Instructions For Transportation Mileage Log: Fill & Download for Free

Whenever I get discouraged about medical matters of any sort, I remind myself that we are the luckiest, the most privileged, human beings who have ever lived.Never in all history has medical science been as advanced as it is right now; we have access to the best acute health care ever. We’re not nearly as good at doing the things that keep us healthy in the first place but more on that in a moment.I do take daily medications, and I admit that I struggle to take them at anything close to the same time each day. Occasionally I forget, or run out of something through a glitch in the auto-refill at the pharmacy. It’s all a pain in the neck, isn’t it?Still, it doesn’t reduce my quality of life, even though I thought at first it might.I’d like to share a brief anecdote from Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 voyage from Peru to French Polynesia aboard a raft called the Kon-Tiki. (Yes, I know that’s an abrupt change of subject. But humour me!)Heyerdahl undertook this adventure to prove his theory that ancient peoples from the Americas could have settled Polynesia, in spite of the opinion at the time that such a thing would have been impossible. What better way to prove them wrong than to build a raft and make the voyage himself?Heyerdahl recounted how he followed 400-year old instructions for building a Peruvian balsa wood raft using all natural materials, even when he didn’t know what some feature’s purpose was. He staunchly put his faith in the wisdom and accumulated knowledge of the ancients rather than the modern experts.But he was told by “experts” that there wasn’t a stick or a string aboard the raft that wouldn’t cause it to sink a short time into his proposed voyage.The relevant example they gave was that of the ropes tying the gigantic balsa logs together. The constant motion of the sea, they argued, would cause the ropes to saw their way through the soft balsa, eventually cutting right through the logs and destroying the raft.What actually happened, Heyerdahl found, was that the ropes did indeed cut in, but only until they were flush with the outside surface of the logs. Thus the ropes were protected from abrasion. And the logs? Their natural oils kept them waterproof and helped seat the ropes in their new grooves.The raft Kon-Tiki made it successfully to Polynesia.Well, how is this marvellous story relevant to the situation many of us face today?Taking daily medications appeared at first to my own inner “raft expert” to be a pretty huge disruption to my life. However, like the raft that adjusted to the voyage, I’ve gotten to the point where I can manage the whole thing; it’s a given now.I keep my current meds in a zipper toiletries bag that goes on every trip with me. There’s a pill cutter in there. In cases where the pharmacy gives me a 90-day supply in three bottles, the extra bottles all go in a box.I take them all at the same time, despite the few that have a specific time (“5 PM”) or in relation to mealtimes - that’s a compromise I make to keep the task manageable. If medication times become more critical in the future, then I’ll go the next step and set alarms on my cell phone. I might even have fun with it and pick a different tone or song for each one. (Yes, I’m easily amused.)By then, I probably won’t be traveling, going kayaking, etc. as much as I do now!My current medications are cautionary, to prevent developing problems such as high cholesterol from getting worse, so I can afford to keep the schedule non-rigid. Like everyone else, I will eventually develop more acute problems, but that’s a can I want to kick down the road as long as possible.And we all know there are things we can do to accomplish just that. I think of them as pills that I must take every day!My doctor always reminds me, for example, that the best medicine for the body - the magic pill everyone’s looking for to fix everything - is exercise.And that magic pill is one that I don’t need to put in my zipper pill bag.Every adult should be making the effort to exercise and watch what they eat. Most people do neither, and that’s why we’re all winding up on pills. But I’m sympathetic anyway because I also find it difficult to get out of the bed or off the couch to go walking. Still, it’s our choice, isn’t it?I have friends and loved ones who wouldn’t quit smoking because it was just too hard, and who later died of cancer.If they’d been transported back many years back in time from that bed of misery, and been given a second chance, could they have found the strength then? We need to be smarter and to learn from the experiences of others.Taking pills is a drag at first, but like the ropes in the balsa wood logs, the habit becomes seated sooner or later and then the raft is stronger and better off than before. Maybe we can get up and go for a walk after we take our pills. Cold? Coat. Rain? Raincoat. Let’s join Thor Heyerdahl and trust the wisdom of the ancients (and moderns) on how to get maximum mileage out of our bodies and minds.Here are some very urgent “pills” we need to add to those other pills the doctor prescribes:Exercise, even if it’s only walking out to the mailbox and back. Lift a dumbbell. Squeeze a grip strengthener. Fight!Eat more vegetables and fruit and less processed food, even if it’s only an apple a day.Drink more water or tea (black, green, red) and less sugary soda.Stay mentally stimulated - read a book, listen to music, try something new.Guard our sleep like it’s a treasure because it is.Socialise with others, church, family, friends.These things are no more difficult than adjusting to taking a bunch of pills, are they? And in general, they’re more fun; and the more we do them, the less prescription medication we’ll have to take.And that’s something we all could get used to.