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 tru
