Let’s explore some shocking stats:

• 50% of U.S. adults are diagnosed with a chronic illness.
• 68% are overweight or obese.
• 70% are taking at least one prescription drug. (For folks over 60, the average is FIVE.)
• 80% are mentally or emotionally “not flourishing.”
• 97.3% are not maintaining healthy habits: decent nutrition, adequate exercise, not smoking, and healthy body composition.

This is wild!

And it’s even crazier that most of us are ignoring what’s right in front of us!

We move through the world doing what everyone else does, following the status quo, while we continue to get unhealthier and unhappier.

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“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti

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So let’s have a little wake-up call.

The reason you are suffering from anxiety (or any other problem for that matter) is that you have unintentionally programmed yourself with thousands of mindless habits as directed by the part of your brain constantly scanning for threats.

And the only way to stop the downward spiral is to break from the status quo and start installing mindful habits that nurture your brain, body, heart and soul.

Let’s start with the body.

We’ve all heard the recommended status quo for weight loss is to reduce calories consumed.

However, recent studies have shown that when you cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of vegetables and whole foods — without worrying about counting calories or limiting portion sizes — leads to significant amounts of weight loss over the course of a year.

Now you might be asking, that’s great, Ron, I don’t need to count calories, but which diet should I follow?

Well, the challenge is that there are dozens of diet plans that you could explore.

Each with its own set of rules.

And these rules often conflict with each other.

But regardless of the diet plan, if you look at all of them, they all agree with one common principle.

Stop Drinking Sugar!

Here are some interesting stats about sugar …

• Over 500 years ago, the average human would be lucky to come across sugar.
• Today, the average Westerner consumes 3 lb of sugar a week.
• Our sugar consumption per year has risen from 5 lb per person per year in 1700 to 152 lb per person in 2000.
• Eating too much sugar can lead to weight gain and increase the risk of obesity and diabetes, which increases your risk of cancer.
• Recent research has found evidence that sugar, while not only bad for our waistlines, can harm our brains.
• This same research found a highly significant correlation between sugar consumption (cal/cap/day) and the annual rate of depression.

The bottom line, sugar is impacting both our physical and mental health!

And the majority of it comes from what we drink.

You might be saying, Ron, I drink diet pop, so this must be ok, right?

Wrong!

Most diet sodas use aspartame which will be listed in July as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization's (WHO) cancer research arm.

Ok, Ron, I get it, no pop! Can I switch to fruit juice?

Nope!

Most so-called fruit drinks are filled with just as must sugar as soda.

An eight-ounce serving of juice and cola both contain about 30 grams of sugar on average — that's almost eight teaspoons!

The same goes for energy drinks, sweetened teas, and various flavoured beverages.

Let’s break from the status quo.

One of the biggest challenges when adopting new habits is breaking from the status quo.

Your brain is thinking, if everyone else is doing it, it must be ok, right?

Wrong! (see a pattern here)

Take a moment to unhook from your habitual patterns and notice what you are doing automatically.

Just because everyone else thinks it’s ok doesn’t make it right.

And the first place I suggest you start is to stop drinking sugar.

This simple switch from drinking sugar to plain water will go a long way toward making you healthier and happier.