Some thoughts on making healthy choices...

One would think that a nation that spends as much money on healthcare as the United States does should be the healthiest nation in the world, right? Well, come to find out, the US is ranked 45th on the list! With obesity and diabetes and cancer on the rise, with 100,000 deaths a year related to adverse effects of properly prescribed drugs, with chronic diseases like coronary artery disease and diabetes entering the pediatric population, we really need to stop and take a good hard look at our current state of affairs. As a student at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in Manhattan, I am blessed to have wonderful speakers who come and provide us with the latest in dietary theory and nutritional news. Teachers like Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Barry Sears, Dr. Walter Willet from Harvard, David Katz, the Director of Prevention Research at Yale, Deepak Chopra, Mark Hyman and dozens of other experts in the field continue to hammer the point back to us, prevention is key. What we ingest into our body is what we become.

This should come as no surprise to anyone. We've heard it before: "Junk in, junk out." "You are what you eat". "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". "An apple a day......." We all know this on some level. So why the difficulty for the people of this great nation in learning how to eat right, exercise and lighten up with our stress level? Eating right is not that difficult, and as a health counselor, I work to help people do just that. Those who want to clean up their diet and lifestyle, and are committed to doing that, can usually be successful. But what about the majority of Americans who continue to make poor food choices and lead stressful, sedentary lives? What can be done to prompt them into a wellness mindset? I am continually shocked as a nurse in a hospital setting to see fellow nurses and health care professionals who make poor food choices and are overweight, stressed out, irritable and doing nothing for their oveall sense of health and wellness.

As a holistic nurse, I see people as a threefold being, made up of body mind and spirit. I believe that when one facet of the whole is negatively affected, the other "parts" are equally effected. We are like one conjoined triplet. Where one part goes the other parts follow. That is why when a person does finally start paying attention to their physical wellbeing, and starts eating right and exercising and decreasing stress, he will naturally experience a better sense of emotional well being, and will naturally be eventually led to a spiritual exploration. Same thing is true of someone who starts down a spiritual path. Before too long, the person will naturally start to face and address any blocks to emotional well being, and start to look at the nutritional piece as it fits in as well.

Which leads me to my point. The many that are not making their health a priority may be suffering on a spiritual or emotional level. Maybe on some unspoken level, they don't see themselves as deserving or worthy of abundance of health. We can have the same attitude towards our health as we can about wealth or success. "It's for everyone else but me, there isn't enough to go around, or I don't deserve it, I'm not good enough to have it." These underlying blocks can stand in the way of someone taking definitive action towards changing their life for the better. So I guess that the answer to my own question of "Why don't people get this whole prevention thing?" is: They can't.

Look, there is enough information out there for anyone with a minimum amount of intelligence to be able to start doing the basics: eliminate refined sugar and processed foods, increase fruits and vegetables, avoid soda, diet and regular alike, take whole food supplements, drink more water, take the steps instead of the elevator.......this is not rocket science. A refusal to pay attention to your health in the richest nation in the world where there are so many food choices open for so many, indicates something on a deeper level. I have seen people treat their car or their pet better than they treat themselves. People, that is not the way it is supposed to be. All of the great religions and spiritual teachings in the world will tell you, "Love yourself, as you love others." That means truly caring enough about yourself to take good care of you. Sadly, most people do not love themselves. On the contrary, they treat themselves rather harshly, speaking negatively to themselves, putting their own needs last, if at all. To care for oneself is not selfish, it is what we are asked to do. For it is only when we are thriving and feeling good about our self, body mind and spirit, that we finally have our best person to put out into the world to live our life's purpose effectively.

So my first question when I work with someone as a health counselor is to explore if the person I am going to work with feels good about themselves enough so that they feel worthy of health. Do they love themselves enough to see themselves as deserving of an abundantly healthy life? I suggest that you explore these questions with yourself, as you make your way on your individual journey in this lifetime.