Are You Healthy?
by Melissa King
March 29, 2005

Have you ever sat and thought about what being healthy means to you?  We often have an idea in our head that we want to be healthy, get healthy, eat healthy etc., but have you ever defined what being healthy is and what you want from it?  Do you have a roadmap to get there?

General goals are often hard to attain because we haven't really defined a picture of what they look like.  We don't know where it is we want to go so we end up on the couch with a bag of Doritos. 

There are a million ideas out there about what being healthy means.  For some it means only eating raw food, others are content to just get a few servings of veggies a day.  Some define it as not using chemical substances, i.e. quitting smoking, etc. Others would like to have the ability to run a marathon.

What Is Your Own Definition?

Stop for a minute and ask yourself what being healthy looks like for you?  How are you going to get there? 

What foods are okay and which ones are not?  Are some okay sometimes?  How often?  When?

How do you want to feel on a daily basis?  Can you feel better than you do now?  Would the way you eat or exercise change this?

What about your personal life?  Are you getting your needs met?

What kind of and how much exercise do you want to do?  What exercise will help you meet your goals?

The Journey

You don't have to meet your goals overnight.

For me, health is choosing and being as natural as possible, eating only whole foods in their purest form and unprocessed.  Cooking is okay with me though.  Treating myself with natural remedies whenever possible and feeling good on a daily basis is important.  Exercising in a way that is fun everyday and making time for my personal life is also essential one goal.

These goals have been a journey and I don't meet them everyday, but because I know where I'm going I am much closer to those goals than I was 2 years ago and I find it easier to resist temptations that would take me down another road!  You can do the same.
 
Know where you are going, and what is important to you.  Write down the specific steps to get there.  Schedule it in your appointment book and make a gradual, lasting change.  Reward yourself with a pat on the back every time you meet mini goals!