My Top EXPANSIVE Habits

If you want to change your life, examine your habits. Align your habits with who you want to be, and what you want to world to become. Be EXPANSIVE with your actions; not just your words.

1) FASTING - Every Monday I fast for around 17-20 hrs. Purposely missing breakfast and lunch I let my digestive system take a break allowing my body to redistribute energy and resources to clean up cellular debris. This is termed “autophagy” and is effectively cleaning house. Mounting research is showing the benefits of fasting for wellness, longevity, and immune health (check out my article on fasting for more info https://everfit.co.nz/articles/fast-for-wellness ) I relish my live light Monday where I downshift with some yoga, an ocean dip, and a refreshing cold shower. I’ve found that I’ve had increased energy later in the afternoon and more appreciation of my food and people around the world who don’t have access to enough of it. I find it very disturbing that we have 2 billion people around the world that are overweight or obese, and 1 billion staving to death. It's not a case of not enough food - our food production, and distribution methods are inefficient. I've done a rough calculation that I save around $12 a day when fasting, so over $600 in a year. The most important aspect of fasting is creating empathy for our fellow brothers and sisters around the world that don't have access to food. 

2) COLD SHOWERS - I've had a cold shower every morning since November 2015 and have enjoyed carrying this habit on during this year. Again the research is piling up on the health and wellness benefits of having a cold shower. It's great for skin and hair health (not stripping natural oils away as much as warm water), it has been shown to help with anxiety by allowing the system to cope with a stress and overcoming it on a daily basis. Cold thermogenesis is enhanced with the cold water (improvement in brown fat and mitochondria efficiency), and there are also immune system benefits. Looking more expansively at this habit I also save around 40,000L of water in a year plus the cost of heating the water (check out my article on getting cold to run faster https://everfit.co.nz/articles/getting-cold-to-run-fast-wholistic-runner-part-4 )

3) CYCLING to WORK - Since 2020 I've made more of an effort to commute to work by bike. It's only a 6km round trip so I don't know why I didn't use my bike earlier - oh that's right I made excuses that I've now created solutions for. I had to carry my laptop so I purchased a backpack with a computer sleeve. I had to cross a very busy round about and so was concerned for my safety. I got over this by using an alternative route that was far safer, and in 2023 a cycle way was constructed.  This year I have commuted just over 1000km. This has saved hundreds of dollars in petrol and almost 300kg of Co2 and many other noxious emissions that degrade our environment and individual health (here is my article on living light https://everfit.co.nz/articles/live-light-be-more-save-the-planet )