You’re likely to have heard the saying “you are what you eat”, yet how much attention do we all pay to this principle in terms of applying it to our lives? For some, eating is considered to be a necessary biological requirement. For most people however, eating is a much more emotionally rewarding experience. This notion of “you are what you eat” can quickly go out the window when you emotionally crave a particular type of food (e.g. sugar or caffeine).
The problem with these cravings is that they create a rollercoaster of peaks and valleys in terms of your energy levels. Drinks such as Red Bull provide a temporary burst of energy which spikes your energy levels, but then leaves you feeling drained and depleted for the rest of the day as your energy levels crash.
It’s the same principle as if someone takes a drug like ecstacy; the serotonin in their brain is boosted to the point neuroreceptors are overwhelmed with feel good hormones. However, what goes up must come down, and in terms of your health, this see-saw or yo-yo affect on our bodies can seriously knock our homeostasis out of balance.
The best way to get a grip on your health is to picture a bank account. Just like a bank account, there are deposits and withdrawals. The deposit adds to your bank balance while the withdrawals take away. Using this metaphor for nutrition, an example of a deposit could be drinking aloe vera as you are investing nutrients that are going to replenish and revitalize your body. Whereas eating a chocolate bar would be considered a withdrawal.
Making the occasional withdrawal is fine. However if you are to withdraw more from your bank account than you are putting in…. that’s when you run into problems; this is when serious conditions and diseases occur.
The word dis-ease represents that your body is in a state of unease; meaning it is out of balance.
No matter what your current condition of health, the way to ensure a healthy life and to get a grip on your health moving forward, is to start taking care of your bank account by making more deposits than withdrawals.
There is an idea, of course, that prevention is better than cure and it’s essential that we look after tomorrow’s health today as the present is always a result of our past thoughts, actions and behaviors. Indeed, we are always living in the residual – meaning it will take some time for you to notice a positive change in your health.
The other thing to consider, on the topic of prevention being better than cure, is to keep our homes in a sanitary condition; for instance if you have a pest problem you’ll want to call in the professionals, such as ABC Home & Commercial Pest Control as pests in your home such as rats can be a health hazard.
Another factor in terms of your health bank account is to ensure you get enough cardiovascular exercise, as it is just as important as nutrition in terms of keeping a healthy heart, and there are plenty of fun ways to get into the aerobic zone such as swimming, cycling and aerobics classes in the gym such as Zumba. Even a 20 minute walk at a decent pace with some nice music will do the trick. Aerobic exercise is extremely good for the body as it pumps blood through your arteries and brings fresh air into your lungs; both great for flushing out toxins and nourishing blood cells that are vital to our health.
Then, there are the mental and emotional benefits that exercise brings as a result of the endorphins released into the body as a result of exercise.
The truth is, it’s never too late for you to start looking after your heart health by getting regular exercise. Even if you are unfit there’s always something you can do to improve the state of your health bank balance. It can be something as small as taking the stairs rather than the elevator, or exchanging soda drinks for water.
Similarly, if you are recovering from an injury the first step is to recover and rebuild. For instance, you could use a balance board in order to do proprioception exercises. This means you will regain joint strength before putting your body under too much physical strain.
One of best forms of exercise if you’re looking to regain your strength, recover from injury, and ease yourself back into exercise is swimming. If you’ve hurt your lower body, a great way to rehabilitate is to walk up and down the swimming pool. This form of hydrotherapy is particularly effective for knee and hip injuries.
When it comes to the more full on version of fitness, in terms of burning fat and gaining muscle, we can again view this within the context of the bank balance metaphor. The deposits you want to be making if you’re looking to gain muscle are low-rep and high-weight workouts with plenty of food that is high in protein. In contrast, the deposits you want to be making if your aim is to burn fat are high intensity interval training sessions or prolonged cardiovascular exercise that keeps your heart in the aerobic zone, coupled with low calorie meals and plenty of water to flush out the body.
In summary, the bank account of your health depends primarily on two things; the food you eat and the amount of exercise you engage in. This is clearly simple stuff and we all know these basic common sense principles,. Yet so often, we don’t apply these principles to our life because they aren’t always convenient, pleasant or tempting to follow. There’s a huge difference between having knowledge and applying knowledge; and as common sense is not always common practice, hopefully this simple metaphor of your health bank account will inspire you to make better day-to-day choices that will compound over time and lead to an abundant state of good health.
Photo Credit: Pixabay, Photo by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash
