey. Remember the importance of teamwork too, such as your physician’s treatment, psychological counselling, and the support of family and friends.

Rooting for your health!

 

Image credit: Pixabay

Top 7 New Year’s Resolutions for Cancer Prevention Fans

By Hui Xie-Zukauskas

Resolution-new-year-250x187Have you made your New Year’s resolutions? What will you resolve to further cancer protection for you and your family? A new year is always exciting, because it gives us all the opportunity to make changes to better our lives. The following New Year’s resolutions focus specifically on cancer prevention and involve taking concrete measures in attainable ways. By breaking down your goal into small yet effective steps, this list will help you make big changes over time. Here goes:

1. See your doctor.

Early detection by cancer screening tests has saved many lives. Nowadays there are advanced non-invasive and minimally invasive diagnostic technologies to detect cancerous cells in the body. Mammogram, colonoscopy, PTA, dermatology skin check and other cancer screening exams are all important diagnostic procedures. If the results show pre-cancerous cells, your doctors can develop a treatment plan for you from early on. According to the experts, regular checkups with your doctor are a must.

2. Assess your cancer risks.

Take the WebMD personalized health assessment. In just a few minutes, you can take a major step toward cancer prevention as well as a healthier lifestyle. Based on your personal health, lifestyle, and family history, this cancer risk assessment will identify your risk factor(s), and guide you with specific actions to lower your chances for developing cancer. This tool is accessible from our site for your convenience.

3. Downsize fat, salt, and sugar in your foods and drinks.

Dairy fat, salt, and sugar are culprits for cancer. They sneak into our meals in hidden amounts under numerous fancy names, and many folks don’t even realize it. For instance, it’s counter-effective to pour a fat- and salt-rich dressing over “the rainbow” (veggies and fruits on your plate). Over the years, we have provided some effective tips to enhance the value of your rainbow.

Research indicates significant correlations between dairy fat and/or saturated animal fat intake and risks for breast, prostate, colon-rectal, and lung cancer. Too much salt is terrible not only because it is a risk factor for cancer, it also has an adverse effect on blood pressure, which can promote heart disease and stroke. Furthermore, sugar is the fuel for cancer cell growth. An advanced version of “Downsize fat, salt, and sugar in foods and drinks” would simply be this: “Ban junk food from your diet.”

4. Upsize your physical activity.

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5. Take control of weight, and maintain a healthy weight!

Whether your aim is to lose weight, get fit, or both, a healthy weight is critical for your optimal health. Research suggests that overweight and obesity are implicated in approximately 20% of all cancer cases. Convincing evidence shows an association between being overweight and/or obesity and mortality from many types of cancer including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma, esophageal, pancreatic, liver, colorectal, gallbladder, prostate, breast, endometrial and kidney cancers.

6. Stay Smoking-free

Smoking cigarettes has been linked to an increased risk of developing many types of cancer. For smokers, it is essential to quit smoking to lower cancer risks. For non-smokers, stay away from others smoking as even passive smoke is a proven risk factor for developing cancer.

7. Turn to Green

Add more green vegetables to your plate, use more chemical-free products in your household, and take more actions to reduce indoor and outdoor pollutants in your community. These solutions can enhance your immune functions and reduce cancer risks.

Overall, there are many ways to stay healthy on a daily basis and ultimately reap the benefits of cancer protection. To resolve is to embrace change, which is thrilling and fulfilling yet requires commitment. To make your New Year’s resolutions stick, check out 10 simple things you can do to get back on track. By making your resolutions into reality, you may very well turn this year into your best year ever!

 

Image credit: by thedbz