What are your health and wellness goals? This is the question I ask my clients. Surprisingly not too many can give me a definitive answer and almost no one gives me the answer that combines all the aspects of wellness.
I find that today when most people think of wellness it usually only encompasses nutrition, supplementation and exercise. However, the wellness part that most don’t focus on is being happy, positive and in alignment with all aspects of your life. When I look at how I can help a client achieve their health and wellness goals I focus on all of the four aspects.
So the initial focus of starting on a path to better health is nutrition. I am a huge believer that this is the first and most important component that decides your health. We are what we eat. So when we eat poorly ,we are setting ourselves for a higher probability of degenerative diseases later on in life, not to mention the current state of health, lack of energy, poor sleep habits and personal appearance, just to name a few.
On the upside, when we eat well we provide our body with nourishment and antioxidant support that it needs to fight off the free radical damage that attacks our cells on a daily basis from pollution, pesticides and toxins. These days more than ever our bodies are bombarded with toxins. Not only are we faced with what is in the environment, there are other toxins that we are willingly choosing to use; such as chemical housecleaning products and personal care products, most of which are laden with toxic chemical preservatives.
Unfortunately, the food that we eat has also gone down greatly in nutritional content. To sum it up: we have to fight off more toxins, and the food that we eat doesn’t provide us with enough antioxidants to support that fight. So what can we do to maximize our chances at achieving that optimal health that we desire? First of all, we have to stop eating processed foods and start eating closer to nature. That means shopping on the outer isles of the grocery store and buying foods that only have one ingredient. It is vital to incorporate a lot of different colour vegetables and fruits into your diet. The minimum daily servings of vegetables should be between 3.5-5, same for the fruits. Now this is the time to ponder and be honest with yourself, do you always get that on a daily basis? Most people do not.
Secondly, substitute all your processed and refined grains, like white bread, white flour, and white pasta for whole wheat or better yet ancient grains variety such as quinoa, spelt and kamut. These grains have a lot more nutritional value and they still taste delicious. You should be having about 6-7 servings of whole grains daily.
Thirdly, to make healthy meals more accessible, make sure you get into the habit of doing the “weekend prep”. This is when you go to the grocery store with your list of all the healthy goodies that you will be making for the week and then you divide them , precook (for example brown rice or quinoa and boiled eggs), slice your fruits and veggies, marinade your chicken and fish for the week, etc. That way you will always have a healthy option and won’t have to face a dilemma of what to make on a weeknight.
Ideally all of your vitamins and minerals should be through the foods that you eat. However, due to our depleted soils, excessive use of pesticides/hormones/antibiotics and foods being picked before they ripen; we have lost a lot of nutrition in our foods. Some findings now suggest that you need to consume around 20,000 calories per day to get your optimal nutrition from food alone. Let’s face it, that’s completely unrealistic. So this is why supplementation has become quite a necessity, to fill in the gaps in your nutrition. However, a supplement should never replace good eating habits. Proper nutrition always comes first. Keep in mind though that not all supplements are created equal, so make sure you do your homework before deciding which supplement to take and make sure that it is pharmaceutical grade quality.
The third component to your health journey is exercise. It is a very important aspect in your health. Not only does it make you look good, and feel good, it also improves many bodily functions such as cardiovascular function, reduces chances of osteoporosis, improves circulation, skin tone, memory function, as well as help you release toxins, just to name a few. Even though exercise is very crucial to your overall wellbeing, it does not replace healthy eating. If the concern is weight loss then proper nutrition is the key. Weight loss is about 80% of what you eat and about 20% exercise. So continue exercising but do not forgo clean healthy eating because you have burned a lot of calories at the gym.
The fourth and usually a completely overlooked component to your health and wellness journey is your happiness, your positivity and your outlook on life. Many new findings show a very detrimental effect that stress has on the body. So the more stress and negativity you have in your life, the more negative side effects you will notice in your health (such as: headaches, stomach pains, lack of energy, bad sleeping habits, etc).
In most cases, the stress is unwarranted and amplified in our minds, and in the big scheme of things has no importance or major consequences in our lives. Yet so many people are constantly under stress, from their jobs, family and personal relationships. What most don’t realize is being stressed and negative is a choice that you make every day, and just like deciding on changing your eating habits with small changes on a daily basis, changing your outlook will also take time. You have to start with small changes and be consistent with them daily and you will see a big difference in your life within a short period of time. Sometimes, changing a job or starting to hang out with more positive people will make a big difference in the way you deal with stress. Disappointments and stress will always be there, but it depends on how you handle it and whether you make a decision for it to affect you or not is what will make a difference.
Be grateful every day. When you start thinking about all the good you have in your life, (even little things like a beautiful sunny day) the bad things don’t seem so bad anymore. So take control of your happiness and make a choice to be happy. This is a great quote that sums it up. “I choose to be happy because it’s good for my health.”
In conclusion, I want to say that health and wellness is within everyone’s reach. It does take work and dedication and doesn’t always come easy and fast. But with consistent plan and action, anyone can be healthy and happy.