Health is a Life-style Choice
Health overall is a life-style, and it takes much work and energy in order to make it truly happen. This goes to say that changes take time and there are going to be both highs and lows like in any other life-style that one chooses to lead. I will further elaborate in five of the major elements of the life-style of health that I find to be very important, and that I find myself thinking about regularly.
1) You will not always have time for your health, although you MUST make time for your health.
What I mean by this is that there will be days where you are swamped with work, family, life, errands, ideas, so on and so forth. Just because this makes you busy doesn’t mean that you do not have time for your health. You may have to simply capitalize on just a few minutes at a time throughout the day, and then have a set time of around a half an hour for yourself somewhere throughout your day in order to make sure that you can get a workout in, do some yoga, meditate, stretch, or reflect on your nutrition if that appeals to you. This does not just happen if you keep going through the motions of daily life, so you must either plot these moments in your daily calendar or improvise if you are like me. You may need to tend to your workout or routine based around your family if you are very limited, although this could further serve as a motivation to become more aware of yourself and can create a family dynamic that is better for everyone if everyone is exploring the healthy period of time together. If you don’t have a family or any other chores, then the flexibility is much greater of course and you can really design this time in, or choose to spend it with your pet, or your boyfriend or girlfriend, or both if you have any of these.
2) Health takes on a variety of forms beyond just nutrition and exercise.
Health takes on forms far beyond just nutrition and exercise! It drives me nuts that people associate health so much with looks and with the physical being. You also have to focus on how you are feeling internally, whether or not you are including hobbies such as drawing, music, art, learning a foreign language, building puzzles, gardening, cooking, cleaning, socializing, and participating in other activities of the sort on a weekly basis. Are you checking in with the activities of health that make you feel great regularly? Are there some activities that you don’t feel so great doing and need to find ways to make them better because they are a part of your life whether you like it or not? Are you working far too much at work and not capitalizing on opportunities that could make for minor changes and greater overall health? These are just some of the ideas that present health beyond just simply the stereotypical nutrition and exercise comments.
3) Health is a continuum throughout life and requires adapting, improvising, and growth like any other task.
This means that it doesn’t just stop for periods of time as it says in the title. You need to be willing to keep going all of the way. Short breaks are necessary of course in order to become refreshed from burning out for doing far too much for far too long. What is meant by the adapting, improvising, and growing pieces have everything to do with the experience and aging process. As one gets older, they become far better at implementing health if having done it for years. However, we can’t surpass death, at least at this time, so you have to make changes to your diet, your exercise, and your activity levels as you age. In diet, you need to be more mindful of what you take in because the metabolic system slows down and activity requires less energy overall due to a subtle and slow decrease in the ability to do work. Accompany this with changes in hormones and you can have a recipe for disaster if you don’t make the minor changes over time. This is not to say that you can’t go hard either, it means that the recovery time from these harder activities goes up and it will require easing off for a few days or suffering a bit more through the next workout if you can and are willing to. Eventually you will need to rest though.
4) You DO NOT have to be perfect and can step out of your normal health routine once in a while.
As the title says, do yourself a favor and don’t seek out perfection in obtaining excellent health. You can and will need to be willing to allow yourself a piece of dessert, a candy bar, some alcohol, maybe a cigar here and there with close friends if you so please, a binge eating night every once in a while, lack of sleep to catch up with close ones, adventures that may be a bit discomforting, and many others. In moderation, none of these will be of extreme harm and in fact if you deprive yourself of these, you may end up stressing yourself out more than the harm that would have been done through consuming or doing whatever it was that you had intended to. Your imperfections are the greatest flaw that are well worth living for every once in a while, especially if it provides you a little stimulus and a reason to throw your body a curveball. I am not saying to go and do something that really is very RISKY by any means, although that is how some live and they call it “moderation”. What I am saying is take some calculated risks and be sure to live a little!
5) Health is DIFFERENT from person to person, as we are all different and have different needs.
We all have different physiology, different environments, different genetics, different hobbies, different levels of physical activity, function off of different diets, etc. DO NOT ever fall completely into the trap that just because one or many of these areas work in one way for someone that they will work that way for you. Seriously find what works best for you and run with it! Obviously there are considerations to be made that odds are you won’t be the exception to the junk food rule, sedentary life-style, smoking and drinking like crazy, etc. However, you need to find what YOU like. Look for activities that you like, look for exercises that you like, look for food that you love, look for places that you want to visit, look for goals that you want to accomplish, and the list can go on and on and on! You will have much overlap and find many people with similar areas of interest and at the same time share commonalities with people who are very different. Most importantly, don’t ever close the door to a new opportunity that may further make you different from everyone else.
I hope that this article has inspired you in some way! If you have anything to add, please comment below. I love using these elements as references for diet and exercise, although they are applicable in many other ways. Many will ask me what it is that I do in order to be as fit as I am from a diet and exercise standpoint. I always respond with, “First off, find activities and exercises that you love and don’t use me riding bikes as a reference. Secondly, continue to broaden your taste buds and find MANY foods that you enjoy. Lastly, make sure that you take care of yourself every day to the best of your ability because that is not something I can do for you. I will help you with discovering ideas related to foods, exercises and putting together activities, and it’s your job to decide what you like and make it your own!
Cheers!