Health Improvements to Make in 2008
By By L. H. Gray
Trucker's World
1/23/2008
You may have thought about making healthy changes a dozen times, but never followed through. Make this the year for you. Choose one or two areas that are really important to you. Plan out how you’re going to make positive changes and get started!
Eat Healthier
A good way to start is by increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat. Every day, eat at least two fruit and four vegetable servings. Fruits like apples and bananas can easily be taken with you on the truck. Many restaurants have fruit salad or apple sauce on the menu (ask for sugar-free selections). Some convenience stores sell fresh fruits too. For vegetables, getting four servings isn’t that hard. A large salad contains two to three servings of vegetables. A bowl of green beans or steamed broccoli contains two servings. Plus, baby carrots make a great snack for the road.
Other good ways to eat healthier are by reducing fat intake, limiting sugary and junk foods, and drinking water. Reduce your fat intake by using low fat milk products and choosing lean meats that are grilled, broiled or baked. Avoid fried foods like chips, French fries and chicken nuggets. Limit sugary and junk foods by cutting back on how many times a day you eat them and how large of a serving you take. Try swapping a candy bar with a healthier choice like a 100-calorie snack pack. Then drink plenty of water by having at least one glass with every meal and one between each meal.
Get Active
Adding a little exercise into your day-to-day grind has great benefits. It burns calories, increases cardiovascular health, helps strengthen bones and muscles, and is a great stress reliever. The hardest part is getting started because most people don’t feel like exercising. The best way to get into a routine is to plan out when you can fit in bouts of activity each day then stick with your plan. Even if you don’t feel like it.
Make a goal to exercise 30 minutes on most days of the week. If you only have ten minutes at a time, that’s okay. Three sessions of 10 minutes is still effective. Add some stretching, push ups and crunches into your week. Take brisk walks or find a set of stairs you can climb up and down. Look for the parking spaces furthest from the door to get in extra steps. You can even march in place while watching your favorite TV show. Books and online sources can give you workout ideas, but everyone can start with walking.
Lose Weight
Carrying extra pounds around doesn’t just make your jeans tight and the button holes on your shirt stretch. It puts you at higher risk for many health problems, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. Losing as little as ten percent of your body weight can improve your health and make you feel (and look) better.
Start by eating less calories and moving more. If you eat too many calories in a day for your body to burn, it has to store them. Reduce your portions, choose lower calorie and low fat foods, and make educated food choices by reading labels. Take every opportunity to move. Instead of sitting during downtime, find a way to be active like walking the parking lot or pacing the aisles at a store.
Improve Sleep
Most adults don’t get the recommended minimum seven hours of sleep each night. After awhile this catches up, leaving you tired, grumpy and poorly focused. Sleep is also recovery time for the body and lack of sleep eventually wears your body down.
As much as possible, stick to a regular sleep and wake pattern. Go to bed and get up at roughly the same time. Don’t do work right up until bedtime or watch a high-energy TV show. Have a nighttime ritual that will help you relax, such as reading or talking on the phone to a spouse or friend.
If your pillow isn’t comfortable, get a new one. Your mattress should be supportive and comfortable as well. Make sure your bunk is dark and consider using “white noise” or earplugs to cover up outdoor noise if you’re easily awakened.
Reduce Stress
Many people run around “stressed out” from morning till night. They are certainly not enjoyable to be around. Over time, as the stress accumulates, they may end up with related health issues, such as tension headaches, high blood pressure, indigestion and anxiety.
If you’re the kind of person who gets stressed out over everything, decide to handle things differently. Realize that most situations aren’t as bad as what they seem. Keep an optimistic outlook. Take care of what you can, delegate what you can, and let the rest go for the time being. Worrying about it won’t make anything change.
Also examine your expectations and commitments. Do you take on more than what you can comfortably accomplish? Do you expect more than what is realistic? You might want to cut some things out that cause unnecessary stress.
Manage Time
What do you do when you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them? Or when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the many projects on your plate? Take a few steps to manage your time and you may find you get more things done than what you thought possible.
Start by breaking big tasks into small actions. Whenever you have a pocket of free time, work on one action. Your choice could be made on the priority of the action or how much time you have.
Some simple steps to keep your time from running away are: make a to-do list, use waiting time to get something done, don’t procrastinate, delegate whatever you can, and put things away in their places.
Learn First Aid
Everyone should know basic first aid and CPR skills. You never know when you will need them for yourself or for your family. You may need to help a fellow truck driver who is suffering symptoms of a heart attack or a motorist who’s been in an accident along the highway. Knowing what to do could save your life or someone else’s life.
First aid courses can be taken at local hospitals or organizations like the American Red Cross. First aid training will help you learn how to respond appropriately to emergency situations of all kinds. They also instruct you on how to protect yourself from infectious diseases if you are helping in an emergency situation. A formal first aid course is invaluable and usually only takes a few hours to complete.
Know Your Family’s Health History
Your family’s health history may be the strongest predictor of your risk for developing certain diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer. Ask your relatives if they’ve been diagnosed with disease, and at what age they developed it, especially if it was at a younger age than when it normally occurs. Find out if several of your relatives experienced the same health problems, such as three of your uncles having heart attacks in their fifties.
You can’t change your genetics, but you can make lifestyle changes to help ward off disease. Talk to your doctor about specific actions you can take with diet and exercise. Also find out which health screenings you should consider and at what age to do them in order to detect disease as early as possible.
Quit Smoking
It’s tough to kick the habit. Nicotine is very addictive. Smoking brings pleasant and calm feelings, and increased alertness. Smoking is often turned to in times of stress, boredom and anger. It becomes part of the smoker’s life. This makes withdrawal very unpleasant, but it is possible to quit smoking. There are many people who’ve successfully quit and you can too.
Even if you’ve tried to quit before and failed, try again. Smokers are at a high risk of heart disease, stroke and lung cancer so every try is worth the effort. Enlist the help of your doctor, family and friends. Join a support group and call the American Cancer Society for a free phone counseling program (1-800-ACS-2345). Don’t try to quit on your own. Get informed and follow a plan to help you quit successfully.
Drive Safer
Everyday you drive hundreds of miles and log a lot of hours in the driver’s seat. After awhile, one major highway looks like another. If you often follow the same routes, it is especially easy to become over-familiar and under-vigilant in driving. Just the monotony of the road can lull any driver into a relaxed state.
Stay sharp and focused behind the wheel. Follow safe driving rules like slowing down sufficiently for curves or bad weather, leaving enough distance between you and other vehicles, and keeping your eyes moving to watch for potential problems. Don’t become overconfident. One mistake could cause an accident, but safe driving practices could save you from harm.
