Health in the new year

“If you think wellness is expensive, then try illness.” — Unknown

As we begin a new year filled with hope, resolutions and motivation, it won’t be hard to find plenty of articles exhorting you to live health-conscious in 2017. In my 2016 WAG articles, I explained the reasons for healthy living, along with the research on topics ranging from the importance of strength training to the benefits of rest and recovery, youth sports and everyday physical activities like gardening.

Ask any expectant mother and father about whether they want a boy or a girl, the answer usually always ends with, “…as long as the baby’s healthy.”  

Ask any man and woman above the age of 50 what is important to them as they age, it usually includes something like “…I don’t want to get sick.”  

Although we are all different, I’ve deduced that in general, we all have two things in common — 1. No one wants to be in pain. And 2. Everyone wants the best quality of life possible.  

Talk to anyone who is in pain and/or who has been in pain for a while, and watch how passionate the person gets about how much more challenging life has become.  

Your quality of life is determined by any number of things, such as what you are putting in your body (nutrition), what you are doing with your body (movement) and how well you balance parasympathetic versus sympathetic tones (rest/digest versus fight/flight).  

One of the easiest ways to analyze suffering from things such as depression, anxiety or obesity can simply be to consider two reasons — not enough of something or too much of something.  

Think about some things that we often get too little of — sleep, vegetables, exercise and meditation.  

Think about some things that we often get too much of — sugar, stress, alcohol and sitting.  

Can you see how any one of these things could lead to a decrease in your quality of life? 

There’s a very good chance that what you need is to do a little more of what you aren’t doing and/or do a little less of what are you doing.  

Beginning a new year, my simple advice would be to start with this:  Look at what you may be doing too little of and what you may be doing too much of.  If you can balance this out, you may find that the true meaning of living a life of wealth starts with your health.  

Reach Giovanni on twitter @GiovanniRoselli and his website, GiovanniRoselli.com.

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