Tuesday, January 24, 2012

warning: diet/health/sitting rant. Read at your own risk

My job is to be on the phone, and sell health, prescription, and/or dental insurance plans to people over 50 years of age. This is proving to be an extremely difficult thing to do on a daily basis while I continue on my quest to better health. A good portion of people I talk to have clearly neglected themselves and their bodies throughout their lives and are now in need of dire help, some as young as 50, taking 10+ prescriptions a day. Perhaps this is part of the reason I've decided to reconfigure my diet. Eating more as nature intended so my body is able to do the things I want to do not just now, but many years down the road. It is genuinely scary to hear people who are 60 years old, that sound like they are 90, who have multiple chronic conditions, and are unable to get health insurance. On the other end of the coin, it is very uplifting to speak with someone in their 90s who is completely with it and able to take care of themselves and their business.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people regardless. Disease, sickness, accidents, what have you. I understand that. At the same time though, I very much feel that you create your own luck to a certain extent. It is beyond safe to say that the 90 year olds I talk to who are totally competent did not abuse themselves like the 60 year olds that are near death. The word abuse here can mean many different things, but for today I'm simply talking about 2 things: diet and a sedentary lifestyle. 

In the words of Professor Arnold Ehret, "There is no animal that abuses food such as man." The 3 meals a day concept is complete nonsense. The quantity of food an average restaurant serves for a 'meal' is well beyond what the stomach can handle at any given time. Natures intention, as far as food is concerned, is to give us enough energy to function. Simple. So many people seem completely ignorant to the fact they are destroying themselves with the way they eat and how they act, or don't act. Entirely too many people go to work(much of them sit at work), then come home and sit in front of the TV. Sitting wreaks havoc on our bodies and can technically be called a cause of death. I strongly suggest you research it yourself and I'll even start you with this, a simple info graphic with some figures on how badly sitting is killing us.

While I consider myself to be on the path to better health, I do not consider myself to be very healthy. In my eyes, someone who is very healthy has at least an average range of motion in all their joints. Another thing I consider to be extremely vital in being healthy is posture(also very neglected). I've come a long way from where I was in this regard and continue to be conscious of it on a daily basis. While on the outside I may appear to be healthy simply because I'm not overweight, it's just not the case. I have limited ROM in my hips, ankles, spine just to name a few, as well as chronic pain in a few of those areas. Golf and my lack of knowledge of posture created my back issues, skateboarding with little to no regard for my body for 10 years is how my ankles reached this point, and working in a call center is what has created my lack of mobility in my hips and spine from sitting too damn much. Even as active as I am outside of work, sitting for that many hours is extremely detrimental to the body.

At the same time, however, I am extremely grateful for my body and all of its flaws. It presents one hell of a challenge to restore and rebuild it to what I consider to be good health. I feel I've taken a lot of the right steps so far on this journey and am extremely proud of what I've accomplished. One thing I would like, however, is to see more people take an interest in themselves and their own health and well being. If we work together and are able to support each other by taking a path to better health, it will be easier for all of us. I see way too many people, some of them close to me, that seemingly do not care, or do not see the reality of the situation. Eat at least a somewhat balanced diet, exercise a fair amount, don't sit too much, or you will eventually die because of it!

"Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see, and baby, baby, baby do you like it?"

Sounds better when you listen to Robert Plant wailing it(misty mountain hop), but even written down it still holds some meaning.

To follow that, I ask you, do you care enough about yourself to do anything about it?

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