Domestic Geek

As I've pointed out these last 22 hours or so, living a healthy lifestyle in our current social climate takes a bit of work. There's no easy button or magic pill that will make you suddenly healthy, especially if you've been abusing your body with lack of exercise and processed junk foods for a long time.

Fad diets, diet products, sudden weight changes...they all ultimately result in the failure of one's health goals. Eat right and exercise. That's it. That;s the magaic formula.

Amy stresses the importance of ridding your environment of molds and allergens. I can definitely relate to this piece of advice. When I worked at the pizza place, the water would seep under the tiles into the wooden subfloor below. You should've seen the black mold that was growing there. It was freaking disgusting. There was also a crawl space under building that had all kinds of crud growing in it.

I always felt sick working there. I knew it was the physical space because if I took any time off at all, I felt a lot better.

When everybody talks about their physical health, one important organ they forget is the brain. The brain needs to be exercised just like any other muscle in the body. Do everything you can to keep it active — read, write, learn new things, carry on intellectual conversations...don't just sit in front of a television or a computer and become a vegetable. You need to keep using those connections between nerves or they become unusable. A mind really is a terrible thing to waste.

Along the same lines of putting your needs first, find a hobby that interests you and really take time to enjoy it. Better yet, make sure it's something that your spouse or SO (significant other) is NOT interested in. Everyone needs private "me time" and sharing all the same interests as your partner is not healthy.

When you're doing your hobby, though, don't get hung up with perfectionism. This is supposed to be something fun, not another chore that will add more stress to your life. Life is too short to just work and live up to your responsibilities. This should be an activity that will blow off some steam and make life worth living.

I totally would not have thought about this topic, but Marisa reminded me of how having toxic people and toxic relationships in our lives can be extremely detrimental to our physical and mental wellbeing. It makes sense since I already wrote about how stress negatively affects our health.

Just like the Dementors in the Harry Potter series, negative/angry people suck the life right out of you. They are miserable so they do everything in their power to bring everyone else down with them. If you're really set on living a healthy life, keep these type of people out of your life.

*Only 4 more hours and I can crawl into bed. Yay!!!!