It's Summer: Dive in to Something New

A few posts back I decided the baby steps mantra was bad news.  After studying how Dr. Dean Ornish got people to clean out their arteries without surgery I decided his system could be applied to the Live Like Vacation mind-set.

He threw people into a high intensity program.  No baby steps.  Even babies don't take baby steps.  People practicing baby steps get nowhere.  They stay put thinking they have a lot of time before lifting the leg and eeking out another step.

The exercise schedule, the diet, and group support are intensive.  Meaning, the folks were immersed in the program daily.  No time off.  No delays.  No down time to get you down.  No opportunity to slide backwards.  This immersion helps you develop the new habits to stick with it.

So, once you are sleeping better, and authentically and have daily routine with wiggle room, it's time to immerse yourself in things that bring you joy.

**New **
     Step 6

Yes, it's time for Step 6.     (BTW....here's 1-5 to review)

Step #6.  Get your joy hobby in gear.  (Now that you've ditched the unproductive....Immerse yourself.)

J   join
O  outlet
Y  yearn

J. join others in a social supportive context.  Church worship, charity, exercise group, a class, or just plain togetherness with like minded people.


O. Find your outlet for creativity.  Make things, beautify your home, cook great food, learn an instrument, write, Make your mark on the world with your brain.

Y. Yearn for new information, try new things, read, teach yourself something, find a unique way to tweak your best traits.

It's summer time.  Things are laid back.  So start something new while it's warm and relaxing.  Joy hobbies can be very energizing.    Ready....Set....GO!

90 Day Check Up: No Faith in the 21 Day Rule

I've been blogging  about the live like vacation lifestyle since February and can honestly say, I've hit the 90 day slump.

When they say it takes 21 days to establish a habit.........they are wrong!!!!!
Don't believe it.   It takes months!  

If it only took 21 days, we'd solve all the world's problems thousands of years ago!

Here's my assessment and where I think I began to slide.

1.  Still getting enough sleep?  Self  Score  80%
Weekdays I get to bed by 9:30.  One day I had to cram in some paperwork and stayed up until 11:30.  I just had to get it done or I would not have been able to sleep.  Weekends have not been easy.  They day really flies by and who wants to get to sleep early when you could enjoy two or three more late hours......  Maybe my score should be around 70 or 65.

2.  Is my day systematized?  Self Score  90%
I am giving myself a higher score on this because I do like my routines.  The downfall however is that this is still worker bee stuff and i am locked in busyiness and not seeing any forward movement in work or hobbies.  I seem to be locked in some stagnation.  I feel calmer and more easy going, but would like to be more productive.

3.  Knocking out the unproductive  Self Score 70%
I could do more with my time in the evenings.  I waste a lot of time reading on the internet, short fluffy things like Facebook.

4.  Make your work joyful to yourself and others   Self Score 90%
I like my work days.  I feel less overwhelmed.  I work with my members where they are and try to teach them new things.  I would like to be more creative however.  I could offer more services, but I need to plan it out with some type of system that will still allow for individualized attention.

5. Wiggle Room and Taking Control of My Plate Self Score  90%
 I have wiggle room in my day.  I have taken some things off my plate lately.

6. Domino Effect Self Score  95%
I've resumed more healthy habits that have provided a ripple effect in my day, activities.  The sleep factor has been impactful.  I've been more focused on diet/fitness.
(Future topics in the works here)

7. The Principle of Comfort Zone Inertia  Self Score  60%
Yeah, I show no mercy to myself here.  I want to do more, learn more, be more creative, pursue a spiritual vocation outside of my work in health care.   It's still on the back burner.

I want to develop this blog more.  I haven't unveiled the radical health makeover portion that I have hinted about.  I am experimenting on myself, obviously, the work is ongoing.

My average score is 82%.  Is it a reliable, valid score?  Who know.....but it was fun to look back at the last 90 days.  I would say the last 30 were a bit regressive because I wasn't blogging as often as I did early on.  For that reason I should lower  my score.

So, definitely toss out the 21 day rule.  Keep the focus....daily.

More to come.

Fight or Flight and Fizzle

How often do you feel the fight or flight reaction?  

Fight or flight describes the the response of an animal that perceives danger.  An animal has one of two choices to make to preserve its life.  It can fight or it can flee.  

Human living today doesn't have the same dangers as animals in the wild, although there are times when we are truly in peril such as a car accident, a weather disaster, medical emergency, etc.  

The body has its own defenses in place to give your  body more oxygen, more strength, and speed when the flight or fight response kicks in.  

The stressors of modern day life still incite the fight or flight response, but it does so too often and the reaction lasts too long.  This response should only be a few minutes and then the body soon relaxes.  

Too much flight or flight will impair the immune system and burn out the endocrine system, not to mention rewire the nervous system to overreact in a very hyperresponsive manner.  Sounds so fatiguing.  

So, a mechanism that is designed for survival becomes so overused, it eventully fizzles and  no longer provides protection.  

Remember the boy who cried wolf so often that no one came to his aid when he was in trouble.  They were so fed up with his false alarms that they ignored him.

We don't want our body's survival system ignoring us and ignoring our needs.  That's why we need to  take control of out plate and get rid of the unproductive.  

One tip I can share here is to look back at the second paragraph about an animal perceiving a danger.  We are not animals.  We have much more to keep track of in our lives besides food, safety, and reproduction.  So, the kicker here is how we perceive things that tend to upset us into a faulty flight or fight reaction.  

We can perceive things differently, that's a given.  

Also, in an extended fight or flight reaction, we tend to do things that hinder our health even more such as overeating, drinking, and getting poor sleep.  And, the cycle continues as the body gets more fatigued.  

Richard O'Connor, PhD, has written a number of very good books on the topic of perpetual stress. 

James L. Wilson, DC, also writes about adrenal fatigue.  

Check out these useful references.  

Control the World or Inspire the World

This is Holy Week and I'm getting some good pearls of wisdom listening to the radio.  I am listening to Relevant Radio.  I just heard a profound message from Dr. Ray Benedetto.

His entire segment was profound because this is the first time I heard of him.  He promotes character based capitalism, which is something the public probably has a hard time believing can exist.

He talked about "trying to control the world," which we know deep down is a rotten idea, yet we still try to do it.  In our own "I can do it better" selves we insist we can control part of something.

We are control freaks.  How do you know?  When you have a melt down.  The melt down is a sure sign of your controlling self.

If we want to live like vacation, we do need to pare down our lives and follow step #4: Knock out the unproductive.

We also need to use the principle of wiggle room.

Also there is one "control factor" that helps you return your life back to you, when we tend to pile our lives full with what other people want.  This is the principle of taking control of your plate.

So, this sounds as if I am contradicting myself, but there is a part of control that is actually a self discipline.  The principle of taking control of your plate is about not overloading your schedule.  It is about prioritizing and not taking on things that are going to be harmful to you and your family because over scheduling is unhealthy.

So, let's get back to the question of the day. Living like vacation means we are not escaping life but enriching our daily lives.

While you are involved in the world, are you trying to control the world or inspire the world?

Does Step #3 Drive You Crazy?

Just wondering.

Because there are moments in my day when I feel like I am a robot getting things done that are so mundane.

That's step 3.

Here's a recap of the steps so far. (I introduced them in this prior post.)

1. Make a commitment to the Live-Like-Vacation  Lifestyle
2. Sleep at the same time every night
3. Systematize your daily activities/chores so they are out of the way, (then you will have more room for the bigger activities)

Here's #4 and #5 just FYI:
4. Knock out of your life the things that are unproductive
5. Make your work joyful for yourself and others

And then, coming soon, as I work through my LLV progress, I will add in steps that address financial wellness.

Can Step #3 be a real drain?
I believe the answer is "yes."  This is something we have to make peace with.
I can wake up and stroll into the kitchen and say to myself, here I am again making coffee, making breakfast, feeding the cats...

Day in an day out these chores are here waiting to get done.  Paying the bills, taking out the trash, laundry, etc.  What is there to feel good about?  It's drudgery.

But if you can systematize it.....Oh, boy.  That's another chore.

Well, if I go about it willy-nilly, I forget something like making son's lunch.  Then I have to scramble to get that done before he's late for school.  So, a system will prevent scrambling.

I do not like scrambling.  This is what makes me so grumpy in the first place wondering when I can have my next vacation.

Scrambling is what makes my practice members call me up in a panic because they need to get adjusted as soon as they can because all their stress sneaked up on them.

I also tend to scramble when I am at work.  I have to type up a notice for someone.  I have to get a claim ready to mail.  I have to be productive in between appointments before it's time to pick up son from school.  I have to set aside time to eat lunch before my brain crashes next to my feet.

I have to systematize my work day so I can be more attentive to my practice members when they need me the most.

You, whoever you are, need to systematize your work day so you can be your best for your customers, clients, students, and co-workers.  We deserve it from each other.

So, the daily chores go smoothly and give you more time for the important things, or we can just feel as if we are drowning in the annoyance of chores.

I guess we can look back at #1.  The commitment makes a difference in our mind-set.  We know there is a greater reward when the small details are worked out.

And then I will throw in #2.  An authentically restful sleep routine makes us much more efficient, and we can feel as if this part of our day is effortless and a warm up for the rest.

Get warmed up for the rest of the day.

How do you use Step #3 to your advantage.  Please share in the comments section.

Also, in a future post I will discuss the second part of step #3.  You see that part that is written in parentheses.  What are the bigger activities of the LLV lifestyle?

Good question......  See you soon.  

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

What really made the vacation?

Our days on vacation were entirely uncluttered.

The bills were paid in advance.  The phone did not ring, since I told my practice members that the office was closed. There were no lunches to pack.  Even though we did laundry during our vacation, we didn't have to get it done by a certain time so all work clothes and school uniforms were ready.  We made a couple of trips to a grocery store that were low stress trips since we were leisurely planning meals.  All recreational plans were low keyed.  There were no major trips to museums, and no visits to tourist attractions.  There was no dealing with long drives in traffic. We had a few visits with relatives in the evenings, but we mostly kept to ourselves.

There were no distractions.  There was no over-booking of activities.  There were no surprises that typically come up during work days.

So how can this experience carry over into the return to daily life?

1.  First of all there has to be a commitment.  The stark change from one day to the next was an eye opener for me.  As soon as I landed back in Syracuse, the nonsense began.  I said, "Enough! I want that vacation-feel back!"  Like I said in an earlier post.  I had no desire to leave town.  I was happy being a working dog. (I have nothing against working dogs.)  It was a comfort zone.  Upon my return I realized things could be different because I lived it differently for a week!

Some people never believe they can have something different.  I hear it everyday in my office.  Practice members do not believe they can get one inch closer to better health. There is a big mental barrier that I empathize with.  It is a tough egg to crack.  I was like that.

When I finally knew what I didn't know, and gave up my "know it all" attitude so I could just enjoy myself for a week in sunny Florida, it was easy to make the commitment.  Here is the blog to prove it.

2.  You must sleep at the same hours every night.   If you think your body is happy with an 11 o'clock bed time, or 10 o'clock bedtime, think again.   There is too much of a domino effect when you don't go to bed earlier and keep it consistent (weekends included).  Your energy, mental organization, temperament, productivity,  food cravings, are all going in the wrong direction.  Time is wasted.  Productivity is a joke.  I blamed it on hormones....LOL.   Even hormones need sleep.  Don't lie to yourself about sleep.

3.  You must systematize your daily activities so they are done and out of the way and then you will have more room for the enjoyment!  Get the little things done and out of the way.  Really, they are not little things, because they play a supporting role to get you out there in the world ready to take action.  How do you begin?  Well, you go to bed at a decent hour and then discover what you can accomplish the next day.

A few weeks ago I wrote a health article about energy.  I made a point about my personal life that I was giving away the best of me all day during office hours and there was nothing left of me at home for my family.  I know if I feel this way, everyone else has this problem.  I was doing a lot of things well such as taking my supplements, getting adjusted weekly, exercising a little bit..... Well, in all honesty, there were holes in my bucket.  Vacation helped me see that.  I was putting my all into the office, even that can eventually run on fumes.  I have many ideas for new projects, marketing, etc., but they have been on the back burner for months.  The back burner is turning into a cobweb filled attack.

If you are a list writer, take all your "supporting role" chores make that list.  Come up with ways to reduce the time you spend on them.  Get them done in a more efficient manner.  And when you get on the authentic restful sleep routine, you'll have an extra time and energy.

4.  Totally knock out the things that are unproductive.   Back to commitment again.  Here's a few ideas.  They have some pesky emotional  attachments. Skip the little detour to Dunkin Donuts, find ways to avoid the post office, ignore phone  calls during your most productive time of day, set strong boundaries with certain people in your life, (Yep, do it.), give up television.  Here's a biggie: use social media for catching up with family, sharing photos, following a few interests.  I said few.  Give up the rest.   Don't read every comment, don't read every news story shared.  Skip 80% of it.

Now, don't take my word for it.  These are well known strategies to get your life in balance. When you feel the benefits of your Live Like Vacation changeover you will easily kick these time suckers to the curb!

I started out this blog taking things slowly, step by step.  Don't overwhelm yourself.

5.  Make your work joyful for yourself and others.
     Does this make you nervous?   Concentrate on #1-3, jump into #4 later and then you'll be ready for #5.

I'll be there with you doing the same thing myself.

You Do Not Have to Feel Ruffled All Day Long

Have you ever had that ruffled feeling?  You could feel overwhelmed, rushed, and easily agitated.  You can feel like you are unproductive, spinning your wheels and putting out fires.

It's a long day when you feel that way.

 photo courtesy of Redwall Cookbook

What makes it worse is the desire to find comfort in food.  Eating on the run is an example.  Who doesn't dash over to the snack machine in search of a tasty pleasure to help you feel better about the day? The sad part is that you don't feel better, you feel worse.  This just spirals in a negative manner.

Just getting through the day seems to be a major goal with mugs and mugs of hot coffee or endless caffeinated soft drinks.  And the carby comfort foods...Oh boy.

I noticed with an authentically restful sleeping routine, (ARSR) I don't have food cravings.  Actually the midday hunger is easy to appease and then I go right back to my work.

This is just one of the hidden rollover benefits of good sleep.

The Domino Effect begins with good sleep!

Keep the Vacation-Feel......