Healthy Wealthy Journey

Sometimes being wealthy isn’t about the cash, it’s about doing the right thing.  There is no price on doing the right thing.

Throughout my career, I have never taken networking too seriously because a job path has been laid out clearly before through the academic system from being a student to becoming a tenured professor.  In this I always assumed that networking wasn’t so important since it’s the quality of work that should speak for itself and open doors for moving forward.  However, in considering an alternate career path it has become much more obvious how important the network is, and how it could have helped me in an academic career (and is doing so now).  For academics, it’s important for gaining ideas on funding, publicizing your work (citations!), getting new ideas, and also knowing how to move on from each step to the next.  This last point is where I did not realize I needed the most help, as doing research has always come naturally and being a bit different in my approach has led to innovation, but there are certain expectations at each stage of the game that must be met.  Taking a bit of time to network and asking the correct questions, can save an invaluable amount of time wasted from not having a network and working hard doing the wrong things.  It’s also a meter of success for how relevant your work is, because accomplishing goals of interest to your network is more likely going to benefit the community than something produced in isolation.

Failure is inevitable and life is unfair.  That’s just the way it is, and when faced with setbacks there are always two choices, to try even harder than before or to stop and move on.  I used to consider trying even harder as the only available option for success, but sometimes the cost of continuing on a project outweighs the benefits.  The most important thing is to progress through growing yourself and moving towards a higher state.  It’s okay to admit failure and move to something more meaningful, if the project doesn’t live up to it’s initial expectations.

So, it’s been one year since we have adopted our doggie, and it is amazing the difference in life quality we have received through having a little buddy around on a daily basis.  My wife had been wanting a dog or animal ever since we moved to Switzerland, but due to our uncertainty in where we’d be in the future we always put it aside until we would be more able to take care of it consistently in the future.  However, after a series of bad events, we decided to get a dog to increase the happiness around the home.  Having our doggie around on a daily basis is a chance to appreciate the simple things in life, where a walk in the woods can be the ultimate most fulfilling activity possible, especially from the perspective of a dog.  Although it’s quite a bit of work to take care of on a daily basis, the benefits in happiness our little friend brings us far outweighs the cost and it’s amazing how many more people we have had to chance to connect with out and about since we have had the dog.

So, most of my posts so far have focused on the healthy part of my journey, but wealth is also important.  These often go hand in hand, and when referring to wealth I consider many things beyond monetary wealth, although that is important.  Wealth refers to having a plentiful supply, and this can refer to topics including social, spiritual, emotional, and physical wealth.  Some of the steps I’ve taken is simply spending more time with my wife, taking the initiate to visit important social gatherings, and spending a bit more time in the coffee room speaking with co-workers.  In terms of monetary wealth, my wife and I taking steps and decisions towards being more financially stable and secure.  We find that all of these aspects go full circle back to the healthy eating habits, for instance when doing a juice fast we save money compared to what we’d normally eat and we become healthier while doing so.  This is a win-win, not everything positive has to come with a negative trade-off.

In the future I’ll take a bit more time to focus in my weekly updates, and also support the site with general information and a make-over.  However, an update every week that is consistent is a positive first step in my journey and I hope to begin integrating and participating with like-minded people soon while providing valuable content and updates once other aspects of life become a bit more stable (e.g. having a secure job!).

Since the juice fast, I have felt very good.  It’s amazing to both me and my wife that it has only been a week since we finished because we have accomplished so much.  Each day feels longer and I am able to wake up consistently at about 5:30am and make it through the whole day until feeling tired around 8 or so.  I’m concentrating on the wealthy part of my life now and doing some new job applications and not worrying about my weight and health too much right now except to maintain and prepare a new juice fast for next week to drop some of my remaining pounds.  My wife and I are much happier and fun now, and amazingly made a trip to our favorite junk food store after a long walk with the dog and didn’t buy a single thing. Progress feels good =)

On the first day with no solid foods at all, except for the flax.  Felt good for the most part, a bit sluggish throughout the day and was really looking forward to the tomato soup for dinner.  The herbal tea is very nice to drink throughout the day and my hunger only hit me a few times, but it wasn’t too tempting to break off the plan due to the conviction to follow when we started.

The rest of the week went by without too much troubles.  I never really had a strong hunger, and was surprised by how easy everything went.  By the end though I was very ready to eat again, even though during the fast it seemed like I could do it indefinitely.

I am planning to do another wellness week in the future, both to lose weight and to reboot my eating habits.  I’d say the flax really helped for not needing to eat throughout the day and the juices were very satisfying.  When I ate potato chips after the fast, I realized how unfulfilling they were in comparison to more robust food choices that leave you more satisfied and are healthier.  In the future I would plan to use a different assortment of juices compared to what was provided in the fast, which concentrated primarily on fruit juices.

Today marks a first step in my health journey.  It seems for months I have been trying to rise myself out of a rut of bad habits and bad circumstances, and for every temporary adjustment of my habits a yo-yo effect towards unhealthy habits followed.

I am trying with my wife a Biotta juice fast, it is a seven day program with a transition day to begin and end.  Today I completed the first transition day which included three meals and juice.  The next five days is juice only, with herbal tea and flax seeds.  I’m a bit worried about how tough it will be, but from what I’ve found in the past big challenges are not so difficult if you go in with a strong mind and dedication.

I’ve been preparing for this fast for a few weeks now, and I’m dedicated to finishing it no matter how hard the week is.  And hey, if my wife’s there doing it with me, at least we’re both suffering together.

 

P.S. pic credit goes to my lovely wife

Life is more about the journey than the destination, here we are pursuing life as a process and enjoying the present path.

In this blog, we will cover topics to support happy and healthy living, with wealth being a natural byproduct.  Of course this includes monetary wealth as a factor, but more importantly how to use the wealth wisely to improve healthy and happiness.

Everyone’s journey is different, here we will explore the tools and processes to help you build your own journey and traverse your path successfully.