What does embracing health mean to you? Health is thought of as a condition of vigor, vibrancy, or vitality, or a state free from disease or sickness. I’m aiming for the first definition. I don’t just want to be free of sickness or disease, I want to be vibrant!
To embrace means to take or receive gladly or eagerly. It can also mean to adopt. While I like to think about eagerly receiving something, receiving health sounds like getting the benefits without any effort on our part. To adopt sounds more like we are making a choice for health. To embrace health to me is to adopt those behaviors that will bring me an abundance of vigor, vibrancy, and vitality. I don’t just want to be free of disease or sickness, I want to be full of vigor and vim as I face each day! Don’t you? I know this is attainable, but I also know I don’t just receive health, I must adopt the things that will bring me the health I want to enjoy. I know what I eat, what I drink, and what I think will contribute to health or disease, and I get to choose. I’m not a victim of my genes, no, I will be victorious because of my choices.
I embrace vibrant health by making healthy choices about what I eat.
Hippocrates said,
Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.”
By eating foods as close to way they are found in nature, I know I am making choices that will help my body function optimally. I begin each meal with a prayer of gratitude for the food I am about to eat, the nourishment it will bring to my body, and the miraculous way my body will use it to rebuild and renew itself and keep me going full speed ahead. In the past, I would pray that the Lord would bless the food I ate to strengthen and nourish my body. It sounds like a good prayer, but when I began eating the best foods available, God’s pharmacy, so to speak, I realized He had already blessed it, and all I needed to do was say, “Thank you.” We all need to be eating foods that have already been blessed with an abundance of health promoting substances. Foods that have been overly processed and denatured have no place in our miraculous body temples. I encourage you to start today putting better quality food into your body. Remember with every choice there is a consequence/benefit. I would rather reap benefits than suffer consequences, wouldn’t you?
There are also consequences to what we choose to drink. Energy and diet drinks have no place in a healthy diet. These are full of harmful substances, and your body is too good for that. If you feel like you can’t function without an energy drink to pick you up, you need to evaluate other areas in your life that are stealing your vigor. Are you getting enough sleep? You may say, “I’m sleeping 9 or 10 hours, but I’m still tired.” That is when you need to take a more serious look at your diet. If you are not eating a diet rich in whole plant foods, but instead are consuming lots of processed foods, meats, and cheeses, those are the energy stealers! If you are eating very well and still feel pooped out, go to the doctor to have some bloodwork done. Get to the root of the problem. Don’t mask it with an energy drink because just because you fit the second definition of health discussed above, it does not mean you are healthy. In fact, it is very likely that you are headed for disease if you don’t start truly nourishing your body and cut out the energy drinks. Moving on to alcohol, yes, I’m going there. Alcohol supplies 7 calories per gram without giving you any nutritional value. In fact, it hinders some nutrients from being absorbed. You may say, “but I’ve heard red wine is good for my heart.” Who do you think funded the study that claims that? Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! That’s right, the wine industry. What you didn’t hear is that the substance that helps with heart disease is called resveratrol, and it can also be found in the skin of grapes, berries, and peanuts. You don’t have to drink wine to get it. Furthermore, what you haven’t been told is that red wine consumption increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer as well as other harmful conditions. In addition, if you are trying to lose weight, the liver will break down the components in the wine before it will tackle the fat in your diet, so it hinders weight loss. For those of you who say you have to have alcohol to relax, my advice is to find a good meditation video instead or take a yoga class. My encouragement about your drinking habits is to drink water, and plenty of it. Some of you may be saying you can never give up your energy drinks and alcohol every day. To that I respectfully say, “change your mind.”
All that is needed to adopt a healthier life is to decide to do it. Change old ways of thinking, and you will be able to change old habits.
Voltaire said,
It is difficult to free fools from chains they revere.”
Ouch, that stings, but we can all be foolish when it comes to our choices. We choose unhealthy foods year after year, and then act like victims of our genetics when disease shows up. Don’t play the victim. Don’t be a fool 🙂 Choose to be victorious! You have the ability to break any chains that bind you, no matter how long you’ve been wearing them. Yes, it’s hard to begin a regular exercise routine. Decide to do it, and you will. Yes, it’s hard to say no to certain foods and drinks that you have always had even though you know they are not good for you. Decide to do it, and you will. Yes, it’s hard to try new activities and foods. Decide to do it, and you will. Many of you think that change takes a long time, and that’s where you’re wrong. It only takes one decision. When you make that decision, it will influence all your other choices. Don’t want to eat better. Decide to eat better! Don’t want to give up drinks that are harmful to you. Decide to do it! Don’t want to start an exercise program. Decide to exercise every day!
Henry Ford said,
If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
YOU DECIDE what’s possible for you! You get to decide the level of health you attain by deciding what you eat, what you drink, and what you think. Make a decision today to embrace health!
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