Nobody on this planet does everything perfect all the time. Very few of us do things perfectly some of the time and if you are one of those people, I think it’s safe to say you are either a lucky person or a very hard worker. This applies to everything. It applies to school, work, sports, and most importantly, taking care of yourself. When it comes to health and wellness, there is a fine balance to work and play. You are not expected to be perfect 100% of the time, and it is 100% reasonable to skip a workout and cheat on a diet for certain reasons. For example, if it’s your daughter’s wedding day, I really don’t think you will be getting that morning workout in, and for the love of God, have a piece of the wedding cake. Now, that being said, there is a fine balance. It is also not okay to always justify cheating on your diet. Always having a piece of cake because you have decided it is rude to say no to dessert is just your way of tricking yourself into always allowing yourself dessert. As you can probably see, it is a balancing act and it is one that is not always easy to maintain. Trust me on this, I’ve fallen off both sides of that rope.
I’ve been down the road where I offered myself no wiggle room in a routine and diet. I was miserable. No cheat days ever. Never missed a work out. Yea, I might have had the most defined six-pack I’ve ever had, but I was absolutely miserable. I was no fun to be around and I had no life… This lack of social life had no relation to my disease either. That’s not okay. But on the flip side, I have also been way to relaxed. I’ve gone on binges where I eat nothing but pizza and chicken fingers. Help myself to seconds of the ice cream cake, or grabbed a donut for breakfast or lunch because I was too lazy to cook. That’s when I had the biggest beer keg of a belly I’ve ever had. Also, a miserable time in my life because physically I never felt good, and worse, I knew I wasn’t taking care of myself. Again, this was before my life with disease.
Yet, the good thing about our bodies are that they will tell you when you are screwing up. That moment you have skipped too many workouts or eaten too many cheat meals, your body definitely lets you know. The problem is that you have to be on the lookout for the signs. Furthermore, if you have never known what feeling good feels like; if you have never eaten healthy or gone to the gym for spans of at least 3 months, you might mistake the signs your body is showing you for just your normal life. This absolutely happened to me. Before I became a health enthusiast, I had no idea that my body had been screaming at me for years that I was treating it poorly. Now, it’s not my intent to go into a lot of detail about this or the signs your body will show. However, let me just say, that unless you have worked on achieving a healthy state and been there, you may not know exactly how much you are hurting.
I sit down to write today though because I started my Graduate studies last week. After completing four years of an Undergraduate in Kinesiology, I decided to come back to pursue a Master’s degree in Health Sciences, specifically Community Health. This is not something to take lightly. On top of all this, I would be a Teaching Assistant to help fund my Graduate studies. To avoid going into great detail, let’s just say I’ve been the busiest I have ever been. Being busy, the things that have fallen off the rails have been my diet and the time I spent going to the gym and playing sports. Now, it’s only been two weeks tops and my body already hates me again. Yes, my body is a little extra sensitive thanks to having a disease, but it just goes to show you the power that taking care of yourself has. Within two weeks, I’ve started to see symptoms of my disease creeping up, my joints have felt creaky, and worst of all, my anxiety has begun to shoot through the roof. This is a recipe of disaster for me and it is one that can escalate quickly if not acted upon. Knowing this, I went back to the gym today and instantly feel better. My appetite is back and my head is in the right place.
Even knowing what I know, I must admit that I am shocked and in awe of how our bodies don’t hesitate to tell us when we are mistreating them. I guess the problem is that we aren’t always listening when they are crying out. I was lucky enough to recognize these signs before it was too late and I found myself bedridden or carrying around a spare tire around my waist. It’s important to be on the look out for these signs. Feeling tired all the time? Or sore? Have a foggy head or feeling anxious? It’s all these little things that we simply pass off as normal, or worse, told that we all feel this way, that are actually signs of trouble in the body.
Now, I want you to do an experiment. I want you to ask someone who is either 50 years of age or older, who doesn’t look their age (but much older), how they feel. I guarantee that the answer will be along the lines of “sore” or “old”. Next, ask them about their diet and their physical activity. Most likely it will be poor and non-existent. Now, I want you to do the same thing to someone else who is 50 but this time looks much younger. I have a hunch that you will find that they will tell you they feel great, but also that they take care of themselves. I think you will find that they watch what they eat, and that they make a point to exercise as much as possible. Of course, you will come across those who have played high level sports who are sore from previous injuries... don’t be a smart ass and skew your results by asking them how their leg feels after they tell you they’ve had three ACL surgeries. The point is, you will start noticing a correlation between those who look and feel good with physical activity and diet. Our body will tell us when we are treating it poorly and doing things wrong, but it will also tell us when we are treating it right. This needs to be the bar we set for ourselves. Set it so that you feel good on a day to day basis. The point is to live a long and healthy life, and yes this can be achieved regardless of whether you suffer from a disease or not. I used to think that I would always be in pain, that I would always feel sick. However, I can tell you from experience, that once you get those ducks lined up in a row, you will feel better than ever!