And Now for Something Completely Different: Dr. J's Guides for Healthy Living

"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)

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Introduction: While I have been writing on politics and history, off and on, since I was in high school, my professional career was spent in preventive medicine and public health. I was a founding member of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the School of Medicine, Stony brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y., from the spring of 1971 until I retired in Jan. 2014. (As it happens, the day, Jan. 4, 2024, on which I am writing this column, is the 10th anniversary of my retirement.) Over my time there, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to deal with a variety of subjects, from, e.g., the organization of the U.S. health care delivery system (I created the first textbook on the subject, now in its 12th ed., although I have not been active on it since the 7th), to recreational/addictive drug policy reform on which I wrote a number of papers leading up to a book on the subject too.

As for the subject of this column, when I was in my early 40's, having been a non-athlete (except for downhill skiing) for all of my life, I became convinced that because I was a Professor of Preventive Medicine, I should begin promoting my own health. Showing the flag, as it were. And so, at that relatively late age, I turned to healthy eating and regular exercise in my own life. As it happened, I eventually became a recreational triathlete, doing 256 triathlons (swim-bike-run) and duathlons (run-bike-run) over the 37 years I participated in multi-sport racing.

And yes, I started writing in that sport --- the first book was "Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals" (1986, still available on Amazon) --- and I eventually wrote and co-wrote a number of books and many columns for a variety of publications on the two related sports, and more widely on regular exercise and yes, healthy eating. I retired from racing in 2018, at the age of 81. (Oh man, it is fun being in those shrinking-in-number 5-year age-groups as one gets older.) But I still maintain a regular workout schedule on my indoor bike and a variety of machines, and keep up with my (relatively) healthy eating too.

At any rate, this is a very long introduction to what I am going to share with you in this column, my series of sayings/maxims/and guides-to-healthy-living that I have developed over the years of working out regularly (year-round, by the way), racing, and writing about my sports, regular exercise, and healthy eating. They are presented in no particular order of importance. Hopefully, if you are interested in promoting you own health (and hopefully are already doing so, but would like some help in so doing) you will find one or more of what I call my "Guides for Healthy Living" to be helpful. They are presented without additional commentary. As it happens, a number of my books on the several topics are available on Amazon.

And so: "Dr. Steven Jonas' Guides to Health Living"

1. Gradual change leads to permanent changes.

2. Explore your limits; recognize your limitations.

3. Health has a natural history, just as any disease does.

4. Healthy bodily/mental status is produced by a spectrum of behaviors and states of being, not just one.

5. Achieving balance in life and living, for yourself and with yourself is the key. (Of course, we credit the ancient Greeks for that one.)

6. With credit to the great writer-on-running, Dr. George Sheehan, who attracted so many people into that sport in the 1970s and 80s: Excellence is being the best "you," you can be.

7. Control what you can control; don't try to control what you cannot. (The alternate to the second part of that sentence is: let go of what you cannot [control].)

8. Since perfection is unobtainable, trying to achieve it is a negative, not a positive. Alternatively, we can say that since we cannot achieve perfection, perfection ism is destructive.

9. Keep an open mind; you never know what you might find in there.

10. Don't live with regret (e.g. "why didn't I start sooner[?]); it can only pull you down.

11. When something that appears to be bad happens, how do you know that it's a misfortune.

12. "Motivation" is a mental process that connects a thought or a feeling with an action.

13. Focus on what you are doing right, not on what you are doing wrong.

14. Make changes one at a time; trying to do it all at once is more than most brains can handle.

15. Better to have too much to do than too little.

16. And yes, better late than never.

17. If you treat your body right, it will treat you right.

18. If you are open to growth, you will always grow; if you are open to learning, you will always learn.

19. Other than how it is affected by disease, age is partly in your body; but it is also partly in your head.

20. And finally, we can never be perfect, we can always get better.