Health In The Family
What is the longest amount of time you have spent in the doctor’s office? Guarantee you have spent a longer period of time waiting to see your doctor than actually speaking with your doctor, right? Thank goodness there is a rising popularity of a “new” kind of health care…PREVENTATIVE! Can I get an Amen!
We are now living in an era where our children will have a shorter life span than their parents. Let that sink in for a moment. Is that really what we want to leave to our kids…a shorter life? The hard truth is that we have all become complacent with our own health care, and the health care of our own families. We have grown so compliant with listening to our doctors speak during our check ups, rather than us speaking up and having our doctors listen to us. If we are truly in control of our own health, we have an odd way of showing it. Only until recently have individuals been getting alternative opinions on treatments because they believe there are healthier and less invasive ways to heal. Keep it going!!
If we are ever to live in prosperity, not financially, but in health, we can never stop questioning. If our kids are depressed, do we really want to put them on a prescription that has harsh side affects like rashes, insomnia, or weight gain?? No, we want to find out what is causing their depression. Is it environmental? Nutrition? Lack of Exercise? Too much Exercise? Same goes for you. Would you rather be on prescriptions that make you feel worse, so you have to take another one to counter balance the effects of the initial prescription, or would you want to find out that there was a particular vitamin or mineral lacking in your overall nutrition? These are things you’re allowed to question because it is about you and your families livelihoods.
For some it is quite costly to seek out preventative care. And that is completely understandable. But, not all hope is lost. There are so many things you can do as a family to create a healthy culture in your home. Some of these tips may work in your home, while others may not, and that is ok. The point is that you at least try. Not just for you, but for your family as well.
The Basics
Taking your health into your own hands is not that scary. In fact, why did you ever put YOUR health into someone else’s hands? When you visit your doctor, do you let them explain to you what your body is dealing with, or do you explain to them how you have been feeling? Hmmmm….I guess we all need to reassess WHO is in charge of our health. Hint: It’s not your doctor….It’s YOU! Your doctor cannot read your mind. They have no idea what you are eating throughout the day, or how much you are exercising. CHECK YOURSELF!!! Yup, I went there. If we don’t bring up issues to our doctor, then we have no idea where to even begin.
My first suggestion is to keep a journal. You can even voice log it on your tech device so it’s on you all day. Log what you eat throughout the day. Journal about your exercise routines. Most importantly write about your daily emotions. How you “feel” in your mind is a massive tell all when it comes to your health. Hormones can set off fireworks in our systems, or they have a peaceful and grounding effect. They can trigger food cravings (emotional eating or lack of eating), they can set you off (angry emotions towards others), they can make you feel tired and depressed. Nutrition is a key navigator in your hormonal paths. Also make sure to log events that have occurred in your life. Sometimes negative events can cause a decline in overall health, and sometimes positive events can light that fire under your you know what! The important thing is that you make time at least a couple times a day to write about YOU!
Having kids in the house makes it a little complicated to keep track of multiple journals, and when to enter them, and who ate what. My solution: Make sure you only have the foods in the house that you, as a family, have selected as “healthy choices” for your home. Keep the treats out of the house, use treats as an outing with the family 1-2 times a week. This is a great assurance that they are fueling with great nutrition without having to journal about it. You may even see mood swing changes (for the better), and skin irritations (especially in teens) clear up among other things.
Nutrition
This one is kind of obvious, or is it? Most people swear up and down that their household eats “healthy”, but honestly most of us don’t understand that ONE person’s healthy food is another persons carcinogen. So how do you know if you’re eating what is “healthy” for you? Well, that’s where the journaling comes in to play. If you can weed out all the foods that cause a negative impact on you, I’d say you’re heading in the right direction. Food plays a major role in your overall health. Eating foods that don’t agree with YOUR body can send your mind and physical body down a rabbit hole, that is really difficult to climb out of.
Make sure processed foods are either a very tiny part of your nutrition, or maybe not at all. Most foods that come in a bag or box carry no nutritional value, and only fill a void for a short period of time, causing one to overeat, or have what is called the “sugar crash”. They also carry an overload of Trans fat and sugars! An overload of either of these could lead to potentially severe health problems down the road. This is why a majority of our nutrition needs to come from vegetables, fruits, grains, and GOOD fats. (I’ll discuss these groups in later blogs!) Your fridge and pantry should be a sacred place for you to turn to in order to HEAL your body, not to make it sicker!
When it comes to feeding your ever growing kids, don’t feel like you need to limit, or up their food intake. Some days they require more, some days less. (I guess adults are like that too!) The idea is to give them more longevity of burning “fuel”, not stress about the amount. Make sure they are eating plenty of grains, veggies, and fruit, and drinking a lot of water! Keep them away from sugary drinks (you too!!), these things are poison in health. They are addictive and actually make you more thirsty. Get creative with fruit in water, or my kids have found a liking for “bubble water” (aka carbonated water). Again, kids need different amounts of food throughout different phases of childhood, but keep an eye out for overeating or not eating at all. If you do observe this for over a few days, confront them about what’s going on in their life (and possibly seek professional help if needed).
Exercise
Easy to achieve!!! 30 minutes a day…that’s all it takes! Your body was created to move, and what a beautiful privilege we are given: TO MOVE! Every day you wake up, you should hug yourself and stretch your hands to the sky…because YOU CAN! Now, 30 minutes of exercise does not mean you have to go unleash the beast on weights!! You can, if that works for you. But, even just a walk, something that gets your heart rate above normal; makes your lungs expand! Little kids are awesome at getting ample amounts of exercise! Probably why they nap throughout the day! As we grow older, so many obstacles jump in front of us that slow our motivation to exercise. Whether it be tech use time, a desk job, being in a classroom all day, or perhaps we are hard hit by a life event. No matter the obstacle though, we need to be accountability for our family, and their health. Call your parents and make sure they are getting their walks in. Take your kids phone away, and tell them to go play outside, or even better play a game outside with them! Sign up for a marathon with your spouse or the entire family! Just don’t stop moving!
As humans, we thrive on movement. Those that came before us worked in fields and hunted for food. They did not need a gym to stay in shape. A shape that was standing tall, with slight muscle definition. In our modern era, most of us have never stepped on a working field, and a very small few still hunt for food. As technology advances, more and more individuals become more sedentary. Ask yourself how you can become creative with movements. Move more than 30 minutes a day, I challenge you!
Self Care
Some of us are amazing at this, while others of us struggle with self care. The truth is that self care doesn’t have to be as complicated as WE make it. It can be as simple as locking yourself in a closet before you have a melt down, and taking that moment to refuel every aspect of energy in your body to carry on with your day! When we lessen the priority of self care, we lessen the value of life all around us. Depletion, anger, resentment, and pessimism drags down the quality of anything and everything we put our hand into. The negatives take away from our full potential. When you live your life to your fullest potential, your family sees it, and everyone around you sees it! That is when you will witness the most beautiful ripple affect ever.
Kids are extremely hard on themselves. We see it in mood swings, isolation, and self criticism. As their parents, we need to not just tell them what self care is, we need to show them. When they ask why you locked the door and told them they can’t bother you for 30 minutes, we need to communicate to them why time for ourselves is a positive aspect of self love. That we ALL need time to ourselves in order to “check in” to see how we are doing. We need to inform our kids that if we can’t spend fulfilling moments with ourselves, then we will struggle to have fulfilling moments with others. They need to know that it is not scary or stupid to take care of themselves. Self Care is vital to our health as humans. Make sure your kids are practicing Self Care!
Surroundings
In promoting self care, certain toxic people and environments may pop up for you that you may need to dismiss. Do you have that pessimistic friend or family member that always shoots your ideas down, or tells you that there is no way you can do that? Perhaps certain people love to pull the celebration from you and make it all about them? You can’t walk into a certain store without buying foods that “satisfy your feelings”? You can’t seem to stop eating certain dishes that are loaded with terrible nutrition for you? These are some examples of negative surroundings that will reek havoc on your attempts to being truly successful in your goals.
I’m not going to be your Coach, you know what is a negative trigger for you. But, you will need to be a coach for your kids. Kids are born innocent to acknowledging negative environments. To them if someone is mean, they automatically will verbalize it, no questions asked. But, certain environments and food are under their comprehension level. Even through teen years we need to be there to guide them. Not become reigning dictators in their lives, but educators along the way. If we keep them in the dark about things we think are “harmful” for them to know, then guess what, those things will harm them. Ever heard “Curiosity killed the cat!” If they ask questions, answer them! That’s an opportunity for you to educate them! No matter how many times you have to repeat things, its only enough until they hear you! Enable them to experience positivity as a tool to achieve great things!
Wrapping It Up
I am not going to overwhelm you right now with every detail of overall health (I’ll do that later!!). These simple pointers above will make quite the impact in you and your families lives, if you’re committed to it! That is the biggest key of all: COMMIT to yourself, COMMIT to your family, your health, your families health! NOW is the time to take your health and your families health into YOUR own hands. Don’t wait until you get slapped with a diagnosis that will require extensive treatments. Prevent your health from deteriorating. Prevent your families health from deteriorating. It’s not just about extending your life, it’s about waking up every day and being excited to embrace every moment you and your family have here!!
