The modern world is an amazing place to live. I mean, we have 24-hour reruns of Murder She Wrote, Microwave popcorn, and deodorant for our feet! Today’s world is filled with all kinds of technological advances that promise to make our lives easier, yet far too many of us succumb to stress and illnesses associated with that stress. Perhaps it's because all of this technology is constantly bombarding and distracting us so we never get a chance to truly relax, and end up feeling overwhelmed instead. Or, perhaps we are just 12-year-old kids in an aged body who forgot that they can’t play Call of Duty 8 hours a day. But worrying about stress only makes the problem worse, but the good news is that there are several ways to relieve stress. (and no…none of them involve Xanax)

Some people want to know if hobbies relieve stress. The short answer is yes unless your hobby is running a Meth lab in Tacoma. The truth is that choosing the wrong hobby can only make you more stressed than if you didn't have one in the first place. Here are some things you should consider before deciding on a hobby that's a good match for you: 1. The best hobbies are those that will help you not think about the obligations and responsibilities you have in your life, at least for a while. In other words, veg out!  After all, picking a hobby that only makes you more tense isn't going to be all that effective. For example, a lot of people like to golf as their hobby. Now, this may be fine for some, but if you're too competitive, then what would be a leisurely game of golf for others will turn into a stressful situation for you if you are down by a few strokes. Also, if you tend to have anger management problems, you may consider avoiding sand traps. Furthermore, golf tends to be a bit expensive, (especially if you only play Trump courses) so if money problems are causing stress in your life, then an expensive hobby doesn't make a lot of sense. 2. Find a hobby that you can enjoy from beginning to end. Going back to golf for a moment, it has the advantage of being pleasurable from the first hole until the last (assuming you don’t lose all your balls on the lake hole). Something like gardening can be a good choice, too. It gets you outside just about every day, and you can enjoy your hobby, then when it comes time to harvest, you can also enjoy all of the fruits of your labor.  Remember, in the right state, there is a lot of money to be made in marijuana. 3. Moving beyond the norm is a great stress reliever for a lot of people. The very act of learning something new forces you to focus on it, and that means your focus is not on the things that are causing you stress. There is also the added benefit of enriching your life in some way, which can actually help you cope with stress even when you're not engaged in your hobby. For example, if you are a nurse, you might consider learning about collecting gnomes instead of collecting bedpans. So, the answer to the question "do hobbies relieve stress?" is "yes, so long as you choose the right ones." The cool thing is that there are so many different hobbies out there, that there is sure to be a few that are a good match for you.
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My kids call me the “Health Nazi.”  While being compared to a war criminal may be a bit extreme, I understand their frustration with a dad who is constantly preaching “Do this, Not that”.  It’s easy to fall into an annoying mantra of dictated behaviors when you are so engrossed in promoting a healthy lifestyle, so sometimes you have to take a baby step back and examine exactly what you so passionately preach.

While being introspective and self-critical is harder for me than getting a politician to cut taxes, nevertheless I have winnowed out several supposed healthy practices that I have harped on in the past which now appear either completely useless or downright ignorant.        
  1) Eating low fat.  I have had to eat low-fat crow on this one for the past few years.  I landed squarely in this camp, like many of you, based on the propaganda masquerading as education.  Ever since the notorious Seven Country Study by Ancel Keys in the 50’s, we had been indoctrinated to believe that fat consumption led to weight gain, heart disease, and bad breath.  The reality is that certain types of fat are worse for you than others, but sugar is the real baddie. An eight-year trial involving almost 50,000 women, roughly half of whom went on a low-fat diet, found that those on the low-fat plan didn't lower their risk of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, or heart disease. Plus, they didn't lose much weight.  If you have to watch anything dietarily, watch the carbs! 

2) Going gluten free.  This movement has all the makings of a cult. Unless you're among the 1% of Americans who suffer from celiac disease, gluten probably won't have a negative effect on you. I know this is heresy, but the science doesn’t lie.  Most folks have no issue with gluten and avoiding all the products that contain gluten can leave you with an unbalanced diet.  The no gluten fanatics are about as rabid as Tom Cruise Scientology lovers, so I probably will have to hire a bodyguard after this is published, but go ahead and enjoy your wheat! 

3) Juicing…anything.  A few years back anyone staying up past midnight was lambasted by an infomercial touting a device that would “juice” anything from an orange to a turkey leg.  Is was if pulverizing something in a blender magically endowed it with miraculous health benefits.  What it really did was make it suitable for babies and old dudes with no teeth, and that’s about it.  When you juice fresh fruits and veggies, you remove all of their fiber, the key ingredient that keeps you feeling full and satisfied until your next meal. What you keep is the sugar. In the short term, a high-sugar, low-protein diet means constant hunger pangs, mood swings, and low energy. So essentially when you juice you take out all the good stuff and leave the crap…that sounds healthy, right? 

4)  Using hand sanitizer.  It was time to jump out of the nutritional world and into the world of germs.  So you think that slathering on the hand sanitizer will ward off the plague, viruses, and boring small talk?  Nope, it will just make your hands sticky.  If you wash your hands regularly throughout the day, hand sanitizer is almost entirely unnecessary. Plus, it can't kill all the germs that plain old soap and water can.  Surprise!  Now, if you find yourself in the jungles of Kenya where clean running water is as rare as cellulite on a supermodel, hand sanitizer may have a place, but not so much in suburban America.

5)  “Detoxing” anything.  This is one of those terms like “natural” that can mean anything to anybody.  In most cases, it is a marketing buzzword that sounds good but means little.  I mean, who wouldn’t want to be rid of toxins?  No one needs to detox. Unless you've been poisoned, you already have a super efficient system for filtering out most of the harmful substances you eat. It's made up of two toxin-bashing organs: the liver and the kidneys. The liver spends its entire lifetime getting rid of the bad junk we ingest, much better than a colonic or sweat lodge, while the kidneys spit out bad mojo in your weewee with amazing efficiency.     

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