Beginnings. Why I'm writing this and what I hope to accomplish.

Sanitas:  To our Total Health

The reason I began writing this blog is because I want to understand and to live out what it means to be in total health…or at least to give it a try.  There is a myriad of conventional health wisdom out there that is constantly changing.  How do we keep up with it all?  How do we make sense of it and how to we proceed with our lives?  Is it even possible to live in total health and follow all of the health wisdom that is out there?

So, in this interest (which is somewhat self-motivated but also motivated to help my friends, family and acquaintances), I am going to try to follow these pieces of conventional health wisdom in an effort to live out total health in the year 2014.

To begin the journey, I think I should first outline my own health concerns, which at age 42 are starting to weigh on me a bit.

1)    I have chronic hip pain, especially when I drive long distances and when I run too much.

2)    I suffer from bouts of low-blood sugar, especially if I have one too many glasses of wine or if I eat too many sugars and then crash.  When I run into these hypoglycemic episodes, I lose control over my emotions.

3)    I have a terrible time with sleep.  I wake up several times a night, and no matter how hard I try, I just cannot sleep the recommended 7 to 8 hours although I wish I could.  I have tried treating this with melatonin, with valerian, with anti-anxiety pills, with chamomile tea and with a host of other sleeping pills, etc.  I even visited a sleep specialist, and she just wanted to put me on more sleeping pills.  I’d like to sleep well, drug free.

4)    I tend to over-eat at times.  Some people call this binge eating, but with me it’s not exactly that.  I just keep eating and then I am WAY too full.  I’d like to find a way to stop this and eat only what my body needs.

5)    I have body-image issues.  Many of these are related to what so many of us face when we compare ourselves to movie stars and models.  I tend to place unrealistic goals on myself when it comes to this.

6)    Because of my body image issues, I tend to over-exercise.  I’ll run nine or ten miles so that I can “feel good” even though I usually hurt quite a bit afterwards because of my hip and also because I tend to get shin splints from running.

7)    I am flexible in some areas of my body, but I am painfully inflexible in my shoulders, my calf muscles, my hip flexors, and my quads.  I can feel this every single time I finish exercising and try to stretch these areas.

8)    I get stressed out way too easily and then I take it out on other people, by mistake.  This is an emotional health area that I would like to work on.

9)    I over-work.  Way over-work. 

10)   I am addicted to sugar.  I crave it all the time, even though I have blood-sugar issues.  Seriously, I sometimes think I could eat sour patch kids for breakfast.  Yuck right?  Well, it hits me with incredible strength sometimes and it is very difficult to resist.

These are the ten major health concerns I have.  Currently my blood pressure is good (110/60)  and my cholesterol levels are fantastic (Total cholesterol is 188 with most of this being good cholesterol).  My resting heart rate is 61.  And I just generally feel pretty good.  However, I do have these ten areas of concern.  I will monitor these ten areas over the coming year.

In addition, each week I will look at ONE of the 52 pieces of health wisdom I am following and write about its origins, its current scientific status in the health-science community, and how I have been following it.  Should be fun! 

One last thing….I constantly question what to eat to be the healthiest.   So I will cooking this year and thinking and practicing and figuring some of this out as I go along.