What it Means to Own Your Health

“Owning your Health” or being the “CEO of your Health” has offered layers of meaning for me over the past couple years as I’ve worked through my Health Coach program and certification.

I came to it with a deep interest in learning about health for myself, my family, as well as the opportunity to create a practice that could help others become more aware of what taking control of one’s health really means.

After all, I was getting a bit older, beginning the wind down of actively raising children, and finally had some time to think, and think about me.

I also thought about my parents, whose last few years were physically limiting. I wanted to be living life in my seventies, not winding down with debilitations.

Life at 80 should not be dramatically different from life at 50.

So this got me thinking about what “owning your health” means.

It can be a term that is hard to grasp, or take action upon, especially when life is humming along swimmingly.

“I feel fine.”

“I’m healthy - no need to worry about anything.”

“Nothing has stopped me yet.”

But one day everything can be great, and the next day we can wake up and it's just not.

The statistics are unsettling.

As a starter, 65% of Americans have a chronic disease - mostly connected to our lifestyle.

And these chronic conditions just don’t happen overnight. They catch up with us, after building slowly over years.

Our life as a child, teen or young adult matters. It can catch up with us years later.

Unfortunately the access to processed food continues to explode and become more accessible year after year. And therefore the daily load of unhealthy food has increased for many, especially in the younger population.

Regretfully, youth are not infallible. Now over 50% of kids also have a chronic disease - diagnosed by the time they are 16.

Corporate America can take much of the blame. They’ve engineered the food they produce to make their products crave worthy and addictive.

They’ve stocked 80% of the grocery store shelves with processed food - full of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial ingredients and pesticides.

The rational human would think that what we buy on our store shelves is good for us. But so much of it is not.

Believe me, I cringe, everytime I think of the magic of throwing Cheerios on my toddlers’ high chair trays to keep them busy and occupied. After all, Cheerios are heart healthy right? Wrong. I know now that Cheerios can spike blood sugar higher than most other cereals, plus given that it is a wheat product, it's laden with Roundup.

Luckily, our bodies are a marvel, and do their best to process and get rid of the toxins or other ingredients that our human biology just doesn’t recognize, and therefore can’t process - like high fructose corn syrup for example.

But at some point our system starts malfunctioning. It’s been on overdrive for too long, dealing with dirty fuel, and things start going awry. And that’s when a chronic disease can catch us by surprise.

So it behooves each and every one of us to think through how we’re living now, and start thinking about ways to move our lifestyle factors into the green zone.

The research tells us that good health requires a systematic approach - figuring out how to eat the right foods, but also exercise, get quality sleep, manage our stress,, have a purpose, and stay connected to others.

Start by asking yourself:

What can I do differently?

How can I eat differently?

How can I squeeze in some time to get outside and move?

How can I ensure I get enough quality sleep, every night?

How do I deal with the stress that consumes me at work? At home?

How do I do more meaningful work?

How do I slip some fun into my life, every day?

It takes some thought and intention.

And remember, your health is not the responsibility of your doctor.

It’s your responsibility. You’re in the driver seat.

Owning your health is empowering. Owning your health creates your destiny. And if you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic disease, you can also own your health, and significantly reduce symptoms, or even reverse disease.

As always, if you have any questions about how to think about your own health, and create a strategy for how to proceed, never hesitate to reach out.