How Can I Be Healthy?
I created this blog series on health basics because I’ve noticed a common question- How can I be healthy? What do I need to do to be healthy? That’s the number one reason my clients are seeking my help. Yes, some want to lose weight (which we reframe as body recomposition), and yes, some have hormone, gut, or autoimmune issues. They each bring their unique issues to the table, but the one question everyone has in common is “What do I need to do to be healthy?” And despite everyone’s story being different, I find myself explaining the same concepts about the health basics over and over.
I recognize that not everyone has access to personalized health consulting, which is why this series will focus on sharing simple, mostly free habits that almost anyone can adopt to improve their overall health and well-being.
Maybe you’re like most of my clients- you want to be healthy, but with all the confusing and conflicting information on social media and the internet, you don’t know what to do. You’ve picked a few random things but nothing seems to be really helping.
Maybe you’re like my husband, who went to the doctor for his yearly checkup and asked “What can I do to be healthier?” to which the doctor replied “Well you’re not sick so just keep doing what you’re doing.” Um..well, thank you? But also,… thanks for nothing?
The Right Tools for the Right Goals
Many medical doctors study illnesses and diseases and the pharmaceutical medication to suppress the symptoms caused by them. When you’re sick, prescription medication can be super helpful- even life-saving! They’re great tools to have in your “What to do when I’m sick” toolbox, but with the focus more on sickness, what tools do you reach for to be healthy? While conventional medicine provides great “sick care,” it lacks or underemphasizes the tools to help you get healthy and even grow healthier.
But what if you have different health goals- like improving or preventing chronic diseases like diabetes type 2, high blood pressure, or heart disease (or let’s be real- all three!)? Or maybe you want to know what you can do to be healthier? What about improving your digestion and decreasing or eliminating heartburn, bloating, diarrhea and/or constipation? Or what if you want to live as long as possible but also care about the quality of your life- not just kept alive and feeling weak and miserable but actually strong and energetic in your 50’s and beyond?
Diagnosing and medication aren’t really helpful tools for these health goals.
Functional Health Basics: Tools for Your Health Goals
If you’ve had similar questions, experiences and health goals, and want to know what is actually necessary for a strong foundation of health, then you’re in the right place. If you’ve ever heard of “modifiable lifestyle factors” then that is what I’m talking about- the habits that make up specific lifestyle choices have real and measurable impact on your health and wellbeing! They make up the foundation of health, and incredibly are often simple and free! You just have to know what they are, believe that they actually impact how you feel, and make strategic changes to your lifestyle. By implementing these health basics, you can move closer to feeling your best and enjoying a life filled with health and wellness.
In this series, we will explore the health basics: nutrition, sleep hygiene, physical activity, stress management, and detoxification. Each of these areas plays a pivotal role in improving overall health and well-being. We’ll discuss practical strategies, backed by science, to help you incorporate these habits into your daily routine and transform your lifestyle into one that supports a strong foundation of health.
The What & The Why
Throughout our journey, I’ll explain not only what the basics are but also why they matter and how it works For instance, we’ll dive into the importance of eating hygiene as a strategy to support how our body digests and absorbs the food we eat. We’ll discuss why eating a mostly whole food-based diet fuels a healthy body and microbiome and how that relates to mental health. We’ll explore how our habits throughout the day affect our sleep quality, cognitive function and mood, and even hormone levels! We’ll discuss benefits of regular physical activity (beyond weight management). We’ll explore how stress directly and indirectly impacts physical, mental, and emotional health, and how to prioritize what toxins to minimize while learning how to support your body’s natural detoxification processes (no extreme/expensive juice detoxes necessary!). All of these are interdependent, and they often have a greater impact on how good we feel on a daily basis than we realize. All the health hacks/tips/tricks and even the next best supplement can’t replace what a lifestyle of practicing the health basics can do to for our overall health and wellbeing.
Knowing the WHY Puts You in Charge
While many of these concepts may sound familiar and fairly simple, unless we understand why they matter we often don’t prioritize them. For instance, we might know it’s important to chew our food enough so we avoid choking, but did you know that if we don’t chew our food enough it can result in bloating, excess gas, and even diarrhea?
Another example- we often hear about the importance of eating our veggies, but understanding why a wide variety of plants (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, & more) is crucial for our emotional and mental health is less commonly known. Hint: it’s more than just vitamins! When you understand both WHAT the basics are and WHY they’re significant, you can make better choices about which health habits you want to cultivate.
You Need The Cake Before The Icing
Once I ordered a cake for my daughter’s birthday- a white cake with white buttercream icing. When I cut into it, we found two very thin layers of cake surrounded by mounds and mounds of icing. Although the kids were excited about having lots of icing, hardly anyone finished their piece. It was too much icing! Sometimes tips, tricks, hacks, and supplements can help- but they’re really only supposed to be the icing on the cake. The sheer volume of health information (and supplements) available on the Internet can be overwhelming (looking at you, social media), so how do you know what to choose and how to prioritize?
Although each person has unique genetics and health issues, there are foundational health basics that apply to the human body in general. Spending time and money figuring out the right supplements should be the last 5-10% of your game plan. The bulk of energy should be poured into learning and integrating the health basics into your daily life to establish a healthy lifestyle that gives your body what it needs to work well. When your body has what it needs to function, that is what is going to help you get and feel healthy!
As a registered nurse with training in functional medicine, my goal is to educate and empower you to understand the basics needed for health so you can create a health-promoting lifestyle where you thrive and feel your absolute best.
If you’re ready to begin,
Check out the next post in this series that explains the health basic I start with almost every client:
Eating Hygiene: Why HOW We Eat Matters As Much As WHAT We Eat
Here’s to navigating your health journey with confidence!
Your Functional Health Nurse,
Elisabeth