Skip to main content

Health is a Precious Gift

 
Its Friday, thank goodness! This week was a tough one with an icky virus ripping through this household.

It shocks me that the majority of North Americans take their health for granted.  I have read the research, I know that there are many complex social, psychological and cultural reasons for this.  I know that there is a positive correlation between socioeconomic status and health.

What really confuses me is all the people with money and knowledge who simply make poor choices.  This would include, unfortunately, many family members and friends I care about, and worry about.

I don't preach to them. I know that doesn't work anyway. Everyone is free to make their own choices. I try not to judge and I try to understand.

Nothing, however, reminds me of the importance of health than when I am sick myself.  This week, being flattened by a flu bug (along with both girls), just served to reinforce for me why I do everything I do in terms of diet, exercise and lifestyle (sleep, etc.).

Pain sucks.  Tuesday I just felt horrendous, every muscle in my body ached and my head was pounding.  I had no appetite or energy.  Besides the physical discomfort, it sucked to not be able to do everything I wanted to do.  That's one of the many reasons I work out.  I don't ever want to be held back by physical limitations from doing the things important to me. When my weight-loss clients tell me they don't like to exercise, I tell them to think of it as a blessing to have the ability to do it.  It really is!

Wednesday the pain was gone but I still had no appetite and my energy was still lower than normal and I felt weak.  Ooh I don't like feeling that way!  It was also the warmest day of the year so far, yet I couldn't enjoy it. I felt like I was missing out. I felt isolated and alone (despite the fact that I was dealing with the 2 girls, also not feeling their best).

These experiences always get me thinking about what it must be like to have chronic pain or mobility issues.  Its one thing to deal with it for a few days, but what about months, years or a lifetime! Sure, sometimes these things cannot be prevented.  But often they can.

Yesterday I was thrilled to be back to myself enough to get a workout in and go to the office.  I feel like I've joined the world again, thank goodness!

Today I am celebrating my health and looking forward to a weekend of not very much.  Just work, the girls activities and family time.  Its all ordinary, every day stuff, and I love it and its a blessing.

Have a wonderful weekend and don't take your health or mobility for granted. Go out there and run, skip, and play, breathe deeply, twirl, roll down a grassy hill and celebrate being alive!

Comments

  1. It"s never too lately to meliorate your information and your listing has me. Organifi discount

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available.  My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic.  I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch.  I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat!  I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes.  You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday!  We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend.  How was yours?  Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it.  It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children .  One of th

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies.  Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!!  I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance.  Not to improve their health or athletic performance.  To look their best.  He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste