The way we care for our physical body impacts the amount of disease and pain we experience. This has a direct affect on our quality of life. This is how I define Body Health: our physical quality of life.

There is a full spectrum made up of how we care for our bodies. On one side of the spectrum is not caring, which includes all kinds of disease and pain. The other side is fully caring for your body, which means little to no disease and pain.

Unfortunately, most of us fall way short of completely caring for our bodies. Why? Because it is hard. It takes work. There are so many unhealthy choices promoted to us at staggering rates. These choices may taste good or feel good right away but you pay for them later. We have fast food, alcohol, tv, etc. McDonald’s even delivers now. That says to me, “don’t get up off your couch… keep binge watching your tv show on Netflix. We’ll bring you this completely not nutritious meal.” What does that sedentary lifestyle do to our bodies? It robs us of our energy. It invites disease and pain.

I’m sure you have seen commercials for 5 Hour Energy. “I have that 2:30PM tired feeling… I have an hours worth of energy and 5 hours worth of work to do… three more classes to teach… two more yards to mow… when you’re battery’s running low, take 5 hour energy to get back to 100%.”

We have so many responsibilities and things that require us to have optimal energy. Yet we continuously find ways to kill our energy, which makes things so much harder on ourselves. We drink alcohol, we stay up late, we eat bad food, etc.

What if you could have optimum energy all the time? What if you felt good… all the time? What would that do for your relationships? How much more effective would you be? In your job? With your kids? Getting things done? What would you be willing to do to feel that way?

In order to take control of your Body Health, you need to understand the beliefs you hold regarding health. What gets in your way of being healthy?

Here are some of the elements I believe make up Body Health.

Oxygen

The quality of your life comes down to the quality of your cells. Cells transport oxygen through our bodies. Oxygen is the number one necessity for our life. Without it, we die. As such, we need to be mindful of our breathing and our cells.

We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Oxygen is picked up by hemoglobin in our blood and distributed to our cells. Our cells use the oxygen for fuel and release energy.

The better we are able to take in oxygen and circulate our blood, the more energy we will have.
Try taking yoga daily for 5 days. I guarantee, if you are focusing on your breathing as you should, you will have more mental clarity after each session than you have ever had.

“Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health. If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just on tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. There is no single more powerful or more simple daily practice to further your health and well being than breathing.”

Andrew Weil, M.D.

Nutrition

a. Breathing meditate for at least 10 minutes a day. The more focus you can apply to
your breathing, the better. I use an app called Headspace for guided meditation.
Consider adding in yoga to your daily routine will send your energy through the roof! One yoga session is typically an hour to an hour and a half long. Think about how much practice breathing mindfully you can get!
b. Water and water rich foods drink half your body weight in ounces daily. Use filtered, pure water if possible.
At least 70% of your diet should consist of water-rich foods.
c. Green foods eat 70-80% foods that are life giving (green vegetables, almonds, avocados, lemons, limes, etc)
d. Aerobic exercise 30 minutes three five days a week (walk, run, swim, bike, etc.). Make it fun! Exercise with friends, groups, music, etc.
e. Learn about food combing when to drink, what foods work well together, portion sizes and what foods are the best foods for you. “Food Combining Made Easy” by Herbert M. Shelton is a good resource.
f. Find ways to move take the stairs instead of the elevator, park farther away and walk, move as often as possible.
Make sure to stretch! I just turned 40 years old and the need to stretch is paramount! Some times my body aches and I feel like an old man if I sit for more than 15 minutes. Yikes!
g. Take time out of your day to practice gratitude. Especially, in times when you are stressed, upset or angry. Changing your focus like that will have a profound impact on you and your life.
h. Avoid or minimize eating processed fats butter, margarine, cheese, French fries, chips, cookies and other tasty snacks are made with them. These raise blood cholesterol.
i. Avoid or lower your intake of animal flesh. This one hurts as I love bacon. But animal flesh is known to increase risk of heart disease and cancer. I’ve been doing this for some time now (eating primarily fish, vegetables, fruit and good fats) and the results are mind blowing. My body feels like it is operating like a well oiled machine.
j. Avoid or lower your intake of dairy. Recent studies show dairy has significant contributions to osteoporosis, kidney problems and certain forms of cancer. Hint: dairy/milk is in a lot of stuff.
k. Stay away from acid addictions. Too much acid sets up our blood and tissues to promote the growth of virus, bacteria, yeast and fungus. Aka disease.

These are the following acid addictions you should minimize or eliminate:

• Excessive caffeine this was a tough one for me. I love my morning 2-3 cups of coffee. This also includes chocolate, which I love. and soda. But I also like breaking habits.
• Processed sugar (the most common processes sugar? Soda… and even worse, “diet” soda)
• Nicotine
• Alcohol I rarely drink anymore. I’ll go months without drinking to experiment with how my body feels. It is very apparent how alcohol dehydrates my body making my muscles tighter and joints not happy.
• Whites
• Processed vinegar
• Drugs

A few years ago, I went through a lengthy custody battle. It was a stressful, painful and traumatic experience. I spent a lot of that time focused on that and not taking care of myself. I gained 25 lbs largely due to unhealthy eating and drinking habits. I spent the year following the court situation getting my life back on track and refocusing.

My family physician suggested I look to the South Beach diet to help lose the weight I put on. It turned out South Beach was a great way to learn about nutrition and to save money. South Beach provided a simple to follow nutritional plan. For $300, they provided all meals (frozen) and snacks throughout the month. All I had to do was add in vegetables as sides to the lunches/dinners. The South Beach regimen helped drop the court weight in a year, save money and gain a nutritional education to boot.

Disclaimer: South Beach provided me a good nutritional education. I thought I had been eating “healthy” before but my portion sizes were way too big, my snacks were not optimal and I ate way too much complex carbs. South Beach allows for animal flesh, dairy and some inclusion of coffee/alcohol.

However, I have since progressed to more of a pescatarian diet. As noted in the Nutrition section above, I highly recommend anyone to try the South Beach Diet on their own to determine its own merits in their life.

Aerobic versus Anaerobic Exercise

Aerobic means to “with oxygen.” This essentially means exercising for a period of time that gets your heart rate up. Your aerobic system includes your heart, lungs, blood vessels and aerobic muscles. If you are exercising aerobically (walking, running, swimming, etc), you burn fat.

Anaerobic means “without oxygen.” Think of this as short bursts of power, like weightlifting. Anaerobic burns glycogen as its primary fuel and stores fat.

Yoga, Swimming and Martial Arts

I highlight these three together as they all teach similar concepts: breathe, balance and relax.

I have been practicing yoga for the past several years and I am always amazed at how much mental clarity I receive, as well as how good my body feels, after a session. Yoga instructors continuously reinforce a focus on your breathing. Many of the poses seem impossible and challenging. It’s not until you relax your muscles that you can truly get into the ideal position. And, you definitely need balance in order to hold the positions.

I’ve done swimming over the years but I did not fully understand it as a meditative state until recently. I was introduced to a book called Total Immersion. The author provides a full guide on how to swim properly. The themes throughout are to breathe, balance and relax.

Tai Chi holds a special place in my heart. I have been practicing Tai Chi over the past year and cannot get enough of it. The only time I had seen anyone practicing Tai Chi was in movies. It was typically older people somewhere in China. The movements looked really slow and easy. That was all an illusion. Tai Chi is a very challenging art. It’s primary focus is to teach you how to relax and balance. Breathing is also a key part of the practice.

I highly recommend anyone look into incorporating some or all of these into your daily/ weekly practice.

Find help

If you were sick enough, would you try and treat yourself? I’m sure you would try to heal yourself for a bit until you exhausted your knowledge (and maybe friends and family knowledge), but there’s a point where you seek out a professional. This is no different. If you’ve used your own knowledge and are not getting the results you want, find a professional.

I personally like to work with someone who knows more than I do and has a track record of helping others. Not only do I get access to their knowledge, but they also keep me accountable.

Seek out models or mentors. If you need help understanding how to exercise, seek out personal trainers or coaches. You can find them at gyms, online (YouTube can be a good resource) or through friends.

If you need help with nutrition, there are nutritionists, books and online resources.

Don’t let money stop you. You can always find someone willing to barter or you can use books/online resources. The most important thing is to start.

Make A Daily Routine

If you don’t practice, it won’t stick. I have a weekly calendar I created to plan out my big “to do’s” throughout the week, but I also have a daily routine.

When I wake up, my routine goes something like this:

• Let the dog out and feed her Foam roll and stretch
• Practice Tai Chi
• Stretch some more
• Meditate
• Shower
• Breakfast (glass of water with lemon and juiced fruits/veggies) walk the dog
• Start work

It’s also important to have an evening routine before bed

Mine looks like this:

• Spend 20 minutes reviewing my day. What did I accomplish? What do I need to work on? What remains? Plan for the following day.
• Read a chapter of something. This can be poetry, non fiction or something related to my own development. I try to avoid anything that will get my mind stimulated before bed.
• Drink some herbal tea
• Stretch
• Meditate/pray for 10 minutes
• Go to bed (as relaxed as possible)

Body Health is the main function of minimizing or eliminating disease and pain. It is also how we generate energy to accomplish all the things we need to do. If this area lacks within us, it will have a negative impact in our lives.

If you are serious about improving your Body Health, I have an entire section on my web site dedicated to this area. I encourage you to take a look and let me know what appeals to you. I am available to answer any questions you have and help you on your journey.

Body Health is one of the three pillars of Total Health. The other two being Mind Health and Spirit Health. You can click here to access those articles: