Without your body you have nothing.
If you don’t look after it then you will pay the price.
Why is it that nobody questions that you need to regularly look after your car. You are vigilant about doing maintenance work to keep it working at its best?
Your body is the same.
It is small regular jobs that are most effective.
You can not leave things build up and build up. If you allow things to keep building up you will be hit with a huge problem eventually. It may not be today or tomorrow but something will spectacularly go wrong eventually. Then you will not know where to start to correct it.
So if we all know this and implement it in our everyday life. Why is it that we neglect this rule when it comes to our own body?
We are only blessed with the one body.
We fill our body full of chemicals. From the food we eat and drink as well as the chemicals we use on our body. Whether it is shampoos and shower gels, deodorants or beauty products. Then we abuse it with alcohol or cigarettes or worse both and maybe other drugs as well.
We don’t give it the nutrients it need to thrive and flourish. We don’t give it the movement that it needs and craves to sustain life.
Then we curse the Gods and ask why me when our body finally gives away and you end up getting very sick.
The big promise
We all promise we will change our habits and turn over a new leave if we are lucky enough to get a second chance. We start off and give it a serious push and try as hard as we can to be healthy. Often time as time wares on we slip into old habits and our unhealthy life takes over again.
This is not how we promote a healthy, long and fruitful life.
The years of neglect and abuse that you have put your body through will have had a cumulative effect. Your body will never be able to reach its full potential.
We all need to live our lives and we are not monks that can lock ourselves away form the world. However we do need to find a healthy balance between having fun and living our lives and looking after our body and maintaining optimal healthy.
Exercise does equal health
Maintaining optimal health is multi-faceted. Visiting your local gym two or three times a week does not mean you are healthy.
What is your sleep pattern like? Are you a night owl? Do you like to burn the candle long into the night? If so you are increasing the biological age of your body faster than you might think. You are also decreasing your bodies ability to recover and operate optimally.
Do you buy fresh food? Is it single ingredient food? Or is your diet made up of a lot of processed foods? If so you can be sure that your body is not getting the nutrients that it needs to flourish.
Are you aware of and in control of your stress levels? Your body can only deal with a certain amount of stress. If you are not aware your stressors and where the main stressors in your life are then you can’t be in control them. If you can’t control stress on your body you can’t control your health. Your body can adapt and control excess stress for only a finite period of time.
What is your movement quality like? If your body is suffering from asymmetries and dysfunctional movement? If yes your body will break down sooner rather than later. Once you try to be more active this dysfunctional movement will become exaggerated and cause injury. Dysfunctional movement also chips away at your brain and ingrain unhealthy movement patterns.
Do you train smart? Everybody can train but there is a difference between training and training smart. To promote health and longevity you have to train within your bodies limitations. To do that you need to know where your limitations are and listen to what your body is telling you when exercising. You also need to know the exercises that will build your body up and the ones that will break your body down. This will promote a healthier life.
How serious do you take your recovery? Unless you have a good recovery program in place your body will not recover fully from exercise. You will be slowly breaking your body down instead of build it up.
80/20 Rule
As I said no one is a monk that can shelter themselves away from the world. If you can follow the 80/20 rule in your daily life you are doing well.
That means if you can stick to living a healthy lifestyle 80% of the time you will be providing your body with the best foundation to build a healthy body that will flourish and help you lead a happy life.