beHealthy: good choices

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it seems like everywhere you look, someone has a new opinion for being your best.  Most times, it’s a tip on how to be healthy, how to be thinner, or how to prevent disease.  Again, these aren’t all bad, but I do think there’s a thin line we tread when heeding advice of all the amateur experts out there.

Sure, there is lots of good advice that comes from reputable resources.  Such as drinking lots of water, taking vitamin C, and staying home when you have the flu.  However, just this morning I heard that drinking a cup of coffee in the morning will sharpen my memory and help me focus throughout the day.  But two days ago, on the same radio station, I heard that drinking coffee was bad for my skin, teeth, and sleep habits.

Also, a few days ago I read to stop eating gluten. Instead, only eat meat and vegetables (a diet my husband has voted for multiple times.  Little does he realize, we’d have to raise cattle in our tiny backyard to supply enough meat to fill him up in a week.)  Then, I read that I should be eating plenty of grains and oats to keep my body operating at its optimum.  You name it, I’ve heard it (the curse of a very slow job…). If I eat meat bought at the grocery store, I’ll never get pregnant.  If I weigh 5 pounds over my “ideal” I’m likely to have heart disease.  If I find that I’m fatigued, I could have cancer.

It goes on and on.  And for some, all of this advice is no big deal.  You know what’s true or what you believe, and the rest is loads of garbage.  For some of us searching for ways to live healthy, all of this contradiction and confusion makes for a frustrating lifestyle.  What can I eat? How should I exercise? What’s an actual health problem and what’s my ticket to hypochondriac disorder?  

Alex and I have this crazy idea that we’d like to raise babies one day.  And the most important thing we want to give to our child is the self-esteem of being known by God.  We know that if we belong to God, He calls us His and then popularity, thinness, and perfection are the least of our concerns.  We want a child to know that they might not be liked by everyone, they will make mistakes, and they will never be what society considers “perfect”, but that that’s alright because knowing your identity in God is much more important anyway.  But how can we teach that if we struggle with living it?

So, here’s the new plan.  Here’s how to get healthy in 2014…

(extravagant drumroll here…)

Bad news: There’s no one specific way. Sorry ‘bout that. Being healthy is less about eating all the right stuff, exercising vigorously, and trying to achieve a certain look, and more about making good choices and owning your own skin and your own life.  My new goal here is to simply share some of those good choices and healthy decisions to maybe help all of us find our true identity and a lifestyle that we claim proudly, regardless of the new fad.

So, what about you?  What makes you healthy?  What impacts your lifestyle and helps you to live a full life for those you love and perhaps, even, for God? Go ahead and share them with me and I’ll be happy to post them this year.

The first little nugget is this, something I read on Pinterest (sorry to the original creator of this—I can’t seem to find your page anywhere!).  Throughout the year, write down good things that happen to you—a new job, a new friend, a goal achieved, etc. and place the pieces of paper in a jar or vase.  Next year, on New Year’s Eve, pull out the jar and read the things that made 2014 a good year. 

Better yet, do this in a week, or a month.  Write down things that were good in your day or week, and read them at the end of the month.  By the end of the year, you’re sure to be noticing all of the good things that happened.

Okay, go! Be healthy.