Last post, I went into detail about how we can reduce stress from our lives. This post, I'll go into detail about how we can make healthier lifestyle choices. This post won't be as long as the last one, mainly because I believe that stress is the number one cause of disease in our society today. Unhealthy lifestyle choices simply amplify the negative effects stress causes in our bodies. Stress already places the body in sustained "fight or flight" mode. Add fast food, chips, cookies, and soda to that equation, and you'll be on the fast track to your own funeral. I know because I used to travel down that road.
The Bottomless Pit With a Hollow Leg
I've always had a huge appetite. My metabolism burns like a high-powered furnace, so I never had to worry about being obese because of my eating habits. I also lifted weights and did a lot of cardio, so that helped, too. But as I grew up, I'd always get sick. I had chronic bronchitis and every year, without fail, I would get sick, start coughing, and I would continue to cough like crazy for 3-4 weeks. My allergies were horrible, to the point where I always thought I was getting the flu. Oh, and I had asthma. Growing up in the medical model, I was always taking some kind of medication. I hated it. I never believed that I did have asthma, but what did I know? I was just a kid. But, when I got into high school, I decided I wouldn't be asthmatic anymore and I stopped taking my asthma medication. I never had another problem. But I'd still get the same cough, without fail, every year. The common denominator was that my diet was horrible.
When I was a freshman in high school, I went to the school nurse once. It was probably to get out of class, knowing me. She took my blood pressure with an electronic cuff and it measured 135/95. I was 15 and I already had high blood pressure. That makes sense to me now because I would eat about 3-4 bowls of cereal in the morning, greasy pizza and a huge Dr. Slice or Mountain Dew for lunch, and an immense dinner of Taco Bell or McDonald's. In between, I would snack on cookies and candy and chips. Not to mention I was under a ton of stress because of my parents' looming divorce.
Once I started dating my future-wife, I started to eat healthier. That was when I was 19. But still, I would eat a ton. I'm talking 5,000 calories a day on average. I weighed about 215-220 lbs for a while due to my vacuum-like eating habits. For some reason I developed this habit of eating really fast. I used to get these comments on a regular basis from friends and family:
"Did you even breathe?"
"Do you even chew?"
"You must have a hollow leg."
"You're like the bottomless pit!"
I used to think these comments were funny, but not so much anymore. Seriously, I've never had a problem polishing off an entire large pizza by myself. It's really kind of crazy when I stop and think about it.
This continued for years, until the beginning of 2006, my second year in chiropractic school, when I decided to completely change my diet. I went to eating a plant-based diet, only free range meat and eggs when I did eat meat, and I started taking high quality vitamins. The change I felt was amazing. I had more energy, I felt great, I slept better, and the list goes on and on. Since then, I haven't looked back and now I don't get sick anymore. In fact, now I eat a high raw diet and I've improved how I feel even more than before. I don't get that nasty cough I used to get. I definitely don't have asthma. And I don't really experience allergies much anymore. If I do, it's along the lines of a slight tickle in my sinuses, but that's about it.
How to Make the Healthy Transition
I feel very blessed that I have the genetic makeup that I do. If not, I very easily could have been 400 lbs because of how much I ate and what I ate. That being said, I had other health problems to make up for a lack of weight gain.
I started making the healthy transition back in 2006, and it was due in part to two books. I read Excitotoxins by Russell Blaylock, M.D. And The Crazy Makers by Carol Simontacchi. These books might be a bit on the boring side so I don't expect people to read these. But I will give you a list of the main things I changed that elevated my health to a whole new level.
1.) Research Ingredients on Food Labels- This was big for me. I started to learn about MSG, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, food dyes, preservatives, and the list goes on and on. I started to learn what these synthetic man-made ingredients do to our bodies and it started to disgust me. It made me realize that my oldest daughter was starting to act out in an ADD-kind-of-way because of all this crap. As I started to change what I was eating, my family followed suit. My daughter started to calm down and focus better, and we haven't looked back since.
2.) Start Taking Omega-3 Oils- I started taking and giving my family cod liver oil. I didn't notice much of a change in myself, though I knew it was happening. Where I did notice a change was in my daughter. Tatum didn't really know her letters and numbers all that well and her vocabulary was somewhat limited. I started giving her fish oil, and within the next three weeks, her mental development exploded! She could say all her numbers and letters, and her vocabulary increased exponentially. My wife and I were dumbfounded, but we couldn't deny how effective this was on her brain development.
There is some controversy on whether or not flax seed oil is as effective as fish oil. There are three types of Omega 3s: DHA, EPA, and ALA. DHA is most important for brain development, and there is debate as to whether flax seed oil, which is ALA, actually converts to DHA. If you decide to start taking Omega 3s, I'd start out with a high quality fish oil.
3.) Start Taking a High Quality Multivitamin- The Standard American Diet (SAD) does not give you the nutrients you need, so you need to take a high quality multivitamin to supplement what your body is not getting. When looking for a high quality multivitamin, don't settle for one that only gives you 100 % of each vitamin and mineral. When you look at the label and it says 100 % of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of, say, Vitamin C for example, that means you are taking the bare minimum to avoid getting rickets. Not enough for optimal health. Some good brands are Metagenix, Douglas Laboratories, and Standard Process, to name a few.
4.) Eat a Ton of Fruits and Vegetables- One thing I did when I transitioned to better health was make a gigantic salad every day for lunch. I made it as colorful as I could. I would used mixed greens and/or spinach, bell peppers, avocados, tomatoes, red onions, sometimes beans, and whatever else I could think of. I don't do those as much anymore, just because I usually have a gigantic green smoothie in the mornings now. I increased my consumption of fruit, too. I ate more apples, oranges, clementines, pears, and bananas. I know fruits are a lot of sugar, but its fructose, not sucrose. One occurs naturally, the other is man-made. Eating a clementine is better than eating a Snickers.
5.) Do More Cardio and Less Weights- I used to be an obsessive weight lifter. I loved it. Lifting weights was all I would do. I never used to do cardio, yet I thought I was in peak shape. That was a joke. Eventually, I reduced my weight-lifting to two, maybe three times a week, and increased my cardio sessions to 4-5 times a week for 30 minutes each time. This change increased my energy greatly. I needed less sleep. My mind was sharper. Overall, I just felt amazing.
Making these changes will alter your lifestyle in a healthy way, and that's as close to a guarantee as I can make. You'll have more energy and more vitality to live life. If you're already in a stressful environment, making these changes to your lifestyle can really lighten the strain your body might be going through.
But if you make these changes, as well as incorporate the stress-reducing techniques I shared with you previously, your stress level will be very close to non-existent.
If you want to learn more about Upper Cervical Chiropractic, check out my site The Atlas of Life.
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