As many of you already guessed it, this blog is going to be about a few basic health principals. I find that every so often it is good to go back to the basics for a refresher. These principals should be easy to understand and more importantly easy to implement today. It has been said that those who adapt and implement new ideas quickly and efficiently are more successful in work, education, health, etc. So lets get to the basic principals.
Principal #1 Get the bad out
Often people get the wrong idea about health, supplements, exercise, etc. Often people just want to know “what do I take for ______?”. What they are also saying in that statement is that “I do not want to change a thing, even though my lifestyle, eating habits, and exercise habits maybe the source, or contributing to, the problem”. Let’s get real folks, there are no magic medicines, supplements, diets, or work out videos. Often people think that they can get away with not changing their eating habits and lifestyle and still achieve their health goals; not changing being defined as not getting the minimum amount of daily exercise and eating highly processed foods loaded with additives, food coloring, fake sugars, MSG, and more. To make it plane and simple it doesn’t matter how many vitamins you take and how much you exercise, true health will not be achieved if you eat 1-2 meals of junk food every day; junk food being high calorie meals with low nutrients (like value meals, soda, pizza, donuts, cappuccinos). I do not care how many multivitamins, B vitamins, etc you take it is not going to push your health beyond your 5 day per week ice cream habit; sorry if I offend anyone here. I think the easy thing to do here is familiarize yourself with food labels and make sure your food passes the “does this make sense?” test. In other words you want to consume foods that do not have preservatives, hydrogenated oil or trans fats, food coloring, chemicals, MSG, added sugars, and other words you typically can not pronounce. You are looking for food with few ingredients, that likely will spoil if not eaten in a week or so. For example, you may be surprised to find the following: sugar in salsa and spaghetti sauces, food coloring in peanut butter, pickles, mac and cheese, vitamins, and much more.
Principal #2 Get the good in
Getting the good in is easier than you may think. I would like to make a simple generalization here and not get into the details as to why. You should be eating 50-60% of your daily food intake as fruits and vegetables, preferably more vegetables than fruits, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats like olive oil and coconut oil. Protein should be about 2-3 5 ounce servings of meat or eggs. Preferably everything should be organic and low glycemic load and low glycemic index. Notice not on this list is tortillas, chips, breads, pasta, and dairy; not that these can not be healthy but in general the brands, quality, and types, the average American purchases are not healthy sources. All that being said, make it fun. You can do great tasting smoothies and include vegetables like beat leafs, swiss chard, kale, spinach, mixed with fruit, nuts, cinnamon, protein powder, water and ice. Sometimes I personally like to walk through the produce section at the store and find something I have never eaten before and buy it and try it. You might be pleasantly surprised with nature’s vast variety of flavors, colors, and textures.
Principal #3 Make sure you are digesting it
This may sound simple enough, but there is a lot to digestion. If you are experiencing pain in or around your stomach, liver, or colon with symptoms of burning, bloating, belching, constipation, diarrhea, and are not having a minimum of one bowel movement per day you likely have digestive issues that need attention; another sign is if you use antacids daily for a long period of time. This principal is important in that we need to make sure you are digesting the good food you are eating, allowing the food to nourish your body so you can be the healthy and active person you desire to be.
Principal #4 Give it time
This one is likely the most difficult for most Americans. We are a society of “fast” and immediate. We don’t want something in 5 minutes, we want it now. Well getting unhealthy likely took years to do, and getting healthy will likely take years to achieve, especially with the fine tuning necessary when you include all the food sensitivities and allergies, genetics, and other complicating factors.
Getting healthy through these principles is achievable but it requires thought and team work (including professionals like personal trainers, nutritionist, etc). Families need to help each other out, share recipes, encourage healthy choices, and be supportive. Unfortunately there is no cookie cutter recipe available, with no special fruit or vegetable from some ancient Asian civilization. Every person is different and their demands are different, so the diet and lifestyle necessary to achieve optimal health will likely be different. Please keep in mind this is not an attempt to treat, hopefully this article sparked some interest; and if so please consult with your healthcare practitioner who specializes in dietary and lifestyle modifications for further evaluation and guidance. Keep in mind, if there is ever a time in history to be healthy, now is the time, our healthcare delivery system is going through changes, with costs to the patients increasing (through higher deductibles, co-pays, monthly premiums and less coverage). If you think being healthy is time consuming and expensive, try being unhealthy and sick.