In the World of Wellness: Do what works best for you
I was talking to my friend the other day about how unrealistic, and often overwhelming, it is for people to try and be healthy when health is defined in a multitude of ways. Are you healthier if you're vegan, paleo, gluten free, gluten filled? If you only take vitamins that fall within the first part of the alphabet? If you oil pull, drink apple cider vinegar three times a day, and eat nothing but raw foods?
It all seems rather contradictory, overwhelming, and impossible.
It all seems rather contradictory, overwhelming, and impossible.
Here's what your day would look like if you actually tried to follow everything you hear about:
1. Upon waking up, stretch.
2. Meditate for at least 15 minutes.
3. Make yourself a warm glass of water with lemon OR be sure to drink an ice cold class of water. Maybe both, why not? You have plenty of time in the mornings, right?
4. Before brushing your teeth, oil pull for 20 minutes.
5. Dry brush your skin.
6. Have at least one cup of green tea, preferably matcha, made with the perfect temperature of hot water and steeped for an equally perfect time.
7. Eat a well balanced breakfast: Cooked foods or raw vegetables, grains or no grains, eggs or no eggs. Oh, and by the way, make sure it's your biggest meal of the day.
8. Take all vitamins with letters A - Z, take some probiotics/prebiotics/raw enzymes, and coconut charcoal.
9. Drink at least eight glasses of water throughout the day. More is better. But not too much, because you can kill yourself.
10. Have a sensible gluten free/meat free/dairy free/grain free/cooked/raw meal for lunch.
11. Do not drink liquids while you're eating because it cools down your inner body temperature making it harder to digest food.
12. Every 20 minutes, get up from your desk and stretch/walk around. Work can wait.
13. After work, go work out at the gym. Make sure you do yoga/weight lifting/cardio/HIIT, and don't forget to stretch before and after. Also, don't do too much cardio because you'll burn muscle.
14. Take a shower and get clean, but make sure you hit yourself with ice cold water for a few seconds before you get comfortable in there.
15. Spending quality time with your family is also important to a healthy lifestyle, so make sure when you get home everyone goes outside and enjoys the weather. Maybe go for a walk or ride a bike (but not for too long because, you know, the whole cardio thing).
16. Prepare your own meal using the freshest produce you can find. Again, make sure it's a raw/cooked/vegan/paleo/gluten free meal cooked only in coconut oil/olive oil/avocado oil. Make sure you're avoiding all the high sugar fruits and the night shade veggies and only eating super foods and super grains. Everything else is crap.
17. Are you sure you drank enough water so far today? Have two more classes, just to be safe.
18. Before bed, dry brush one more time, then lather up your entire body, including your hair, with coconut oil/grape seed oil/magic potion.
19. Make sure you haven't looked at any electronic devices at least one hour before trying to go to bed.
20. Don't forget to read before bed. It makes you smarter!
21. Also, make sure your bedroom has no chance of any light getting through. We're talking pitch black, like your bosses soul.
22. Now that you've put in a full day of good health, make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep. But don't sleep on your side because you'll get wrinkles.
I'm tired just from writing this list and it's only a fraction of what we're told to do.
4. Before brushing your teeth, oil pull for 20 minutes.
5. Dry brush your skin.
6. Have at least one cup of green tea, preferably matcha, made with the perfect temperature of hot water and steeped for an equally perfect time.
7. Eat a well balanced breakfast: Cooked foods or raw vegetables, grains or no grains, eggs or no eggs. Oh, and by the way, make sure it's your biggest meal of the day.
8. Take all vitamins with letters A - Z, take some probiotics/prebiotics/raw enzymes, and coconut charcoal.
9. Drink at least eight glasses of water throughout the day. More is better. But not too much, because you can kill yourself.
10. Have a sensible gluten free/meat free/dairy free/grain free/cooked/raw meal for lunch.
11. Do not drink liquids while you're eating because it cools down your inner body temperature making it harder to digest food.
12. Every 20 minutes, get up from your desk and stretch/walk around. Work can wait.
13. After work, go work out at the gym. Make sure you do yoga/weight lifting/cardio/HIIT, and don't forget to stretch before and after. Also, don't do too much cardio because you'll burn muscle.
14. Take a shower and get clean, but make sure you hit yourself with ice cold water for a few seconds before you get comfortable in there.
15. Spending quality time with your family is also important to a healthy lifestyle, so make sure when you get home everyone goes outside and enjoys the weather. Maybe go for a walk or ride a bike (but not for too long because, you know, the whole cardio thing).
16. Prepare your own meal using the freshest produce you can find. Again, make sure it's a raw/cooked/vegan/paleo/gluten free meal cooked only in coconut oil/olive oil/avocado oil. Make sure you're avoiding all the high sugar fruits and the night shade veggies and only eating super foods and super grains. Everything else is crap.
17. Are you sure you drank enough water so far today? Have two more classes, just to be safe.
18. Before bed, dry brush one more time, then lather up your entire body, including your hair, with coconut oil/grape seed oil/magic potion.
19. Make sure you haven't looked at any electronic devices at least one hour before trying to go to bed.
20. Don't forget to read before bed. It makes you smarter!
21. Also, make sure your bedroom has no chance of any light getting through. We're talking pitch black, like your bosses soul.
22. Now that you've put in a full day of good health, make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep. But don't sleep on your side because you'll get wrinkles.
I'm tired just from writing this list and it's only a fraction of what we're told to do.
Now, if you have a job or are a parent or are, you know, normal you won't be able to do this. Not ever. You would have to stop living your life, which defeats the entire purpose of doing all of this for a better quality of life.
What you should do is this: Stop listening to absolutely everything you hear and then trying it, whether or not it makes sense to you and for your lifestyle. It's good to be informed. It's good to be open minded. It's good to learn new things.
It's not good to drown yourself in so much information that you never even have a chance to swim.
Lasting health starts with you - here, now, always - paying attention to yourself. It starts with you deciding what you want and need. Ignore everyone else. Their needs are different.
I know it can be overwhelming, friends. Start small, work up to more, and don't think you have to do everything. No one can and no one does. In the end, it's the little changes that add up over time with consistent practice.
Find what YOU need and do it.
You've got this.
It's not good to drown yourself in so much information that you never even have a chance to swim.
Lasting health starts with you - here, now, always - paying attention to yourself. It starts with you deciding what you want and need. Ignore everyone else. Their needs are different.
I know it can be overwhelming, friends. Start small, work up to more, and don't think you have to do everything. No one can and no one does. In the end, it's the little changes that add up over time with consistent practice.
Find what YOU need and do it.
You've got this.
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