Seven Habits of Healthy People

When I saw this press release announcing the launch of The 7 Habits of Healthy People, a new employee wellness program that's the result of a partnership between Inspire Health and Franklin Covey, I thought "of course-- you could see this coming." I have to confess being ignorant about Inspire Health (at least until now), but Franklin Covey-- well, there's a marquee brand in the world of mainstream, business-oriented self-improvement resources. Given that, along with Dr Covey's Seventh Habit (Sharpen the Saw)-- with its emphasis on balanced self-renewal, including staying in good health-- and along with the heightened emphasis in recent years on employee wellness programs, it makes sense to see a 7 Habits of Healthy People program being offered.

So what are those seven habits? Well, the partners are being coy here. The press release directs you to a page on Inspire's website. Once you get there, you can click through to a video advertised as "Hear from Dr. Stephen Covey how living The 7 Habits can change your life." But the video is quite short (a minute or two at the most) and-- how can I say this without sounding snarky?-- full of generalized bromides about habits, character, and destiny-- but with no hint as to what the 7 Habits of Healthy People might be. You're also invited on Inspire's web page to "print our sales sheet," which I did-- and it, too, was very general and gave no clue as to what the 7 Habits of Healthy People might be.

OK, I guess they want to discourage frivolous browsers, the type of people who go into the bookstore and leaf through the books, noting whatever it is they want to note, and walk out not having made a purchase (or then go to the library to check it out). Fair enough.

But now I've got my curiosity piqued. What are those key habits and behaviors that, if I adopt them, will make me healthy? So I did a quick search to find references to "seven habits" and "healthy people" and, looking at only the first couple (after throwing out the ones that referred to press releases for this particular venture-- and there were a lot of those, btw), I came up with some interesting findings.

There was this article entitled "The 7 Habits of Highly Healthy People" posted in February 2007. The author, Adrian Adams, writes about these seven habits:

1. get regular exercise
2. drink water
3. eat right
4. take supplements
5. get a good amount of sleep each night
6. practice good hygiene (ncluding good oral hygiene)
7. have a good attitude

Another article, with a publication date of May 2007 references a "new" (actually, if you follow their link, you'll find it dates back to 2000, if not earlier) study by the UCLA School of Public Health which found a correlation between lower mortality (and lower rates of disability) and these seven health habits:

1. Don't smoke.
2. Drink moderately or don't drink at all.
3. Get a good night's sleep of seven or eight hours.
4. Exercise 30 minutes at a time, several times a week.
5. Eat moderately to maintain weight in relation to height.
6. Eat regularly, whether that's two meals a day, three or five.
7. Eat breakfast every day.

A June 2007 post with the title "7 Habits of Healthy People" offers the following "Seven Habits for Living Longer":

1. Water
2. Oxygen
3. Food
4. Spinal Balance
5. Exercise
6. Positive Thoughts
7. Rest

And then there's this July 2007 article on "The 7 Habits of Thin (Healthy) People." (Hmmm... "Thin" = "Healthy" .... I guess the author doesn't agree with this crowd.) What are they?

1. Carbs: know good from bad
2. Fat: ditto
3. Nutrition counts
4. Portions
5. Water
6. Exercise
7. Hormone balance

Finally, there's an actual book (imagine that! people still write books, not just blog posts) with the title 7 Habits of Highly Healthy People. Published in June of 2007, it's attained an Amazon sales rank of 704,980 (not exactly generating many royalties for its author, Curry Pikkaert, but given his bio and the book description-- the author pastors a Reformed Church in western Michigan and his book has a distinctly Christian emphasis-- it's safe to guess that he was motivated to write the book by something other than money). Unfortunately, you can't browse inside the book (nice feature that Amazon offers, btw) so here, too, you're left guessing as to what those 7 Habits might be.

But wait: There's a clue. "If there are 7 basic deadly sins," we read in the Product Description, "are there not also 7 basic life-producing virtues?" And further on, we read: "Since the object of our focus is what most frequently influences us, it is important to focus on the development of the habits that produce the 7 virtues." Aha! So the 7 Habits of Healthy People are probably linked to the 7 Contrary Virtues, i.e. those virtues that you cultivate in order to avoid falling prey to the 7 Deadly Sins (that is, you would cultivate humility to keep from falling into pride, kindness to keep from envy, abstinence to keep from gluttony, chastity to keep from lust, patience to keep from anger, liberality to keep from greed, and diligence to keep from sloth). In other words (my version here):

1. don't let things go to your head
2. be nice
3. go on periodic fasts
4. take cold showers
5. when someone pushes your buttons, count to ten before responding
6. share your stuff
7. have plenty of constructive hobbies

OK, readers, now it's your turn. What do you see as the seven habits of healthy people? (And btw, if you happen to have insight into what Franklin Covey & Inspire's list looks like, please let me know.)