baselines

                          

I was reading about a well known international author, Monica Grenfell, does to stay:

• feeling good
• looking good
• being healthy & trim. 

She said that she had "baselines" in place to be able to stay that way.

So what are baselines? They are several things. First are "rules to live by". 

• Things that we will do & won't do, either in daily life or certain situations. 
• Simple rules that we can easily fit into our life: smart rules. 
• A couple of her health baselines are: not to eat in the car, except when driving for hours on end; not eating whilst walking along the road. Eating regular meals at regular times. Not snacking. I mean, how easy is that?

Apply it to our diet

She also recommends having a sort of a baseline diet, meaning that: 

• there are certain foods that she emphasises in her diet, usually on a daily basis
• but she also enjoys eating foods that others have prepared, like going to a friends' for dinner, and having a healthy, regular diet in place, enables her to enjoy herself when she goes out
• because we generally eat the same foods & meals, over & over, here our baseline can be that we have healthy food.
• plus, we tend to over eat when there are too many choices available, & too many flavours in a meal, so let's Keep It Simple, Sweeties!

Some of my diet baselines

I had a think about all this & I decided I should be having, as much as possible:

• a leafy green, like silverbeet or spinach for folic acid, daily, because I'm prone to anemia
• I don't often eat meat but I can eat organic eggs
• fish (great if you have any polynesian DNA, as I have)
• yogurt for digestive health & calcium
• oats & oatbran for porridge & fibre

I'm still working on this list...it could change, but I do need a couple more baseline foods that I can incorporate daily. The idea is:

• not to have too many choices 
• then eat roughly the same types of food at roughly the same times each day. 

Our body will love it.

Exercise baselines

Then there is exercise. For decades I had a baseline yoga morning practice. But I have altered it now as it seemed not to be having the effects I was after. So, again, we need baselines for our health & exercise is one of the ways to do it. Here are some hints:

• I read about a British actress, Linda Lusardi, now in her mid fifties, who has done, since she was 16, 50 sit-ups & 20 side stretches each morning & evening. She looks amazing. Again,how simple is that?
• I had a friend with a killer body, achieved with 10 minutes of exercises as soon as her feet hit the floor each morning, that she found on an old video by Tony Little. She either used baked bean tins for weights, or used no weights. For her diet, & she was just as regular with this, she had oatbran & wheatgerm for soaked porridge/muesli with a juice, followed by a simple sandwich at lunch & whatever was happening for tea. These were her baselines. She looked amazing & felt it too. All so simple, all so effective.

So what will be our baselines for exercise? A walk each morning? The gym 2x a week? Yoga class? If we choose what suits us, & make it that we just do it as part of our life....it becomes like a baseline.

We can have baselines in other areas of our life too:

• there can be certain things that you do at work first thing each morning so that your job flows better
• you could have a lunchtime walk instead of going to a cafe & eat a sandwich after, at work
• we can have specific things that we do in our home each morning & evening to keep on top of housework & make life nicer.

Make it all doable

The idea is never take on more "rules" at any one time, that you can deal with successfully. It's just too overwhelming otherwise & is a signpost for failure. So I am also looking at daily life for a couple more baselines for a better life.