How are your health "building blocks" stacking up?
The key aspect of my healing journey from feeling tired, anxious, and depressed to happy and healthy came down to three simple, yet crucial pieces to my health. For so long I looked to the next diet, the perfect supplement, the grueling gym workout, to make me feel healthy and strong.
But what I couldn't see for so long was that I was driving myself deeper into emotional and physical distress. I thought if I pushed harder and restricted more than I would eventually get to my ideal picture of health. What I was really doing was running away from it at an alarming rate.
I would pride myself on eating "perfectly" and hitting the gym for an intense hour long class although most days I felt depleted. But why was I feeling so down, lethargic, generally unmotivated to do much of anything? Why wasn't my spotless eating plan and my ability to fight through a workout reaping me any benefits?
It wasn't until I called in some help and took a hard look at my lifestyle. I had to really take a step back and work slowly from the ground up to build a healthy foundation. Instead of pushing myself to the extreme which was second nature to me, I had to do something completely out of my comfort zone.
I had to go slow, be patient, practice gratitude, and make some tough life style changes if I really wanted to reach health and happiness. So now I realize the immense importance of what I deem the healthy "building blocks". When these things are in line and working, the body responds in amazing ways and builds stamina and strength from the inside out.
- Sleep
Above food and exercise, sleep is the number one influencer of our wellbeing. You can check out my post I did all about sleep and its benefits. In summary, sleep is a crucial time of hormone regulation and muscle rebuilding for the body. It is when our body detoxifies and regulates the entire makeup of our internal systems.
So why aren't more people taking advantage of this important aspect to health? Well our culture has glorified the "busy" persona, making us feel that we've failed if we aren't achieving something every second the day. When we are constantly striving for the next thing, its hard to devote the 7-9 hours of sleep we all need.
But I can tell you that if you want the one thing that will make you feel happy and energized tomorrow, it is a good night of sleep. If you want to take back your power and achieve more than ever before, the secret is actually slowing down, not living in the fast lane. Prioritize the important ritual of high quality sleep and find yourself experiencing physical and mental stamina.
2. Digestion
An important topic of discussion in the health sector as of recent is gut health. The gut is what takes the food we eat and turn it into those vital nutrients and minerals we all need. What is the point of eating high quality food and incorporating supplements if we aren't gaining any benefits? It's like taking our hard earned money and waving it goodbye.
And it's not just the pain of wasting money of top quality nutrition, its our entire body suffering from not getting the proper sustenance. Digestion is one of those things that when it stops working right you notice immediately and normal life is hard to resume.
Digestion issues can encompass a wide range of painful symptoms from diseases such as IBS and Crohn's, to common problems like acid reflux and bloating. One surprising effect from improper digestion is due to low stomach acid, not high. Which is something I previously experienced and one of the first signs that my body was trying to tell me something.
Cleaning up the diet and removing gut irritants, such as gluten and dairy, is a huge step forward to proper digestion. But lifestyle factors play just as big of a role in how we are breaking down food. Everything from stress, poor sleep, eating quickly, and large meals can lead to poor digestive function. Just another reason why healthy lifestyle habits are so crucial!
Thankfully there are plenty of natural remedies you can use to aid your digestion. For everyday digestive health, you can eat more fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and kombucha. If you suspect you have low stomach acid, you can incorporate a tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar before meals to stimulate acid production. For meals with a high amount of protein, you can buy some digestive enzymes from your local health food store to take during your meals.
The world of digestive health is vast and complex. If you are in serious pain then please work with your doctor. But if you feel like you could use some daily help in this realm definitely experiment with some home remedies and research high quality supplements for an extra boost. The body is an amazing thing that does want to work for you, so give it the nutrition and assistance it needs to do its job!
3. Mindset
One of the more powerful realization I had during my wellness journey was the mind-body connection. We know that when we feel great, we are happier. But what about the other way around? How does our mood and our feelings about our life manifest in our physical body? Turns out that our thoughts have a profound influence on symptoms that arise in us.
When we are happy, we find solutions easier and make better decisions for our health. Stress has an amazing influence on our thoughts and actions, even more so than we realize. So when we take time to cultivate happiness and self love, we can translate that into feeling good, too. If we can truly believe that we are healthy and our body wants to work for us, finding health is a whole lot easier.
So how do we find more happiness and acceptance? One of my favorite ways is mediation. At first I thought it was too "out there" for me. But once I started to sit quiet for 15 minutes my entire mindset changed. I felt more at peace and more easily taking on the day's challenges. I also was able to make healthier choices because I had a clear mind and knew I wanted to feel my best. One of my favorite ways to start a mediation practice is using the app Headspace.
Another great way to find happiness is really learning about yourself and tendencies. When you learn how to leverage your disposition and personality, you can learn how to find good habits and stick to them. The best way to do this is following the work of Gretchen Rubin who explains all the categories each of us fall into. Start by taking her quizzes and listening to her weekly podcast. Before you know it, you will find healthy habits easier to stick to than ever before.
The last point, but by far the most important, is let go of the idea of perfection. Thinking you have to eat perfectly every minute of the day, following the perfect work out plan, etc. What is perfect anyways? I followed this mentality for so long but in reality it was making me so fearful around food and exercise, thinking I was somehow failing if I deviated at all from a plan. But it made my world so small and generated stress that it pushed me farther and farther from health.
Just accept the person you are and remind yourself you are doing the best you can. You're human, we are all human and we make mistakes. It is what we learn from them and how we respond to the world that is really important. Find what works for you and keeping following that path. Health really isn't a destination, it's a journey you're on for the long haul.