Navigating health & wellness culture
Many people today equate health-minded living with restriction, boredom, and, to some extent, loss. A loss of freedom, a loss of pleasure, and a loss of fun. (And, oh, I’ll just say it: It’s easy to connect health and wellness with fanaticism, too.)
It’s understandable, really.
There are new diets hitting the market faster than a person can complete the last one.
There’s negative language around food — guilty pleasure, clean, dirty, cheat days…
There’s a tendency to classify food as “good” or “bad” — and I would add that people begin to identify as “good” or “bad” according to their eating choices.
There’s a strong emphasis on elimination, rules, and what I call meals as math class (focusing on numbers and calculations) as a means to an end for becoming healthier.
Health culture can be a frustrating place, fraught with conflicting advice, loud tips, strong ego, bias… And, from where I’m standing, it seems to only create confusion and distress as opposed to a healthier population.
There’s a large gaggle of experts who have many, many things to say about what we are and aren’t doing right when it comes to our approach to health. We have immediate access to a glut of ideas about what it means to be healthy. More often than not, the overall intensity involved makes me want to avoid adding my two-cents to the conversation.
But, as I’ve studied functional nutrition over the last decade and sorted through the health-hype and messages that clamor for my attention, I’ve come to a few realizations:
There’s more to health than what we eat or how we move our bodies.
The body is a complex system and often our own intuition can be the best guide to improved health.
We (as a society) are overcomplicating things.
When I finally decided to get off the treadmill of health-trends and think more critically about my approach to health, I’ve pinpointed three things I think have helped me establish a more grounded attitude about health, food, and my body. In this post, I’m going to share those things with you:
Get particular about how you research.
Initially, I found it less overwhelming to do most of my research and reading about health offline. I looked to books instead of Google as a starting place for addressing my health concerns. It’s easier to encounter questionable information online than it is when engaging with an actual book. Additionally, books can you point you to additional research resources in a less noisy way than the Internet can.
Shift your mindset.
There are a lot of claims that lead people to believe in magic-like solutions and quick remedies to health complaints. But, more often than not, establishing health (or healing from health challenges) isn’t so straightforward. Do the Ten Tips for Problem X work sometimes? Yes. Do the “health hacks” make a difference? Sure, for some people. But sustainable, grounded health in body and mind often take a quieter, more long-term approach. Believing in the quick-fix can lead to inconsistency in maintaining habits and lead a person to be in constant search of “hacks” that may not exist for their condition or needs.
Don’t get ahead of yourself.
When you’re struggling with, say, digestive distress or persistent fatigue or instability with weight, it can be appealing to jump into one of the many diets that exist today. While these protocols can potentially be beneficial, oftentimes there is more important groundwork that can be done first — work that feels so simple it’s usually dismissed.
But, in my experience, there’s a lot of power in analyzing the simple, everyday patterns we hold around health and food.
For instance: Are you eating a meal in a relaxed state or are you regularly eating on the go? Are you eating while shuffling through work emails? Are you recognizing your body’s hunger cues and eating before your blood sugar tanks?
Addressing our relationship and habits around food is foundational to any other dietary change you make.
As a functional nutrition practitioner, I’m trained to help my clients hone in on their unique challenges an create customized food and lifestyle tools that fit into their lives.
If you need support in tuning out the noise and tuning in to your health, schedule a free discovery call and let’s determine if my coaching is the next best step for you.
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We’re Jamie and Lindsey. We teach people how to build confidence in their kitchens and optimize their health habits so they can feel better in their bodies and live life without limits.
