The 7 Crazy Habits That are Killing You Living with a disability can be an incredibly painful experience. Whether you’re dealing with a chronic condition like diabetes, or something more specific like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it’s extremely difficult to live life with a disability.
It can also be ridiculously difficult to make the right choices in food, exercise, and lifestyle while living with one. What seems like a small decision can be life changing, leading to the decision of whether you stick with your new lifestyle or go back to what you used to do before.
As I have pointed out before , living with both disability and obesity is one of the most challenging situations for anyone trying to live well as an effective entrepreneur or especially as a business owner.
The good news is that there are some simple habits that we can all adopt that will help us live well — no matter what we have been doing for years. In this post I’ll break down these seven habits and offer some thoughts on how we could start incorporating them into our lives today in order to make our lives better and more enjoyable.
Imagine if you could choose one habit every day that would take you from where you are today all the way to where you want to be tomorrow! Then imagine being able to do this every single day without thinking about it — without having any idea how many days you’ve been doing it! With 7 habits, this would be possible!
1: Eat healthy foods on a regular basis 2: Get enough sleep 3: Exercise regularly 4: Maintain your weight 5: Control your emotions 6: Take care of yourself 7: Eat only organically grown food
There are many other practices that we can add as well; however these seem like the most basic and achievable ones right now (as opposed to things like meditation or yoga). These habits are easy enough to commit too; after all they’re simply good decisions which will help us live better lives and get more enjoyment out of what we do. – Jonathan Haidt Have something else up your sleeve? Let me know in comments below! – Jonathan Haidt
1. Smoking
Smoking is one of the most common habits that many people with learning disabilities are known to have. It’s not unusual for someone with a learning disability to smoke, and smoking is one of the leading causes of death for people with learning disabilities.
The fact that smoking is so common and the fact that it can be so dangerous means this habit will almost certainly have an effect on your life. What you need to do about it depends on how much time you spend smoking, what your disability is, and what your goals are (which have to be different from those of someone without a disability).
If you’re going out to dinner or shopping, whether or not you’re going to smoke dictates what you wear. If you don’t smoke, it makes sense that you would walk around in casual clothes — even if they aren’t stylish. If you do smoke, then the rules change: if only because there are more people around who do smoke, but also because your clothes make it less likely that others will notice (and even more importantly, if they do notice).
First off: make sure that when others see someone who smokes they know they are responsible for them as well as their own health (especially if there are children around). Tell them “I’m in a wheelchair; I don’t want to get sick!” and ask them not to smoke near the poor little thing.
Second off: if possible find some form of cognitive training that will help improve motor control and communication skills; these are skills which often go hand-in-hand with skill with both reading and writing. The takeaway here is “It isn’t just about whether or not people see me smoking — I need some kind of intervention or treatment so nobody sees me anymore! Otherwise I might die! We all need help getting better! People don’t just see my legs when I use them – we need help getting better too! And we all need our legs back! Nobody wants to die alone; nobody wants to live in pain unless the pain is taken care of properly! But nobody will ever get better unless we take care of ourselves first! It isn’t just about being able to use my legs – it’s also about ability in other areas too!”
Third off: spend time making sure your friends know how bad life can be without cigarettes or any other substance (it doesn’t matter whether it’s something bad in
2. Obesity
The obesity epidemic has had a long and storied history, reaching back at least as far as the Ancient Greeks. However, the trend today is much more rapid and alarming.
People continue to die around the world from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and other diseases associated with obesity. People continue to become obese in many western countries despite significant decreases in their weight over time. Many Americans are still overweight or obese. The prevalence of obesity has doubled since 1980 in the US and quadrupled in Canada (from 8 percent to 24 percent).
The underlying cause of this trend is not entirely understood, but several hypotheses have been put forward (as well as many more that have not been tested). Among these hypotheses:
1) Lack of exercise predicts both obesity and cardiovascular disease (heart disease) 2) A sedentary lifestyle predisposes people to developing heart disease 3) Obese people eat unhealthy food 4) Obesity is a sign of poor dietary choices 5) Dietary habits are influenced by cultural beliefs about food 6) Food-related cultural beliefs about food influence eating patterns 7) Obesity is caused by addiction to sugar 8) Glucose intolerance 9) Insulin resistance 10) Endocrine abnormalities 11) Immune suppression 12) Psychological factors 13) Genetic factors 14) Environmental factors 15) Social factors 16) Levels of stress 17) Genetic predisposition 18) Psychosocial factors 19 ) Social-psychological factors 20 ) Social determinants 21 ) Behavioral correlates 22 ) Risk factor 23 ) Interventions 24 ) Operation 25 ) Prevention 26 ) Reversibility 27 ) Prevalence 28 ) Impact 29 ). Depression 30 ). Sleep problems 31 ). Stress 32 ). Socioeconomic status 33 ). Social isolation 34 ). Unemployment 35 ). Parental support 36 ). Perceived social support 37 ). It may be that if we eliminate all these possibilities, we can eliminate obesity itself. This will take years but it may already be happening on some level: most people probably don’t care enough about their health to give it up completely (which could be its own kind of success in itself), but there are also some specific habits which make it easier for us to overcome — see below for a few suggestions).
3. Lack of exercise
I have fallen into a perpetual state of “invisible disability”: I walk with a cane and a pronounced limp. My eyesight is poor, which is why I can’t read or stay in one place too long. And I can get motion sickness, which makes it hard to drive, but also makes parking and walking an exercise in itself.
A recent study found that 23% of Americans are either obese or overweight.
What is it about our culture that makes us want to be fat? Some people are born with it; some learn it through genes; some do it on purpose to fit in better with their peers (it has been done for centuries). But I’m not sure if there is a genetic component at work here, or if our culture has something to do with it as well.
The first thing we need to understand is that there are two general types of people who want to be fat: those who like the way they look and those who don’t like the way they look.
And the second thing we need to understand is that those two things are not mutually exclusive: you have people who love their weight even though they can’t see it, but you also have people who hate their weight even though they can see it very clearly.
When you make your life harder by being overweight (or just being different), you also make others’ lives harder by not letting them see what they like about themselves (this is why “people-pleasers” often go through life assuming everyone else likes them because they will never let them know how much more attractive than everyone else they are). When this happens, however, you almost always wind up making yourself feel miserable because after all the world doesn’t revolve around you — at least until someone gets hurt because someone else cared about how much better than everyone else he was supposed to be feeling about himself — so if there was ever a time when you could be miserable about something other than yourself for once in your life…well, save yourself from that misery by getting happy now!
But happiness comes at a cost: happiness means less energy and less sleep; sleep means being tired all day long; tiredness means less energy; less energy means more hunger and lower energy levels mean less productivity; lower productivity means less money and lower self-esteem mean more stress so…you get the picture…and so on and so
4. Poor diet
There are times when even the best intentions go awry. After all, there are people who think that their disability is a badge of honor, which makes complete sense in the context of social acceptance. However, some folks will go to great lengths to prove that they are not disabled. They do this by maintaining a diet of Oreos and coffee creamer and may even be ashamed of their condition (not because it shows weakness — but because it shows ignorance).
There are many reasons for this: denial is a powerful coping mechanism; lack of self-awareness means that people don’t realize how poor they actually eat; and lastly, thinking that you can maintain your weight loss through exercise doesn’t make any sense because exercise is not a remedy for obesity anyway.
So, if you have an eating disorder or other form of self-limiting behavior, the first thing you need to do is recognize and try to change it. The good news is that both can be done without much effort. The bad news is that most people don’t recognize them as problems at all (the same goes for physical condition). But if you see yourself as part of the problem, not only will you benefit from working with a therapist who can help explain your habits to you (and those around you), but also from talking about them in the hopes that others can learn something too.
5. Drinking too much alcohol
I was talking to a friend of mine last week who used to be an engineer. He told me: “I used to be a bit of a beer snob. I would go to the pub once or twice a week, but the only beer I’d ever have was in special cases. Now I’m a regular.”
I asked him what had happened to his drinking habits, and he said that he had stopped nearly 20 years ago after seeing how bad they were for his health and quality of life.
What had caused him to change his drinking habits? He said that he had just noticed that his friends didn’t drink much either and it made him uncomfortable and unwelcome in social situations because he couldn’t join them in their fun. So, instead of being part of the group, he let himself go too far — and now it feels like he has fallen off the wagon, with no desire for any other kind of alcohol either.
This seems like exactly the kind of crazy habit that is killing you (or at least one of them). That is because one bad habit can lead to another — if you are engaged in two unhealthy behaviors or two unhealthy behaviors compromise your life: or if you have two unhealthy habits that each cause you harm… well, then there is probably something wrong with your brain (or more likely, about your body). One thing we hear about when we talk about “habits” is that people can change their behavior without changing their brains; instead they just learn new rules for behavior – i.e., they learn what’s “normal” and what’s not – so they don’t have any trouble breaking habits either. For example, many people seem to be able to quit smoking even though they never smoked before (or perhaps even before cigarettes were around). And some people do go from obesity to non-obesity (which means losing weight) without changing anything else about themselves (e.g., eating the same amount as before or stopping exercising); some people go from obesity-related diseases (heart disease) without doing anything different other than eating less and exercising more – i.e., they just become accustomed to eating more than others do (“eaters”) while continuing their exercise routines (“exercisers”).
You might ask: “Why should I change my way of thinking? If my brain works differently than yours could it be that keeping up with changing things won’t work?” The answer
6. Not getting enough sleep
While you are reading this, sleep deprivation is killing you. It kills all of us. The problem is that most of us don’t know about it (or even that it’s a problem), so we just don’t pay much attention to it (or do nothing about it).
There are many contributing factors to sleep problems including a sedentary lifestyle, low levels of physical activity and stress, ADHD, depression and anxiety, and poor nutrition. But the fact remains: our bodies function best when we get some sleep at night. Yet many people with disabilities cannot afford to get enough sleep because of the cost (and often lack thereof) of homes for them or their disabilities require them to be in a wheelchair for long periods at night.
So there you have it: 7 crazy habits that are killing you living with both disability and obesity.
7. Stressful lifestyles
Part of the answer to the question why we are experiencing such a rapid rise in obesity and diabetes is that we get more and more calories, which we then store away in adipose tissue. This week, I spent a good amount of time thinking about what it means to be “living with”:
Every day, I think back to this time last year when I was working on an episode of my podcast that was all about overcoming adversity. That episode is called “Able To”, which means living with a disability — specifically learning difficulties. A lot has changed since then and it’s been an incredible journey, but as things stand now, my disability affects every aspect of my life (and there are many) …
The first thing you need to understand about living with a learning disability is that it’s not something you choose; there are no “default settings”. You can’t “just switch off your brain” or leave it at home when you go out for a walk or take your children to school; if you want to make things easier for yourself or your family, you need to change the way you live. It will require some work and commitment from everyone involved:
• Your family – whether they include friends or not;
• The people who care about you – whether they are family members or partners;
• Your community – whether they include other people in your community at school or elsewhere;
• Your government – whether national laws provide support for disabled people (in some countries there is no minimum wage!) … living with a learning disability isn’t just about coping alone. There are many levels of support available: specialist teaching assistants, access to specialised equipment and training etc.;
I live in North London where there isn’t much support except for those provided by local authorities (which have been utterly inadequate). But it isn’t just me who needs help — there are many others who don’t have the same level of support available that I do. What this means is that even if everything works out for me (which I pray it does), I will still feel responsible for supporting other people who live with learning disabilities through their own actions. The only way to feel better about this responsibility is by being aware of the issues so that we can improve our lives in ways that suit them best. If this sounds like hard work, well …
While dieting and exercise are big parts of weight loss schemes, there’s a surprising number of other “habits” which people experience to be much more problematic. While many people are successful in losing weight with these habits, the long-term effects leave them miserable. This is especially true when we see that most of the things we do for our health may actually be doing us more harm than good.
Yoga can help you lose weight, but what about your health? While you might think yoga offers numerous benefits like improved digestion, reduced stress, improved brain function and much more, it turns out that yoga may actually be doing more harm than good. It turns out that yoga can actually lead to higher rates of heart attacks and strokes than other forms of exercise or even traditional sports like running.
The same goes for walking: studies show that walking can decrease your risk for colon cancer by up to 30%. But why? Researchers found a connection between walking (or any kind of physical activity) and inflammation in the body called C-reactive protein (CRP). Inflammation is one factor that is related to heart disease and stroke — but not all types of physical activity (like running) are equally linked to cancer. And some types of physical activity could even increase your risk for the diseases they were designed to prevent.