Highlights of this issue

◎ If you can’t be “absolutely healthy”, can you only “completely give up”?

◎ With these methods, no matter how busy you are

◎ Why do you still need to “clear the silt” in addition to healthy habits?

Health is one of the biggest pain points for modern people, especially modern office workers: we all know the importance of health and have collected a lot of health advice, but unfortunately we just can’t do it!

Many health suggestions on the market can really help your health if you can do it, but it takes a lot of time and energy to do it, which is unrealistic for people who are busy with work.

So if you can’t maintain “absolutely healthy living habits”, are you destined to “completely mess up”?

Of course not. On the one hand, managing health does not necessarily need to be complicated. You can focus on “clearing stagnation and preventing stagnation”. Because “all diseases are caused by stagnation”, preventing stagnation can also prevent many sub-health problems and multiple chronic diseases.

Some people may ask: Doesn’t it require a strict healthy life to prevent stagnation? If you can do it, of course it’s best; if your work and life are complicated and you lack time and energy, there is actually a compromise between “absolute health” and “messing up”.

In this article, Dianhetang summarizes several simple and easy-to-practice health suggestions for people who are busy with life and work.

Diet

You could eat well even when you are busy

In response to the difficulties that office workers may face in healthy eating, Dianhetang proposes the following adjustment suggestions. You can choose the ones that are easy for you to practice according to your own situation.

1、Prepare meals on the weekend and enjoy homemade meals in minutes

If you don’t have time to buy groceries and cook every day, especially if you can’t cook all three meals yourself, you can search the keyword “weekly meal preparation” on the Internet.

By scientifically processing and preserving dishes, you can prepare three meals a week (at least dinner) in advance by spending a morning or afternoon on the weekend. Then you can bring them to the company on weekdays or get home from get off work and just microwave them for a few minutes to enjoy a healthy, homemade, nutritious meal.

2、Eat takeout like this to reduce the harm to your health

If you really don’t have the time and energy to cook for yourself, you can still eat relatively healthily by referring to the following principles of ordering/eating takeout.

Best to avoid

Dry pot, dry stir-fry, red oil maocai, boiled fish/meat slices, spicy hot pot/mixed, fried skewers, barbecue, snail noodles, fried chicken/French fries and other takeout foods with high oil, salt and sugar content.

Recommended choice

Clear soup maocai (choose more vegetables and lean meat), light salad (if the sauce is high in fat and sugar, only add half), steamed vegetables, clear soup or three-fresh wonton/rice noodles/noodles, original beef noodles, sushi, etc. This type of takeout can better taste the freshness of the ingredients and the cooking method is also lighter.

A relatively healthier way to eat

● When eating poultry, you can remove the skin, choose more beef, fish and shrimp, and less pork, especially pork belly which is high in fat.

● For particularly greasy food, you can add a bowl of boiling water to rinse off the excess oil.

● The portions of takeout are often large, and it is easy to eat all the food without realizing it while watching the “electronic pickled mustard tuber”, so when ordering, you can make a note to order less staple food, or take out the portion that exceeds your 80% fullness in advance and put it in the company refrigerator or your own thermal bag (so as not to eat too much and not waste it).

● When eating, you can eat vegetables first, then meat, and finally staple food in this order (to slow down the rate of blood sugar rise and avoid drowsiness caused by sudden rise and fall of blood sugar).

● It is best to avoid takeaway drinks such as milk tea. If you can’t help but want to drink, it is recommended to:

• Choose “no added sugar” or “small amount of natural sweetener”.

• Milk tea toppings are high in sugar, so don’t add them if you can.

• Choose milk tea that uses real milk and freshly brewed tea (many cheap milk teas are made with creamer, flavoring additives, saccharin, etc., which is very unhealthy).

• For coffee, it is recommended to choose Americano and pure latte without sugar or cream topping (various fancy coffees may contain a lot of sugar and too much fat).

• It is not recommended to drink tea or coffee after 4 pm, otherwise it may affect sleep.

● Learn to read the ingredient list, and you can buy healthier processed foods at convenience stores:

• Try to choose foods with simple ingredients (few ingredients, 3-5, or all ingredients are natural ingredients);

• Generally speaking, the higher the ingredients are on the ingredient list, the higher the content is, so you can choose foods with sugar and various additives listed later;

• Avoid foods containing unhealthy added sugars (aspartame, acesulfame potassium, cyclamate, saccharin, etc.) and trans fatty acids (hydrogenated vegetable oils, refined vegetable oils, shortening, margarine, vegetable cream, vegetable butter, etc.).

Sports

No matter how busy you are, you can still move

If you are struggling to carve out a block of time for regular, intense exercise and don’t have time to go to the gym, then you may find the following principles and tips for increasing your activity level useful.

1. Exercise principles for busy lives

Don’t underestimate the importance of light activities

As long as you move, even if it’s just very light activities such as standing and walking from time to time, it can bring benefits to the body. For example, it can help us activate the “lipoprotein lipase” in the body from time to time. This is a small “liposuction device” in our body. Keeping it active to a certain extent will prevent our body from completely entering a “dormant state.”

Even simply stretching can speed up your body’s circulation, so any light activity is more beneficial than sitting for a long time.

The total duration of the activity is not the most important

The total duration of activity is less important than the reasonable frequency of activity. For example, it is better to stand up and move for 3-10 minutes every 1-1.5 hours instead of sitting for more than 5 or 6 hours after continuous activity for 1 hour.

• Exercises that can be done without a whole block of time

● Get off the bus one stop earlier on your way to or from get off work, and add 10-15 minutes of walking time.

● Just getting up 5-8 minutes earlier, shaking your body, twisting your head and waist can help wake up your body and get rid of sleepiness.

● People who do not have knee problems can climb stairs instead of taking the elevator (if going downstairs hurts your knees, try to take the elevator).

● Just stand up and walk around for 2-3 minutes every 1-1.5 hours of sitting, or stand and look out the window (and relax your eyes at the same time). If you are really busy, at least stretch and turn your head.

● Stand for at least 15 minutes after a meal, and take a walk downstairs in the office building if you have time.

● If conditions permit, you can upgrade the desk in your office or home to a height-adjustable desk so that you can combine standing and sitting to work.

● You can find some inexpensive and high-quality small office exercise equipment on the Internet, which allows you to exercise your lower body while working, thus achieving both work and exercise.

Sleep

Sleep less, but try to sleep better

It is of course better to achieve 7-8 hours of continuous sleep if possible, but no matter how many hours you can sleep, or even if you have to stay up late, the following suggestions can help you improve your sleep quality or reduce the harm of staying up late.

1. Improve your sleep quality by doing this

● Do not eat 3-4 hours before going to bed, and do not drink water 1-2 hours before going to bed.

● 1-2 hours before bedtime, read or listen to soothing music instead of checking your phone (the blue light from the screen may inhibit the production of melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone).

● Soaking your feet before bed can relieve fatigue and help you fall asleep quickly.

● Choosing a pillow with good breathability, height and softness that suits you can help improve your sleep quality to a certain extent.

● The bedroom temperature can be adjusted to 18°-23°, which is suitable for sleeping.

● The scents of plants such as lavender, chrysanthemum, and agarwood can help nourish the heart and calm the mind. You can place some prepared sachets/aromatherapy beside the bed.

• Reduce the harm of staying up late

● Staying up late can easily cause the body to lose water, so you can replenish warm water appropriately during the period (drink slowly in small sips), and you can also use a humidifier when the climate is dry.

● You can take a nap for 1-2 hours before staying up late.

● When you stay up late and feel hungry, don’t eat greasy takeout to avoid adding burden to your body. Instead, choose low-sugar fruits, tomatoes, cucumbers and other fruits and vegetables with yogurt, or low-burden and filling foods such as tremella soup as midnight snacks.

● For every hour you stay up late, close your eyes and rest for 10 minutes.

● You can take a hot bath after staying up late to speed up your body’s circulation and activate your body.

● Be sure to eat breakfast after staying up late to replenish the nutrients and energy needed by the body in time.

External force to remove stagnation

Clear away stagnation frequently, so that there will be no blockage.

No matter how many of the health tips listed above you are able to put into practice, doing them is better than doing nothing.

However, bad living habits will always aggravate the occurrence of congestion. After all, even if living habits are good, congestion will continue to occur during normal metabolism and aging. When congestion accumulates to a certain extent, it will lead to prostatitis, prostatic hyperplasia, dysmenorrhea, premature ovarian failure, gout, kidney stones and other problems [1]. Therefore, it is so necessary to use external force to clear the congestion!

It can be said that dredging is important in any physical condition [2] (if you are middle-aged, have a slow metabolism, or have suffered from various types of “congestion diseases”, it is even more necessary to put dredging on the agenda in a timely manner).

So how can we use external force to remove stagnation?

Comprehensive removal of stagnation requires a combination of dispersing nodules and nourishing the body; and because it needs to be used daily, it not only requires the selection of suitable raw materials and precise proportions, but the “medicinal and edible homology” of the raw materials is also critical.

Based on the traditional medical wisdom of more than 2,000 years, and in accordance with the treatment concepts of modern Chinese medicine, we can summarize several Chinese medicinal raw materials that are particularly outstanding in dispersing nodules, promoting blood circulation, removing dampness, promoting urination, clearing heat, and replenishing the body:

Bee pollen, dandelion, houttuynia, purslane, poria, platycodon, peach kernel

Among them, bee pollen is known as the “all-round nutritious food”, and the next six common plant raw materials are all items of food and medicine listed in Appendix 1 “List of Items That Are Both Food and Medicine” in the “Notice on Further Standardizing the Management of Health Food Ingredients” promulgated by the Ministry of Health, and are suitable for daily use.

Note: It is best for ordinary people not to formulate their own medicines. It is difficult for ordinary people to grasp the ratio of medicinal flavors, they do not have a deep understanding of pharmacology, and it is difficult for them to distinguish the quality of medicinal materials. Moreover, the effects of medicinal materials are not simply additive. It is also difficult for ordinary people to know whether different raw materials will produce certain toxicity when combined together. Therefore, formulation and prescription still require the help of professional forces.

Knowledge Development

[1] Various problems/diseases caused by “stasis”

[2]The significance of “clearing stagnation” for various physical conditions