Today I feel like talking about health. Not spiritual or emotional health, but physical well-being.
How "well" do you feel? On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being feeling completely horrible and having no energy, and 10 being feeling incredible)...where do you fall? If you're being honest, are you in the top 50% or the bottom?
I'll be honest. The more weight I lose, the better I feel...and the more I realize just how "un-well" I felt before. It got me to thinking: how many people are out there saying "I feel fine" when in actuality they have NO idea how good they COULD feel?! Maybe they feel as well as they know how to feel...but on the scale of 1-10 it's really only a 5 or 6.
This is a topic that I'm very passionate about. I hate seeing people settling for less when it comes to their health (or the health of their children). My heart breaks when I see people stuck in an unhealthy cycle...particularly when they don't even know they're there. What do I mean by that? I think so many people think that regular doctor's visits for sickness is normal. They think that prescription medication is normal. They think that allergies or runny noses or headaches are normal. It reminds me of this Dave Ramsey bumper sticker we used to have on our car: "Debt is Normal. Be Weird." When it comes to health & wellness, I guess my mantra should be: "Sickness is Normal. Be Weird."
Here's my biggest wish for others in this area: that we will each become experts on our own bodies. Read that again. Become an expert on your own body.
Why should you do that? Well, for one thing, no one else can understand your body and how you feel the way that you can. No one else lives in your skin 24/7, right? So let's stop leaving the primary health decisions of our own bodies up to someone who doesn't live in it. Educate yourself. Do the research. (Just make sure your resources are accurate...a thought for another day.) Never blindly assume that everything your doctor tells you is safe or the best answer. Ask questions. Look for answers. Please, please, please.
Why else should you be en expert on your own body? Because every drug has a side effect. (And, for the sake of this discussion, most supplements on the market are NOT whole-food and 100% natural, which means they can have side effects as well). I've been talking about drugs having side effects for years, but it's really only been since watching my parents walk through a few things last year that I REALLY knew how DANGEROUS some of those side effects can be. Some of the drugs my Dad was prescribed after his heart surgery last year were causing side effects that would have killed him if he hadn't been keeping close tabs on his body. Praise the Lord my parents have become experts on their own bodies and learned some very safe & effective ways to build health. If left to just the world of prescription drugs, I really don't think my Dad would be alive today.
Another reason to become an expert on your own body is so that you can fine-tune the research that you do into what your body needs. Now why in the world would we need to do our own research into health & wellness? Because the medical community is NOT educated on disease prevention. They're trained on disease treatment. If you want to gain maximum health for your body so that you stay well and have a strong immune system, the medical community is just not the best place to look. You need to look into things like: nutrition, exercise, chiropractic, etc. And even then, you need to be careful that the information you're getting is based on scientific accuracy. I get so frustrated with the things being thrown around as fact, that are just not true. I've been around enough to know that you can pretty much find something out there to confirm anything you want. The key is to find the facts. Are the facts based on science & research? Or just personal testimony & advertising? Know your source.
Before I get off my soap box, I want to challenge you to look into a few things. Things that maybe you use regularly and think nothing of their health ramifications. I'm not going to go into any details on them today, I'm just going to get you thinking about them. I will just tell you this: none of these things are healthy (even though many of them are found in things marketed as "health foods" or "safe products"). Here's the list for you to ponder & check for on the labels of your favorite products:
Today, I just wanted to get you thinking. Just how healthy ARE you? Hmmm....
How "well" do you feel? On a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being feeling completely horrible and having no energy, and 10 being feeling incredible)...where do you fall? If you're being honest, are you in the top 50% or the bottom?
I'll be honest. The more weight I lose, the better I feel...and the more I realize just how "un-well" I felt before. It got me to thinking: how many people are out there saying "I feel fine" when in actuality they have NO idea how good they COULD feel?! Maybe they feel as well as they know how to feel...but on the scale of 1-10 it's really only a 5 or 6.
This is a topic that I'm very passionate about. I hate seeing people settling for less when it comes to their health (or the health of their children). My heart breaks when I see people stuck in an unhealthy cycle...particularly when they don't even know they're there. What do I mean by that? I think so many people think that regular doctor's visits for sickness is normal. They think that prescription medication is normal. They think that allergies or runny noses or headaches are normal. It reminds me of this Dave Ramsey bumper sticker we used to have on our car: "Debt is Normal. Be Weird." When it comes to health & wellness, I guess my mantra should be: "Sickness is Normal. Be Weird."
Here's my biggest wish for others in this area: that we will each become experts on our own bodies. Read that again. Become an expert on your own body.
Why should you do that? Well, for one thing, no one else can understand your body and how you feel the way that you can. No one else lives in your skin 24/7, right? So let's stop leaving the primary health decisions of our own bodies up to someone who doesn't live in it. Educate yourself. Do the research. (Just make sure your resources are accurate...a thought for another day.) Never blindly assume that everything your doctor tells you is safe or the best answer. Ask questions. Look for answers. Please, please, please.
Why else should you be en expert on your own body? Because every drug has a side effect. (And, for the sake of this discussion, most supplements on the market are NOT whole-food and 100% natural, which means they can have side effects as well). I've been talking about drugs having side effects for years, but it's really only been since watching my parents walk through a few things last year that I REALLY knew how DANGEROUS some of those side effects can be. Some of the drugs my Dad was prescribed after his heart surgery last year were causing side effects that would have killed him if he hadn't been keeping close tabs on his body. Praise the Lord my parents have become experts on their own bodies and learned some very safe & effective ways to build health. If left to just the world of prescription drugs, I really don't think my Dad would be alive today.
Another reason to become an expert on your own body is so that you can fine-tune the research that you do into what your body needs. Now why in the world would we need to do our own research into health & wellness? Because the medical community is NOT educated on disease prevention. They're trained on disease treatment. If you want to gain maximum health for your body so that you stay well and have a strong immune system, the medical community is just not the best place to look. You need to look into things like: nutrition, exercise, chiropractic, etc. And even then, you need to be careful that the information you're getting is based on scientific accuracy. I get so frustrated with the things being thrown around as fact, that are just not true. I've been around enough to know that you can pretty much find something out there to confirm anything you want. The key is to find the facts. Are the facts based on science & research? Or just personal testimony & advertising? Know your source.
Before I get off my soap box, I want to challenge you to look into a few things. Things that maybe you use regularly and think nothing of their health ramifications. I'm not going to go into any details on them today, I'm just going to get you thinking about them. I will just tell you this: none of these things are healthy (even though many of them are found in things marketed as "health foods" or "safe products"). Here's the list for you to ponder & check for on the labels of your favorite products:
- Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, and many new ones...anything with that artificial sweetener after-taste)
- Margarine
- MSG (normally listed on labels as: natural flavors, hydrolyzed soy protein, processed free glutamic acid, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, autolyzed yeast, maltodextrin, etc.)
- Formaldehyde (listed under MANY names, but here are a few: Quaternium 15, 2-bromo-2nitropropane-1,3-dio, Diazolidinyl urea, Imidazolidinyl urea, DMDM Hydantoin)
- Fluoride
Today, I just wanted to get you thinking. Just how healthy ARE you? Hmmm....
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