May
18
My Health Puzzle: Where do the pieces fit?
There’s an old saying that says, “You can’t put a square peg in a round hole.” Now I have always disagreed with that because I feel that what you can and can’t fit into a round hole depends on the size of the hammer and not the shape of the peg. It would be more accurate to say, “You can’t put a square peg NEATLY into a round hole.” Of course this is besides the point. The point of that saying is to illustrate to everyone how some things just don’t fit. Have you ever felt like you don’t fit?
I know that trying to live a healthy lifestyle in an unhealthy world is difficult. We are constantly bombarded with the opportunity to make bad health choices. And the fact that bad health choices are so prevalent means that most people are conditioned to believe that they are normal. Anyone who chooses to take the health path less traveled is simple a square peg.
And yet we see progress. At least in my area of the world, we are more health conscious now than we were five years ago. Grocery stores are carrying organic foods, vitamins and supplements. Bottled water is being sold where only soda and sport drinks were before. Restaurants are offering more healthy food choices. Even fast-food joints are modifying their menu to give people better choices.
But where does it all fit in? There are so many things people can do to improve their health and most people get overwhelmed trying to figure it all out. To answer that question you have to ask the question, why? Why am I doing what I’m doing? Most people are either making healthy choices because they have to or because they want to.
People who make healthy changes in their life because they have to are in crisis mode. This is the guy that loses 50 lbs and stops smoking because the doctor told him he was going to die if he didn’t. This is the woman that decides to start exercising because she has a class reunion coming up and she doesn’t want to “look fat.” Or the woman that goes into an Upper Cervical doctor’s office crying because of her migraines and is never seen again after two visits because “she’s better.” Of course there’s nothing wrong with wanting to make changes for the better no matter what the motivation. But the problem with crisis mode is, when the crisis is over the healthy changes stop. All the normal unhealthy choices resume until the next crisis comes up and then the cycle will start all over again.
People who make healthy choices because they want to are in true health mode. The normal state of the human body is health. It’s always doing it’s best to achieve an optimal level of health and there are certain things that help the body to do this better. Things like exercise, proper diet, proper head/neck alignment, good posture and adequate sleep all help the body work at it’s peak, no matter what you are going through. And although these healthy things can help you tremendously in a crisis, that’s not the point. Healthy people do that because they are healthy people, not because they are sick.
So look at the things you do in your life. Start doing things because you want to be healthy instead of trying not to be sick. I would suggest that you focus on three main things as the foundation for your healthy life:
1. Upper Cervical Care: You can’t be the healthy person you are supposed to be without proper head/neck alignment. You may not understand why, but there are plenty of online sources that will answer that question. Drop your ASSumptions and do your own research. Your health and your families health depends on it.
2. Exercise: If you don’t use it, you lose it. The body needs to be worked. If you don’t get physical activity in your daily life (and most of us don’t) then you have to do it on your own. You don’t have to try and be ripped like a racehorse but you do have to exercise. Your body needs it.
3. Diet: Diet is what you eat not what you don’t eat. Everyone has a diet but most people have a poor one. You can’t treat your body like a garbage disposal and expect it to run like a Ferrari. If you want it to run like a Ferrari, treat it like one.
