The Four Keys of Health

Maintaining a healthy life comes from several contributing factors. The four keys of health all play a role in how we handle our health and how we deal with some of the struggles we may face.

Our mind is a big factor, I am sure you have heard that perception is reality. Whatever we may think, whether positive or negative, will play a role in our success. If we say I hate what I am eating, I hate the time it takes to exercise, what ever negative thoughts we have may impact how well we keep changing habits. Also, if we use more positive comments to ourselves the better. Think about getting healthy is a life long practice, this is not a race and short-term process. We will fail at times, but just resume your plan and keep improving.

Eating habits become the anchor of getting our mind and body in good shape. We are all different and each of us will find what works for us. Don’t get stuck in a particular “diet”, look at this as a life long plan. Because I am a diabetic, I need to focus on the carbs. I have found that my eating style is somewhere between the Mediterranean Diet and the Zone Diet. I find the best for my health and my diabetes, is watching the macros. I am 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% Protein, which means that 40% of my calories are carbs and so on, you must determine your daily calorie allowance. Watching macros is time consuming and can be frustrating. But I have a lot of basic meals that fit close to these macros, over time you will have recipes that fit your needs and it makes it easier to follow. But remember, you will have times you will fail, just pick it up at your next meal. Think about it this way, I want to eat in my plan 90% of the time. Well if we have 30 days and 3 meals a day, that is 90 meals a month. This means I may have 9 meals a month that don’t fit within my plan. As you keep doing this over the years it becomes easier.

Activity is a must and can be very different for everyone. A person that is somewhat active, may need to create a more stringent exercise program. But if you are someone with little activity, work at a desk all day and watch TV all evening, you may just need to start walking until you build up. We are all on different levels and need to understand this. Back to our mind, if we envision ourselves doing a major gym type workout, but we have little activity, we may fail and then where does out mind go? Exercise is all about improvement, at what ever level we are at, we just need to improve and continually improve. I have been working on my exercise plan for over 10 years, I keep changing and try to push myself more. But I was one that was going to suddenly exercise like I did in high school, I failed. Remember long term improvement.

Nutrients become more needed as we age. There is no exact or perfect plan here. We all have different needs, we have different incomes and we may have different eating habits. I think may of us struggle getting the proper amounts of vegetables, rather than eating more veggies, a supplement may be easier. I have a plan I follow but this works for me but may not be a fit for you. I am a diabetic, I focus on my circulatory system because diabetes attacks your circulatory system. Talk with your doctor about a full panel blood test and you can see what you may be missing. I like the drinks more than pills, I think our bodies absorb these better.

These four areas are what I focus on in my blog. I will be expanding on these over time and will be adding information from others in these area.