Being healthy. What does this mean to you? Why is it important to you? What keeps you from being healthy?
To me being healthy means being physically active, eating well most of the time and not dealing with chronic health issues. For me being physically active helps keep me mentally balanced and during exercise is a time when my brain is often thinking through issues and solving problems that result in ah-ha moments for something that has been puzzling me for hours.
Healthy isn’t a number on the scale or the sum miles you ran this week or how many veggies you ate this week. These types of measures can help establish good health, but by themselves they don’t mean you are healthy. I’ve seen way too many people who are at a “healthy” weight, but can’t run a mile or carry three bags of groceries. If we were to judge just by the scale and measures of BMI – I’m definitely overweight.
Healthy is being strong enough, mentally and physically, to participate in life. It’s setting a good example for others in your life. Healthy is being able to keep up with your kids and grandkids. It’s about balancing eating habits and fitness.
It pains me to watch friends and family members suffering from chronic illness, fighting diabetes, being rushed to the hospital due to heart disease or living a sedentary life. It could be lack of initiative, an unsupportive network to make change, the uncertainty of where to start, a sense of overwhelming because healthy habits seem daunting, it could be genetics.
In the last year I’ve been introduced to healthy lifestyle coaching and become connected to an incredibly supportive group of people. Now I want to take what I’ve learned about healthy eating and exercise programs and help others start on a path to a healthier lifestyle. This is really no different than when I decided I wanted to teach yoga and share the value of yoga.
What has been key to me is planning and consciously thinking about meals instead of thinking of what is quickest to eat. The good news is that this doesn’t take a lot of time and that you don’t have to be an accomplished chef to eat well.
The holiday season has started and being healthy doesn’t mean I’ll skip out on all of the good food or miss a lot of workouts. It does mean I need to be a little more mindful of scheduling fitness and planning for big treat meals. I’m putting this out there as a measure of accountability, so I can maintain a healthy lifestyle through the holidays instead of waiting for New Years resolutions, and because I’m curious about your views on health.