The Smart Stoner’s Guide to Getting High and Staying Healthy

You know the stereotype from stoner movies: slightly overweight, definitely unemployed, dimwitted and a bit boring. Stoners don’t have the best reputation for intelligence, health or wellness — but that doesn’t mean that being productive and staying fit is incompatible with smoking weed. In fact, most stoners revile the stereotypical depiction of their lifestyle and can easily balance professional and physical wellbeing with a cannabis hobby.

If you are just starting to enjoy the effects of marijuana, you might be interested in learning how best to maintain your health and wellness. Here are a few tips for being a happy, healthy and sufficiently high stoner.

Exercise and Eat Well

Regular exercise and a diet rich in whole foods are vital for health and wellness, regardless of what kind of hobbies you engage in. Because cannabis tends to keep you relaxed and couch-locked, and because cannabis can cause you to succumb to junky snacks like chips and cookies, filling your non-stoned time with healthier habits like exercise and eating well is imperative.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week. If you struggle with motivation for exercise, you might consider getting slightly high before working out, especially if you are going for a walk or jog. This can improve your focus and improve your mood during your exercise, making the experience more fun.

When it comes to diet, you should try to keep junk foods out of your home and make it difficult to order fast food while high. Before a smoke session, you might prepare some healthy snacks, like veggies and hummus, so you are less tempted to ditch your diet for something calorie-dense and nutrient-empty.

Consume Cannabis Correctly

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to become addicted to cannabis. Called cannabis use disorder, the addiction is not necessarily a physical one, as occurs with more dangerous drugs like opioids, but it can be devastating to your lifestyle, nonetheless. You need to be careful to develop healthy cannabis consumption habits to avoid developing a use disorder.

One way to do this is to reserve cannabis consumption for social events. If you only use weed around friends or loved ones, it is much more difficult to develop the unhealthy mindset around the drug. Plus, because cannabis reduces social anxiety, you might find yourself having a more enjoyable time in social settings when you are a bit high.

You might also think more critically about the methods with which you use cannabis. By varying your consumption patterns — smoking, vaping, ingesting, etc. — you can avoid sinking into a destructive habit. You can talk to budtenders at a Phoenix dispensary for recommendations regarding methods of use.

Don’t Use Cannabis to Sleep

Weed is often touted as a natural sleep aid — but you don’t want to rely too heavily on cannabis’s sedative effects to drift you into dreamland. Dosing with cannabinoids before bed tends to interrupt your natural sleep patterns. Studies have found that cannabis causes both REM and deep sleep cycles to shorten, which gives you less time to rest, repair and recover. Ultimately, those who use cannabis to sleep too often tend to feel more fatigued than those who try to fall asleep naturally, and that fatigue begins to compound when you use weed night after night as a sleep aid.

A better strategy for getting a good night’s sleep with cannabis is to get high a few hours before bedtime. Then, you can enjoy the relaxation that comes from being high, but the effects should fade sufficiently before your head hits the pillow. To prevent yourself from falling asleep, you can engage in a regular nighttime activity, like a bath or a movie, before launching into your sleepytime routine.

Just because you enjoy the sticky green herb doesn’t mean you need to devolve into the stoner stereotype you see on the silver screen. By committing to a healthy lifestyle, you can avoid validating those who believe cannabis users are lazy layabouts, and you can thoroughly enjoy the effects of weed without any worry whatsoever.

You know the stereotype from stoner movies: slightly overweight, definitely unemployed, dimwitted and a bit boring. Stoners don’t have the best reputation for intelligence, health or wellness — but that doesn’t mean that being productive and staying fit is incompatible with smoking weed. In fact, most stoners revile the stereotypical depiction of their lifestyle and can easily balance professional and physical wellbeing with a cannabis hobby.

If you are just starting to enjoy the effects of marijuana, you might be interested in learning how best to maintain your health and wellness. Here are a few tips for being a happy, healthy and sufficiently high stoner.

Exercise and Eat Well

Regular exercise and a diet rich in whole foods are vital for health and wellness, regardless of what kind of hobbies you engage in. Because cannabis tends to keep you relaxed and couch-locked, and because cannabis can cause you to succumb to junky snacks like chips and cookies, filling your non-stoned time with healthier habits like exercise and eating well is imperative.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week. If you struggle with motivation for exercise, you might consider getting slightly high before working out, especially if you are going for a walk or jog. This can improve your focus and improve your mood during your exercise, making the experience more fun.

When it comes to diet, you should try to keep junk foods out of your home and make it difficult to order fast food while high. Before a smoke session, you might prepare some healthy snacks, like veggies and hummus, so you are less tempted to ditch your diet for something calorie-dense and nutrient-empty.

Consume Cannabis Correctly

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to become addicted to cannabis. Called cannabis use disorder, the addiction is not necessarily a physical one, as occurs with more dangerous drugs like opioids, but it can be devastating to your lifestyle, nonetheless. You need to be careful to develop healthy cannabis consumption habits to avoid developing a use disorder.

One way to do this is to reserve cannabis consumption for social events. If you only use weed around friends or loved ones, it is much more difficult to develop the unhealthy mindset around the drug. Plus, because cannabis reduces social anxiety, you might find yourself having a more enjoyable time in social settings when you are a bit high.

You might also think more critically about the methods with which you use cannabis. By varying your consumption patterns — smoking, vaping, ingesting, etc. — you can avoid sinking into a destructive habit. You can talk to budtenders at a Phoenix dispensary for recommendations regarding methods of use.

Don’t Use Cannabis to Sleep

Weed is often touted as a natural sleep aid — but you don’t want to rely too heavily on cannabis’s sedative effects to drift you into dreamland. Dosing with cannabinoids before bed tends to interrupt your natural sleep patterns. Studies have found that cannabis causes both REM and deep sleep cycles to shorten, which gives you less time to rest, repair and recover. Ultimately, those who use cannabis to sleep too often tend to feel more fatigued than those who try to fall asleep naturally, and that fatigue begins to compound when you use weed night after night as a sleep aid.

A better strategy for getting a good night’s sleep with cannabis is to get high a few hours before bedtime. Then, you can enjoy the relaxation that comes from being high, but the effects should fade sufficiently before your head hits the pillow. To prevent yourself from falling asleep, you can engage in a regular nighttime activity, like a bath or a movie, before launching into your sleepytime routine.

Just because you enjoy the sticky green herb doesn’t mean you need to devolve into the stoner stereotype you see on the silver screen. By committing to a healthy lifestyle, you can avoid validating those who believe cannabis users are lazy layabouts, and you can thoroughly enjoy the effects of weed without any worry whatsoever.