We’ve been warned not rely on miracle cures for what ails us. We eye the magic pills, the 30-day program, the wonder cream or the amazing self-help book on the best-seller list with suspicion. We take those testimonials with a grain of salt. We read ingredients, newspaper headlines, and the fine print at the end of infomercials. The health food industry, the makers of supplements, the creators of vast weight loss empires may lead you to believe that only their complex and expensive program works.
The truth is, most of us do not need any of these things. Good health comes down to simply giving your body what it needs to work well, and abstaining from things that impede it from working well. We want to believe in the quick fix, but those results almost never last long. Long-lasting health that gives you more energy and a greater sense of well being comes from eating right and moving your body. This article focuses on eating right.
What Your Body Needs
Our bodies need certain things in order to function. Our brains require a certain level of fat, and yet many people try to lose weight by eliminating fat and wonder why they don’t sleep as well or feel cranky. Our bodies are over 65% water. If you don’t drink enough water, you could suffer from headaches, weight gain, skin conditions and fatigue. Being short of B-Vitamins can cause depression. A shortage of calcium can cause osteoporosis. Still, many of us eat candy bars and drink a cola before that college exam or big meeting at work and wonder why we feel tired soon afterwards and don’t really recall a thing we learned. We subsist on microwave food and sugary cereals and wish it was easier to get out of bed, or remember where we put our keys, or fight off in the flu the whole family catches every Christmas.
Giving Your Body What It Needs
Reviewing all the vitamins and minerals our bodies need, and why, would take up several pages. There are ample resources on good diet and nutrition on the Web. The first step is to make sure your body gets what it needs every day, or parts and systems will stop working the way they should. We get these nutrients from eating good food. You could buy an energy bar packed with lots of nutrients that costs $2.50, or you could mix some sliced strawberries and a handful of blueberries with a container of yogurt and get pretty much the same thing for less calories, no preservatives, and probably less than half the cost. The best advice I have ever heard is to shop the outer walls of the grocery store. This is where fresh produce, meats, dairy, and whole grain breads are found.
Should you buy a supplement? Most “experts” recommend that you do. Our food may not be as nutritious as it used to be, our water is not as pure, and our air is not as clean. I suggest taking a test. Start eating the foods that contain what your body needs. After a month, ask yourself if you feel better. Is it easier to concentrate? Are you sleeping better and having an easier time getting up in the morning? Does your skin look better? Are you feeling more frisky? Then you probably don’t need supplements. If you dislike almost all known vegetables, or some other entire food group, you must find another way to give your body what it would be getting if you ate those things, and a good quality supplement from a reliable company may be the answer.
The Body with Special Needs
Some bodies have special needs that can only be met by a serious tweak in their diet and nutrition regimen. I am insulin resistant, and if I start my day with cereal, I feel edgy and tire quickly, but if I start my day with eggs and a cup of low-sugar chocolate soy milk, I’m ecstatic. Why? It just so happens that my body does better with limited amounts of carbohydrates. A colleague of mine cannot have any dairy or gluten, which is found in wheat and in almost every packaged product ever created. She has to follow an extremely limited diet, or her health suffers.
Different bodies have different requirements for maintaining health, and it is very important for people to take those requirements seriously. If they don’t, it may severely limit their quality of life, or even make them susceptible to diseases. A person with diabetes who does not follow strict dietary guidelines can damage their kidneys or lose circulation in their feet. A person who is allergic to peanuts could have a severe reaction if they eat food that was prepared in a pan that was previously used to prepare food with peanut oil. Diet and nutrition can be simple, but when your body needs something else, that is when food preparation can become a true chore. There are many wonderful books and websites that have recipes and resources for foods that meet special needs. You can also find support groups online or in your community made up with people with the same unique requirements for their bodies. These kinds of resources take the mystery out of maintaining health and help make management much easier.
Weight Loss – Not One Size Fits All
The trick to weight loss is that there is no real trick. Not all bodies will respond to the same programs, and that is the one great truth. You or someone you know very well have tried diet pill after diet shake after break-through weight-loss program and had little or no success. The truth is, one person may do well simply by limiting calories, while another person may find that limiting calories makes their body think it is being starved, so that it holds on to fat even more fervently. One person may lose weight after a couple of months of yoga class, while another may need an hour of fast-paced exercise every day to achieve the same results. One person may lose weight on the Atkins diet, while another may experience success by eating vegetarian.
The truth is, there is no one diet plan that will help everyone lose weight. This may sound like bad news, but it certainly helps me to feel less frustrated when I don’t lose weight on a diet that helps another friend look superb in her jeans. It may take a while to find the right program for you, but when you do, the weight will come off at a steady, healthy pace, and you will feel better and better every day.
I am not a diet and nutrition expert, but through my own experiences and the experiences of my family and friends, I have learned that how I treat my body has a direct effect on everything I do, think and feel. When you respect your body and give it what it needs every day, you will find your body is able to do more for you in return.
By Alisa Elizabeth King Terry