Do you think you're healthy?

You may not be as healthy as you think...

I just read a shocking detail.?A particular organ could be in trouble but you won't feel symptoms, or feel something is "off", until its function is down 60%. And then while you ignore it, and procrastinate seeking help, it continues to decline.

This is a frightening revelation to me. Essentially, if you wait until you have symptoms, you are ill. Sometimes very ill. This lights a fire under me. I have been focused on talking with women about self-care and how important it is to hit the reset button so they can keep doing all the things they need to do. While this is absolutely true, I now see that even more important than that, is for women to engage in self-care as a pro-active activity.?

Here's why this is hitting me so hard. While I live in the wellness space for many self-care functions, I have not applied all facets of the health focus to myself as I should have. I have fought against being overweight for most of my adult life. In fact, I changed the focus of my travel business when I realized I was at the end of my rope. I was exhausted, stressed, overwhelmed and just managing to survive. I was feeling lost, resentful and had no joy for life.

What can you do?

If this is where you are, it's probably obvious that you have to heal yourself first. This is what I am in the midst of myself. I started working with a functional nutritionist so that I could heal my gut, and get my cholesterol, blood sugar, and all the things under control. I am working on incorporating more movement and exercise into my sedentary life.

Why am I starting there?

Well, as they say, the best place to start is at the beginning. So I felt fine-tuning getting as much of my nutrition from food and weeding out the choices that are not serving me well in regard to their effect on my body. Along with this work is journaling what I eat, how I might feel after eating it (to determine if my body can't tolerate a particular food, or if a certain food makes me feel poorly), and noting the type of elimination (yes, your poop reflects what's going on in your body and how it's dealing with the food you're eating).?I also note how I'm feeling that day, how I'm sleeping, and anything else that is impacting me that day.

Food is foundational in the journey to health. So, it's definitely an important place to start. Your practitioner might also want to do some specific blood tests to see if you are lacking in certain vitamins or supplements. Again, this gives you a clue as to where you need assistance.

Not all supplements are created equally...

Your nutritionist will likely suggest what supplements you might need based on what blood tests show. Just make sure you are purchasing based on quality and purity rather than price. You need to get this fundamental step right. If the supplements are not high quality, you'll have expensive poop, but you won't necessarily fix your nutritional challenges.

This will be an incredibly important wellness step for you...

Your gut is where your immune system lives. If you want to be healthy, you have to get your gut working properly and effectively. When it's not, you might have to deal with things like "leaky gut". This is where waste (toxins) can "seep" through your intestinal lining into your bloodstream. This is not something your body can deal with. It causes an inflammatory response, autoimmune diseases, celiac disease, and other conditions. It can even further the erosion of that intestinal barrier. This is a very bad rabbit hole to go down. So it's vital you do what you can to keep this from happening. Having a healthy gut is probably THE most important way to keep your health.