The Power of Weekends--A Resource for Life Transformation

 

In this brief essay, Dr Vasquez shares a few ideas about how patients can leverage their weekends into health-promoting and life-transforming events.  Weekends give us the time away from our work obligations to explore new ways of living, eating, exercising.

     1) Make a fresh start.

     2) Determine your goals and write them down.

     3) Commit to daily and hourly action to reach your goals.

 

I've been working with patients for almost 20 years now, and in that time I've seen some amazing transformations occur; I've also heard nearly every excuse in the book as to why people say they "can't" take effective action to reach their health goals--goals which are themselves often undefined.

 

1) Make a Fresh Start.

First, I generally try to start from the position of no fault, no blame, and no judgment.  While I do believe that we have personal responsibilities to ourselves, to our families, and to our communities, I also realize that not everyone shares these values.  Within a healthcare setting, I try to keep the focus on health and on identifying and implementing the steps required to overcome the obstacles that block the manifestation of improved health (at least) and vibrant health (at best). 

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Some experts suggest that we as a society have been somewhat "dumbed down"  by our educational systems (no fault of the teachers), by television, and by corporate interests that keeps us addicted to quick fixes--whether we call this fast food or the effortless solution of treating lifestyle diseases with once-a-day drugs.  Americans who receive the typical dose of television are not only subjected to a huge amount of worthless trivia (the intellectual equivalent of devitalized sugar) but they are also subjected to a huge barrage of (mis)information from the drug industry.

“Direct-to-consumer drug ads appeared most frequently during news programs and soap operas and during the middle-afternoon and early-evening hours. Overall, we found that direct-to-consumer drug advertisements occupy a large percentage of network television commercial advertising and, based on time and program placement, many ads may be targeted specifically at women and older viewers.

Our findings suggest that Americans who watch average amounts of television may be exposed to more than 30 hours of direct-to-consumer drug advertisements each year, far surpassing their exposure to other forms of health communication.”

Brownfield ED, Bernhardt JM, Phan JL, Williams MV, Parker RM. Direct-to-consumer drug advertisements on network television: an exploration of quantity, frequency, and placement. J Health Commun. 2004 Nov-Dec;9(6):491-7

So let's start from the perspective that a person is not at fault for for his/her state of poor health, even if it is obvious that the poor health (or simple lack of vitality and energy) is a result of poor choices in diet, lifestyle, nutrition, work, and/or relationships.  Perhaps the problem is caused by or contributed to by alcohol, addictive eating, smoking or unawareness of issues related to mental, emotional, and physical health.

 

If we're not where we are (in relation to our desired health status), the most important questions to ask are those that are related to helping us get back on track--on the "right path."  In order to get on what we consider to be the right path, we have to determine and preferably write down on paper what matters to us.  While these are all unique to the individual, we can also note some generalizations that are pretty much universal across generations, religions, and societies.  I'll leave the religious parts out of this discussion for the most part, although I might make some mention of spirituality or such. 

2) Write down your life goals, your standards, and your health goals. 

I meet a lot of people who seem to have no goals: no goals related to their health, none for their education, none for their spiritual development, none for their families, ...their community, ...their country, ...the environment.  We must all have health goals, even if health per se is not our primary focus in life.  No matter what your life and personal and family and financial goals are the one thing we can be sure of is that they will be more difficult to attain, maintain, and enjoy if your health disintegrates to a condition of chronic pain, disability, and drug side-effects.  Believe me--I see people every day whose lives are ruined--by their standards and anyone else's standards--because of poor choices or simple neglect.  I've seen patients crippled by stroke and liver disease by the time they are in their early 40's because of smoking and excess drinking, respectively.  For these patients, the opportunities for personal success and enjoyment in life are severely limited. 

 

A very simple but very powerful statement that I heard when I was about 20 years old was from  Denis Waitley's program "The Psychology of Winning", in which he said, "You've got to have a dream if you're ever going to make a dream come true."  From his words and from the lectures by his contemporary Earl Nightingale who admonished goal setting and the writing down of one's personal goals, I had learned from a relatively early age to be organized in my thinking and in my planning to be successful in achieving my goals.

The first step in goal achievement is a) taking your own inventory of internal interests and goals and the "external needs" of the world around you: determine what you like, what you want, what holds your interest, and what is important for you and your family and community.  From this constellation of influences, you will be able to gravitate toward what external and internal forces can merge into a concrete goal that satisfies your personal-inner interests with the needs of the external world.

 

Once you know in what general direction you're heading toward, b) make the plan more concrete and real by putting it in writing.  Writing our ideas on paper is the initial means by which we take abstract concepts, random ideas, and feelings and transform them into something real, something palpable, something we can touch and see and show to others for their support or feedback.  Having ideas and feelings is one thing, making them more precise by brining them into physical world by putting them in writing is the first step toward making them real.

 

I think the most important concept to gain from this exercise with goals and interests is that of their interconnectedness.  Your goals are not separate from each other; ideally, they should be appreciated for being interconnected and interdependent.  The achievement of your financial goals impacts your family and community goals; obviously, being financially solvent (i.e., not dependent on friends and relatives, and being able to live independently) and perhaps having some extra money to contribute to a scholarship or a community project shows how financial goals merge with family and social goals.  I might also hope that optimal health is on your list, since it is only with an active daily plan of health optimization that you'll be closer functioning at your best.  Functioning at your best means that you can feel better, enjoy more, work harder, and think more clearly; all of these qualities help you be more successful at home, at work, at school and/or in your community and in your spiritual practice or program of personal development. Optimal health also means fewer (if any) sick days, less pain, and the avoidance of the daily fatigue that most people only wish they could escape from. These benefits are extended long-term with reduced risks for cancer, heart attack, depression, osteoporosis, and various other diseases.

Denis Waitley's program "The Psychology of Winning" is a bit outdated but is still an excellent program overall.

"A metabolic tune-up is likely to have enormous health benefits, particularly for those with inadequate diets such as many of the poor and the elderly who need improvement the most, although it is currently not being addressed adequately by the medical community. The issues discussed here highlight the need to educate the public about the crucial importance of optimal nutrition and the potential health benefits of something as simple and affordable as a daily multivitamin/multimineral supplement. Tuning up metabolism to maximize the human health span will require scientists, clinicians and educators to abandon outdated paradigms of micronutrients merely preventing deficiency disease and explore more meaningful ways to prevent chronic disease and achieve optimal health through optimal nutrition."

 

Ames BN. The metabolic tune-up: metabolic harmony and disease prevention. J Nutr. 2003 May;133(5 Suppl 1):1544S-8S

 

Health goals are commonly related to the following:

• Disease prevention: Avoiding preventable diseases such as lung cancer (smoking, asbestos) and colon cancer (high fat diet, low fiber diet, vitamin D deficiency).  Diabetes and obesity are clearly and most obviously linked directly and irrefutably to insufficient exercise and excess calorie (mostly sugar) consumption.

• Avoidance of pain and disability: Optimal diet = optimal weight = less risk for degenerative joint diseases.  Obese patients have more joint destruction and suffer from more pain.  Deficiency of vitamin D is very common in patients with chronic pain.

• Ability to perform at a higher level--physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually: A clear mind depends upon proper nutrition and a digestive tract that is not burdened with excess bacteria; when people overeat carbohydrates and junk foods this commonly results in "bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine" which can result in headache, fatigue, dizziness and confusion.  At its most extreme, intestinal bacterial overgrowth (a condition called short bowel syndrome or arthritis-dermatitis syndrome) can actually cause coma and death.

• Ability to provide for and contribute to family and community: We can support our families and communities best when we are fully healthy and when we can bring all of our best spontaneity, resourcefulness, and intelligence to each minute of each hour, and to each solution for each problem.  Imagine two identical twins: one ate poorly and developed obesity, diabetes, and renal failure (requiring mechanical dialysis every other day for 6 hours) while the other took the time to learn about and then maintain his health--which of these twins with the same genes will be happier and a more productive member of the community, workforce, and family.

• Optimal health and vitality to allow fulfillment of educational, recreational, and occupational goals: People who are healthier physically are able to circumvent the avoidable pain, depression, social isolation, and shame associated with obesity, diabetes, mental problems, multiple surgeries and "visits to the hospital" and the "need" for multiple drugs.  The choice to exercise and eat well is the choice to be fit enough to go hiking and enjoy the view from the top of the mountain; the choice to overeat and become obese is the choice to have joint replacement surgery and/or have to depend on pain drugs, crutches, and wheelchairs.  The choice to become knowledgeable about health and diet is to become empowered and to direct one's own destiny; the choice to remain unknowledgeable is to put oneself on a downwardly spiraling track toward otherwise avoidable disease, medicalization, and hospitalization.

• Weight optimization: You can easily calculate your body mass index (BMI) by clicking on the printable sheet below.  The chart does not lie.  No excuses for big bones, a big frame, a heavy family, or "I've always been big." 

  1. Optimal BMI is 18-24. 

  2. Use the chart to determine where you are now and then circle that box and draw a line to the box that has your optimal BMI. 

  3. Use simple math to determine how much weight you need to lose (assuming you might be among the obese and overweight Americans depicted in the chart of US obesity prevalence).

  4. People who are serious about their weight loss programs typically lose 8 lbs per month; that's only 2 lbs per week. 

  5. Use your weight loss goal (how many lbs need to be shed) and the average loss of 8 lbs per month to give your goal a timeframe.  If you need to lose 40 lbs, then you can expect to have this achieved in 5 months if you stay committed and reasonably diligent.  Remember, people who achieve a loss of 8 lbs per month are not superheroes; they are normal people who decided to get out of their own casket and start living, enjoying life, eating healthier, and exercising more.  As a result, these people lost weight, learned new skills like kayaking and running and dance, met new friends, and regained the lost self-esteem that they did not even know was missing because it had been gone for so long.

"Although some patients can achieve highly significant improvements in various parameters such as glycemic [blood sugar] control and blood pressure without significant weight loss, the fact remains that obesity is a risk factor and often the primary determinant for heart disease as well as osteoarthritis, many types of cancer, and significant but immeasurable (and generally unspoken) suffering associated with low self esteem, inefficacy, social isolation, and depression."

 

Vasquez A. Chiropractic Management of Chronic Hypertension. 2010

See Dr Vasquez's video for more details about achieving optimal health through optimal nutrition.

3) Use integrity and persistence to fuel yourself toward the achievement of your goals through action on a daily and hourly basis. 

Once you've determined your life goals, your standards, and your health goals then the next step is to make them real by writing them down.  To make them even more real, share them with your spouse or partner or best friends; this is an act of trust, emotional intimacy, and community-building.

 

Integrity simply means that we honor our word and we honor our commitment to what we state is important.  I once attended a weekend personal growth seminar and the speaker said, "If you are a runner and you go running on a beautiful sunny day...that is not an example of integrity.  You prove that you have integrity when its cold and raining and you still go running."

 

For people with exercise goals, integrity means having a plan on a daily basis that includes their exercise regimen.  Current exercise guidelines from the US CDC state that Americans should be aiming for 1 hour of exercise per day: that is 5 hours of aerobic exercise per week (such as running, jogging, swimming, kayaking, hiking,... [see our list of exercise options]) and 2 hours per week of resistance training, namely calisthenics or weight lifting.

 

For people with diet goals, integrity means having a plan to eat responsibly.  Generally this means planning ahead, taking a few extra minutes to prepare a lunch (you'll save time later by not having to wait in line at the cafeteria or fast food restaurant, and by not having to wait at the doctor's office), or having the integrity to say "No, thank you" when the high-fat and high-sugar foods are being offered.  You can enjoy many great deserts and many of our recipes; the more you exercise and the more strict your diet is on a regular basis, the more you'll be able to splurge and cheat for special occasions and to reward yourself for achieving your goals.

 

Personally, I love food.  And I love to exercise.  Sometimes I think that I love food more than exercise.  But I've chosen to tame my love of delicious food for the sake of maintaining my target body weight (and body fat percentage of <10%) and some other fitness goals.  As a result of dietary discipline and exercise enthusiasm, I get to feel good throughout the day--not just during an over indulgent lunch or other meal.  I love the healthy foods that we eat and offer to our friends and customers.  I fully believe--based on what I've seen clinically and in my own life and the lives of friends and family members--that the union of my 5-part nutrition protocol along with a regular program of vigorous exercise is the best plan for disease prevention and health optimization.  And the scientific world agrees with me.  My textbooks, articles, seminars, and patient care protocols are backed by thousands of scientific research articles from the medical literature.  Often times, the biggest obstacle to a person's improvement or optimization of their own health status is the fact that they won't get out of their own way; some patients won't give themselves permission to have personal time, to exercise, or to feed themselves with a healthy diet that conveys respect for who they are.  It can take time, effort, refection, and therapy to help a person to unleash their true potential and to feel worthy of the healthy self-love that self-care requires, creates, and reinforces.  But people who surmount these external and internal obstacles generally go on to feel that it was worth the effort, and they enjoy greater health, greater physical strength and flexibility, and a higher level of happiness than people who do not take the necessary action.  In the words of Johann von Goethe (1749-1832),

 

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.

 

Willing is not enough; we must do.”