I remember the horror I felt as I looked at the doctor's office invoice. Next to my name, it said elderly gravida. I was an elderly gravida? I didn't even care what gravida meant (and still don't), but elderly?! I was about 3 months pregnant with my first and only child at the time and 35 years old, which automatically put me in a high-risk category. This was not exactly fine with me, it meant extra testing at an extra cost, lots of added stress at an already stressful time and constant wondering why a doctor that works almost exclusively with women thought it was cool to use the term elderly for a 35 year old pregnant woman. But what really baffled me is why I was high risk. I mean, I understand they have to draw the line somewhere and age is an easy thing to measure, but I felt as healthy as I had ever felt. Certainly healthier than 10 years prior when nobody would have categorized me as high risk...when they exactly should have.
I wasn't always well.
I wasn't really sick either, I just consistently made unhealthy decisions. Alcohol, junk food, drugs, terrible sleep, crazy work schedule, overspending, stress, bad relationships, you name it. At 25, my body was forgiving and my mind stubborn, so aside from hangovers and an occasional overdraft fee, it was difficult to see the big picture, or big problem. So, what is the problem? I don’t claim to know the full answer to that now and I may never, but my wheels started spinning and I had a million questions. Why did the doctors only look at my age to determine risk of pregnancy? Why is 35 considered elderly? If we are supposed to feel worse as we age (because isn’t that what we’re told?), why did I feel better at 35 than 25 and now feel even better at 43? Why didn’t all my friends and family feel better as they aged? Why did some people get diseases and others didn’t? These questions were a springboard for me, I had to know more. I did a lot of personal research via documentaries, articles and books and finally sought and received education in natural health. The more I learned, the more I wanted to march down the street with a megaphone announcing this information to the world (or at least as far as I could march), because I truly thought everybody should know it. What I’ve learned is that there are many, many things that have led us to the overwhelming lack of health we see today, two important ideas and the ones most relevant to this discussion are: A disconnect between lifestyle choices and overall health (particularly long term) and what indicators we use to measure health. Let me expand.
1. Disconnect between lifestyle choices and overall health, particularly long term. You don't eat one bacon cheeseburger for dinner and wake up with diabetes, you don't drink one beer and get liver disease, you don’t eat one candy bar and get a cavity, so it's understandable that a person wouldn't make the connection between the immediate action and the long term effects. However, what should make sense is that what you put in and on your body affects how your body "runs". A common comparison I like to use is cars: If you put good gas in, your car will run better and longer. If you put low grade gas in, it won't run as well and if you put soda in, it probably won't run at all. And even if it does run at first, it certainly won't go for very long and will give you plenty trouble along the way. Every single lifestyle decision we make either leads us towards health or away from it. Lifestyle includes, but is not limited to the quality of what we eat and drink, whether we get our bodies moving, how well we sleep, our stress level, the type of relationships we engage in and satisfaction with our jobs. If we make more decisions that lead us towards health more often, when we make one that doesn’t (personally, my favorite ways to fall off the wagon are potato chips and ice cream), it isn’t going to have quite the negative impact as if we were consistently making poor lifestyle decisions. We’ve all heard of one step forward, two steps back…try taking more steps forward towards health than back towards, well…un-health. If you can just do that, you are on the right track.
2. What indicators we use to measure health. When I realized that my doctors were only looking at my age to determine whether I was high risk or not, I kept thinking, “you don’t know the half of it” and to be honest, half was being generous. Age is only one of many, many factors that play into total health and it’s nowhere near the top of my “this-means-something” list. In addition to age, there are a few other measures we’ve been known to use that can steer us in the wrong direction like physical appearance, weight and lack of symptoms. I’ve known plenty of young, thin people who were an absolute mess on the inside – battling gut issues, emotionally drained or maybe dealing with panic attacks. You just don’t see it when looking at a beautiful, tan body whose muscular arm is feeding a superfood salad to a perfect face. There are times when looking at physical appearance (skin issues, bags under the eyes, thinning hair, breaking nails) and weight can be helpful. And yes, not having any symptoms is great, it just doesn’t tell the whole story.
So, what should we consider? This is both super simple and super complex: It’s one question: How do you feel? If your eyes just crossed thinking of the answer to this very broad question, here are a few suggestions to get you started:
- Do you have enough energy to get through the day?
- How often do you skip things you want to do because you just don’t feel like it?
- Do you get up in the morning feeling tired or well rested?
- Do you have aches and pains that aren’t a result of injury? Are they worse in the morning or at the end of the day?
- Is stress a regular part of your day?
- Do you tend to be an optimist or a pessimist?
- Do you feel better or worse after you eat?
It will take some practice to “tune in” and find these answers, but you can do it. We all can do it, we just have to listen to our bodies. Kids and animals are great at this. My 7 year old never overeats, he stops eating when he’s full (we’re building a bronze statue of him for that reason alone). When my dogs are tired, they rest. These are examples of what it’s like listening to your body and what it needs, rather than what you think it wants (like perhaps potato chips and ice cream). Think of a time when you were at an all-you-can-eat restaurant or an event where the food was on the house. Did you stop eating when you started feeling full? Heck no! You get your money’s worth on as many crab legs as you can stuff down your throat…then spend the rest of the night hunched over with severe abdominal pain (“No, I’m fine, just tying my shoe!”). This would be a great example of NOT listening to your body.
Becoming aware is the first step, so I hope the bullet points above help you start that process. You can’t make any changes if you’re not aware of what might need changing, so seriously ask yourself those questions, and more if you’re up to it. If you are interested in making a lifestyle change and need some support and guidance, I’m here for you! Click here to reach out and connect with me.