Habits of Health Weekly Meeting

Top-down evaluation of what truly effects our overall Health

To those already listed we might want to add: Healthy Breathing, and a Healthy Spiritual program.

To obtain Optimal Health it requires that we have balance in the three critical aspects of our lives. Those being Spirit (soul), Mind, and Body. An imbalance in any one of the three areas will have a profound effect on our health outcomes.

Without God it is difficult to have peace, without peace it is impossible to have a quite mind and a confused chattering mind leads to a dis-eased (unbalanced body).

Eight basic items come to mind that could be considered “Macro’s”.

1. Healthy Weight Management

Most of the data, information, and statistics collected, concerning the risks related to being overweight, obese, or morbidly obese are there for those who desire to acknowledge them. Standards and measurements for defining a healthy weight are also available. The number 25 was selected as the upper range of a health weight when calculating (Body Mass Index) (BMI).

A certain healthy body fat percentage has been determined for men and women. It varies with age.

A ratio of the measurements between the hips and waist can also be an indicator as to when an individual is in or is easing into the risk zone.

2. Healthy Eating and Hydration

Of course, to stay healthy we should focus on eating healthy foods, maintaining healthy portions, and avoiding foods that the body has a hard time processing.

Hydration is an extremely important aspect of living a healthy life. The body is made up of 70 % fluid. As a rule of thumb everyone should get a minimum of 8 – 8-ounce glasses of water per day. Most nutritionists agree that we should drink one half our weight in ounces of water every day. Once again it is also important to not over do it. Unless you are working out, exercising, sweating, I would recommend a top limit of one hundred ounces.

3. Healthy Community, Environment, and Surroundings

“We become the average of the five people we hang around with the most.” Sometimes a person must give up the comfort of being in a group that agrees with their beliefs and habits, that is if they desire change.

As an alcoholic, I had to give up hanging around in bars playing pool or darts. The environment was not conducive to my quitting drinking alcohol. I had to release relationships, when those “so called” friends didn’t want to continue a relationship unless I continued drinking.

To lose weight, I had to stop going to the “all you can eat” places. I had to stop listening to those acquaintances that told me that it was OK to be overweight. But I gained knowledge and accepted that by being overweight I was adding a co-morbidity into my life. I had to decide whether I wanted to accept the risks involved or make a transformational move towards a healthier lifestyle. That decision was mine and mine alone to make.

My choices, I haven’t had a drink in over thirty-seven years and at age seventy I dropped over 20 pounds of fat. I have been able to keep that weight off over the last nine years.

4. Healthy Sleep and Energy Management

The importance of rest and relaxation cannot be overstated. Our bodies require a certain amount of time to recuperate and regenerate.

Of course, it has been proven that we can use abuse that time allotted for rest and still survive, sometimes with no apparent visible or emotional damage done. In my opinion a person with that belief is in a state of denial.

“Robbing Peter to pay Paul will sooner or later catch up with the perpetrator.”

Lack of a proper amount of rest will affect us on both a physical and mental level. And of course, being out of balance in those areas will imbalance the Spiritual level as well.

Weight gain is just one of the aspects that lack of sleep will contribute too.

Depression and other emotional issues can arise due to lack of sleep.

5. Healthy Motion

“When we slow down and stop moving, we start dying.”

Motions helps keep us healthy. It conditions the heart and lungs, develops muscle, and it assists our seventy “trillion” cells in disposing of toxic waste. It supports a healthy digestive system by keeping the flow going through the body. Liver, gut, and kidney sluggishness is significantly reduced.

Motion can be divided into two separate entities. (EAT - exercise activity thermogenesis and NEAT - Non-exercise activity thermogenesis)

NEAT basically determines your (BMR) Basal Metabolic Rate. It combines all of your non-exercise activity and gives the number of calories your body will burn daily to keep you alive.

I personally recommend “not” using exercise as a weight loss or maintenance tool.

Weight maintenance is controlled by the amount of food and quality of the food we ingest.

Exercise is extremely important in maintaining fitness.

6. Healthy Mind

A healthy mind is a prerequisite to the maintenance of a proper healthy physical presence.

“If we continue to think what we have always thought, we will continue to get what we have always got.”

A healthy mind contains continuing images of hope, faith, serenity, peace, and love. A healthy mind understands that in life we will experience “mountain top” experiences as well as finding ourselves in “valleys” dealing with challenges and consequences. A healthy mind will accept the adage: “This too shall pass.”

A healthy mind learns to accept responsibility for everything going on in one’s life. A healthy mind understands the “Law of Cause and Effect” and therefore understands that when consequences occur, that they themselves created those consequences.

An unhealthy mind will submit itself to unconscious emotions and feeling and substitute unhealthy actions to satisfy unhealed longings and habits.

Will power is not a substitute for a healthy mind as it loses its effectiveness over a period of time.

If weight loss is something you desire, developing a healthy mind will be a requirement. You will have to release / change old beliefs, habits, and attitudes.

7. Healthy Breathing

Breathing is a function that most individuals don’t put much thought or emphases on. Breathing seemingly is natural, everybody inhales and exhales, so why worry?

What most individuals don’t comprehend is that the body is the most exquisite chemical factory ever created. Oxygen is needed for each of the seventy “trillion” cells, where it combines with glucose and explodes to produce energy. The byproduct (exhaust) is carbon dioxide. If the body retains excessive amount of carbon dioxide the cells will become acidic and unhealthy. Short or shallow breathing is what creates this situation. Short and shallow breathing is what contributes to an anxious state of being. Deep breathing seems to dissipate worry and anxiety.

How does that tie into weight gain or loss, you ask? Many individuals will attempt to quelch their worries by eating, leading to weight gain. It can also go the other direction when people expend excess nervous energy and become too thin.

8. Healthy Spiritual Attitude / Program

Developing a relationship with our Creator is a healthy way of contributing to a healthy mind. The strength of that relationship provides us with the “hope” that there is something more than just a day-to-day existence.

A relationship with God can remove adverse feelings of anger and resentment.

By coming to an understanding of how He provided His Son to be a substitute (propitiation) for us, gives us an example of how the concept of forgiveness works. Knowing that He was, is, and forever shall be, gives a solid foundation on which to base our faith.

The Bible provides us with many references as to the benefits and support a person will receive as a believer.

Of course, it is said that God has provided every individual with “free-will.” It is up to us to choose to have Him in or lives or to reject Him and develop our own concept of spirituality.

As Mikey says: “try it you may like it.”

 

Join us to discuss these topics!

For more information read our other articles or contact us today!

Michael McCright
Free Health Coaching – provided by the "Together i Can Group"
Together i Can Inc.
September 6, 2021

Call 619-316-6900