UNITED STATES—You have one body and you only get one body people. If you take care of it for the most part good things will happen, if you don’t bad things will happen. However, this is not to say that people who don’t take care of their body don’t have unexpected, unexplainable things happen to them because it happens all the time, cancer, foreign illnesses, viruses, etc.
This column is geared directly to those who are NOT taking care of their bodies. You know how you eat something super greasy, fatty, sugary or drenched in everything that is bad for you and how you feel afterwards? Trust me I know I’m not the only person who has indulged in such. It may have tasted good when you first ate it, but as your body begins to digest the food, you don’t feel so great and you sometimes pay the price later.
You are what you eat that is the saying people and if you’re constantly stuffing your face with sugary content or sodium laced fast-food that is going to impact your body. We know high levels of sodium impact blood pressure, high fat content impacts your cholesterol levels and then you have high content of sugar that can lead to weight gain and potential diabetes (Type II) in most cases. They impact your organs from the kidneys to the lungs to the liver to the heart your body reacts to what you eat, what you don’t eat and what you fail to do.
They always say that eating anything in moderation is the key to a healthy body. You can indulge a bit here and there, but 7 days a week, not a good idea. With that said, I indulge I would argue maybe 2 times a week, the other 5 days I’m at home cooking. I try not to eat out because let’s face it the cost of fast-food or dining at a restaurant is ridiculous. I recently stopped at a fast-food chain and a meal for two people, just guess the cost. Do you think it was $5, $10, $15, $20? It was $20 and I barely had anything. I told the person I was with that we should have dined out, and we probably would have gotten more and had felt good about what we ate as well.
You might be saying why does this matter? It matters because when you have that dreaded doctor visit you are not so worried about receiving bad news if you know you’re doing what you’re supposed to do. I will be the first to just put it out there. I do not like going to the doctor, I am a nervous, anxious mess every time I go to the doctor. I recently had a visit with my Primary Care Physician for my annual check-up. I will put it out there, that 6 months ago my health was not great. I was getting seriously ill almost once a week and could not find out what was going on. Exhausting, stressful, scary, frustrating the list goes on and on.
I found out I had ridiculous level of Uric Acid in my body to the tune of like a 10-point scale, which is exorbitantly high. After some medicine, it has dropped to like a 2-point scale which is more normal. My blood pressure was slightly high, but not high to dangerous levels. To make the situation better, my blood pressure was back to normal levels of under 120 and under 80. That made me feel great, not to mention the doctor letting me know that my heart rate was not beating at a seriously fast-rate and I lost some weight as well.
That made me feel great because I recently had to see a cardiologist about my heart rate/pulse being abnormal. I still have a very important procedure in July that is going to take me out of commission for a little over a week in the middle of the month as I have an echocardiogram to have a full blown examination of the heart and some other tests to ensure there is nothing serious. When I go to the doctor, I want to hear good news, not bad news, which is why I think I felt so much better leaving the doctor recently than on average.
Hell, most people don’t go to the doctor because they are afraid of receiving bad news. With that said, I know changes in the diet have helped to gargantuan levels. I literally cut out sugary drinks altogether. I haven’t had soda in more than 9 months. Not a single drop, very limited to any red meat at all, cookies, cakes, desserts, I have almost put them out of sight, out of mind. I don’t buy them, so they’re not in the household. In addition, lots more water intake and I am putting myself in a position where I exercise a bit more during the week when I can.
I am seeing the changes in my body and I am happy with the results, but the work does not stop there, the goal is to maintain a healthy weight and keep my body active at all costs. Some days you just don’t want to be as active, and after a tough work week that is going to transpire, but the key is to remind yourself that you’re doing it for your body. Your body will react the same way you treat it. If you treat your body well, it will maintain a healthy temple which is the overall goal.
I go back to thinking about the older days in time of the hunter-gatherer era where you did not hear about various cancers and diseases that have become potent in our current century. What where they doing that we’re not doing? Well you had much more holistic medicine, you did not have fast-food or all these additives that have been implemented into foods to lengthen the shelf-life and so much more, as you didn’t have technology and things that keep us on the couch, there was always movement taking place.
The goal I am attempting to push and make crystal clear is that you need to treat your body with as much care as you possibly can the longer it will last and you’re less likely to endure issues when it comes to your health.
