Tag: health

5 Habits for 2026 you can start small now

Here’s the thing: habits do not form overnight; it is years of commitment and discipline. Some say it only takes 21 days for a habit to build, but I beg to differ.

Try it. Get a habit as simple as reading a page of a book per day for 21 days. Then, get distracted, for example, by going to the beach for a week. Prolly for some people they can keep doing what they’ve been doing for 21 days and successfully destroy a bad habit through a good one. But not me, and I bet you are too.

I had been doing Duolingo for 2 minutes every day for 90 days in 2023, and I stopped because of a month of traveling that brought me back to day 1 of Duolingo. Fast forward to now, and I am in my second year of doing 2 minutes of Duolingo every day (but I still struggle to converse straight in Spanish. LOL.).

What I can say is that, to some people, habits are built for more than 21 days, probably to some, less than that. But, if you are like me, who needs more time to get a new habit in your system, try starting now before we count down to 2026. Here are five simple habits that you can start small now and might be beneficial for you:

1. Reading a page of a book per day. This can enhance your vocabulary. Imagine if the book has 210 pages, it 7 days, you will finish a book instead of nothing in a year.

2. Walk outside for 10 minutes every day. You do not need to compete with your friend’s Strava, you only need to move your body a little each day, and your body will thank you. In a week, your walk totals to an hour!

3. Sleep and wake up at the same time of day. If you’re sleeping at 11pm and waking up at 8am, that is fine as long as you are consistent. You keep your 8-9 hours of sleep for a week!

4. Do not grab your phone 10 minutes after waking up. Use a traditional alarm clock to wake you up, then, brush your teeth, stretch, or whatever as long as it doesn’t involve touching your phone for 10 minutes. In a week, it is 70 minutes less of screen time!

5. Meditate for a minute. Focus on your breathing for a complete minute. Do not touch your phone and avoid any form of distractions during those 60 seconds. You just gained 7 minutes of focus in that week and about half an hour in a month!

Kidney for sale – the saddest sale

“Wow! May bago syang iphone! San mo binenta bato mo?” (“Wow! You have a new iphone! Where did you sell your kidney?”). It used to be a joke amongst us friends 10 yrs ago and I thought it will remain as joke until I saw the latest story of KMJS, it made me sad that it is no longer a joke. Kids sell one of their kidneys for the purpose of buying material things like an iphone or motorbike.

If you are someone desperate for money, selling your kidney is so attractive when they promise and show you an instant $3500. And we cannot blame these people. Most of them are in dire need for money and need instant money, or unaware of other ways to get what they want, or kids not having proper guidance.

I hope people considering to trade their kidneys for money would think 1000x times and eventually realize that money although not easy to earn can be earned with work but losing a kidney is something you will never earn again once lost.

Mostly people in the poverty line give in to this kind of deals. And it is sad. But, can we blame them when they have an empty stomach calling them to grab that instant money? Or, when they want to go to school and that’s the only way for them to pay the tuition fees? Or, when they only want their loved ones to get attended in a hospital but have to pay an enormous amount and got into a huge debt?

Poverty is tough. Aside from chronic hunger you will experience, it also will encapsulate you in a metaphorical bubble where you rarely see hope and just keep faith to the supreme being – a life that is thought to be lived with no choice. This bubble is stronger especially if it has been generations of being poor. It feels like a never-ending cycle and you would end up doing things like selling a kidney to get instant money to feed your starving family or get that iPhone that you thought unattainable unless you sell your kidney.

It is not easy to escape the cycle of poverty especially if you grew up in this bubble and no one could enlighten you unless you found a way to enlighten yourself and get out of this bubble.

Being poor is tiring. I wasn’t the poorest of the poor but I had the glimpse of it. I experienced it but not to the extreme level. But, the thought of selling my kidney never occurred to me. Having only one kidney is scary and here is why: my tatay had chronic kidney disease brought by diabetes and hypertension. He did dialysis 2-3x a week. And it was tiring to the patient’s body and emptied our bank. It felt endless of working but not getting what I want because we have to prioritize the hospital bills. Back then, although tiring, I did not care about my money spent on my tatay’s medication. I only cared for tatay to heal or prolong his life. Our family got into a huge debt that seemed impossible to pay for me. And this was not true. I realized money will come and go and you will eventually pay all of your debts but your health once gone will never come again.

So, I hope if you are thinking of selling your kidney, consider other legal options to get money. Be very scared of having just one kidney. And please, do not sell your kidney for the sake of getting an iPhone! You can have this eventually without sacrificing your health. It took me 7yrs for me to get a second-hand, base model iPhone 6S locked to a network and 10yrs to get out of debt due to hospital bills.

Just keep working on yourself and your goals and keep those kidneys of yours healthy.

Being intentional: defining the changes you want to make

If you will go through the posts I made in the past months you’ll see at least 2 of day 1 of XX. Like, I really wanted to create good habits for my future self and the future generation but I keep failing. It took me a year to create the Duolingo habit and that’s one for the books. One thing I realized that keeps me going back to the old habit is not being intentional and forgetting my intents when things become difficult. Because I do not remember my intents, I just let my flight instinct kicked in and escape the things I needed to do.

Today, I wanted to define the intents of my long overdue good habits that my present self have been long imagining that my future will thank me. Generally, the intent was to build a good routine that will unleash the potential I have in me but I needed to be more specific.

To have a healthy body:

  • exercise for 10 mins in the morning
  • shower everyday
  • intense exercise at least once a week
  • avoid sweets
  • avoid oily and salty food
  • avoid highly-processed food
  • sleep for 7-8 hours everyday

*ask yourself:

before 5pm everyday, have I exercised or showered today?

each Friday, have I done any intense exercise this week?

before buying or taking that food in your mouth, is this very sweet, salty, oily or highly-processed? If yes, say NO to it FIRMLY.

To have a healthy mind:

  • meditate everyday for 5 minutes first thing in the morning
  • focus work for straight four hours – remove distractions
  • read a full journal article everyday
  • read non-academic book for 15minutes everyday
  • meditate for 5 minutes before going to sleep

*ask yourself:

before scrolling mindlessly in the morning, have you done meditation?

what is keeping me distracted?

should I protect this work hours?

have I read a journal article today?

did I use any of my 15 minutes to read something not related to acads?

before going to sleep, have I meditated?

To have a healthy work-life balance:

  • work with intention, attention and focus for at least 40hrs a week
  • talk to family and friends at least 2-3x a week
  • give yourself a mindful rest on one of the weekends not thinking of anything
  • if you work your best, treat yourself on a vacation without feeling guilty

*ask yourself:

today, have I worked at least 8hrs intently with my full attention and focus?

this week, have I talked to a friend? my bf? or family?

what am I thinking while I am resting?

did you do your best for this month/s?

You are free to use this template. Write your answers everyday on a physical paper to remind you of these habits that you are trying to create.

December 13: choose your happy

I have been meeting people sharing things that really brighten up my dark days lately. Building up a routine in the middle of catching up with backlogs seems to be a pit of darkness for me at this point. And when you are at this phase of your life, you will appreciate all words of encouragement that could give you some rays of light.

So today, I met this car dealer guy who has a yoga master daughter and I jokingly asked him if he does yoga since I told him that yoga calms my mind when I am super stressed – and I am almost everyday stressed in the past weeks but could not do yoga. He had a beautiful answer: “I do not do yoga. I choose my happy. Life is short.”, he told me as well the story of a girl who likes pageants and that girl lost the competition 5 times and almost gave up but on her 6th try, she won.

Most of the time, we are the ones choosing the things that would make us sad or stressed. In life we have to learn the difference between the things that you can control and the ones you cannot. In both cases, choose yourself, and choose your happy. Life is either fast or just too short and therefore, you better learn how to enjoy it even in the middle of the most stressful situation.

December 10: routine (will save you on days that you are not motivated)

I woke up today with energy to start the day and be productive. I attended the Sunday mass but I ended up having no motivation to do anything on my to-do list.

This is the consequence of not having a routine. Not everyday we will be motivated to be a better person but a well-built routine will save you on days that you are not motivated and give you the discipline – without routine, there will be no discipline.

December 5: get up (or keep snoozing)

I woke up very early today not because I was motivated to get things done but because I have to get up to open the door for my roommate.

This may look simple but I am convinced that to make life worth living, we have to live for one another. What happened today was just an example of a day that would make you realize that we have to get up for other people.

We have a choice everyday. To set up an alarm and snooze multiple times or get up and realize that we have to wake up and get up to live our full potential for the benefit of everyone. This in the long run will benefit our mind and soul.

Listen to that inner alarm clock telling you that you are more than what you are thinking and begin picking up yourself to see how beautiful your life could be by simply getting up.