Staying healthy, or getting healthy takes work. Most of the time, it is the non-commitment to doing the things necessary for being healthy that got your health into trouble in the first place. There are many facets to being healthy and many barriers.
The most obvious when we discuss barriers is exercise. We all know we need to exercise, but relatively few do it. The barriers include poor health, and lack of finding pleasure in it. Most think they have to go to a gym, but what did we do before we had gyms? We did enough physical labor that it sufficed. Today, we work out our brains rather than our bodies. We have become so techno-oriented, that we don’t even get up to change the channel on our T.V. – we have remote control this, and automatic that, until we have become so lazy that we don’t even cook our food!
Which is the other way to be healthy. Get back into cooking. This means, real, whole foods – fruits and vegetables and healthy proteins. Get away from microwaved, processed, devitalized tummy-filler-uppers, masquerading as foods. You don’t have to spend a great deal of time preparing meals. A whole head of broccoli steams just as nicely as a beautifully chopped up one. Cut it as you are serving it out. It takes no more work to eat good whole grain bread as it does white bread. Eating whole grain brown rice takes longer, but you just plan for it. White rice doesn’t even compare to its wonderful texture and flavor, not to mention nutritional value. It’s also just as easy to grab an apple or some grapes as it is to grab a candy bar.
Managing stress is vital to being healthy. We all have stress; it is an unavoidable fact of life. What we have control over is how much it impacts our body. Eating healthy and exercising is essential in minimizing the negative effect on us. Many turn to vitamins to help, which if they are made from whole foods, and not chemical counterfeits, are certainly beneficial. However, most vitamins today, unfortunately, actually add to the physiological stress the body is called upon to endure. There are ways to tell good vitamins from bad, which is a whole article unto itself.
Stress is best handled by having healthy adrenal glands, our stress-coping system of the body. We weaken it with caffeine, especially coffee, sugar, alcohol and stress itself weakens our adrenals. There are many ways (in addition to avoiding foregoing offenders) to support healthy adrenal function. Taking supplements specific to adrenal support and especially minerals from plants (not a rock form) is essential. Adequate rest is needed and a healthy sleep cycle as well. And acupuncture is wonderful!
There are many avenues of getting healthy. Most people simply manage an existing illness with medications, enabling them to function with relative discomfort. It is not the same as getting well.
© 2008 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
