Moving Toward Health, Moving Benefits

My client Rose is a busy dentist with two young children. Her Nutritional Style needed tweaking, but it wasn’t horrible at all. As a dentist, she was well aware of the dangers of sugar! Rose was convinced that something was missing from her diet; she was looking for a magic superfood that would change everything and give her back her sparkle.

I worked with Rose over a few months. We ramped up her nutrition, but the key for Rose, the real magic super ingredient, came when she began to move her body.
Rose had been working with a trainer two days a week. She was sure that this was all she could squeeze into her busy life. I had a hunch that Rose needed more movement and a physical release from the tight confines of her dental office. When we pulled her day apart to search for windows of exercise opportunity, we discovered she had some extra time most mornings after walking her children to summer camp. I asked her, “What if you kept walking for half an hour longer? Could you still make it to the office on time?”
“Sure,” she answered, before making excuses: Is it worth it? Will that be enough to make a difference? What if it’s raining? And so on. We agreed that she would at least give it a try for a few days.

Rose started the next day, and when we spoke again two weeks later, she said she felt like a new woman. She had found the perfect walking place near her home. She brought her dog along, and the two would head out, with her water bottle, for at least a half hour.

By the time we finished working together, Rose had progressed to running for half an hour. Her new morning habit improved her outlook, gave her quality time for herself, and made her feel bright and happy. We both were thrilled—and so was the dog.

At the end of our final session, after reviewing her new eating plan and recapping her strategy going forward, I remembered that she hadn’t shared with me whether her weight had changed. She’d lost 15 pounds! I laughed; her goal in coming to me had been to lose weight, but she felt so good about everything else that her weight loss became the healthy byproduct of her new active lifestyle.

Distilling water is an option I like, although it’s controversial because it removes all minerals from the water. If you have a good diet full of fruits and veggies, the amount this removes doesn’t matter.

Moving Benefits

If you need some inspiration to get moving, consider these benefits:
1. Exercise raises your metabolism, burns calories, and helps with weight loss.
2. Exercise builds muscle. Your muscles are metabolically active, so you get a calorie-burning bonus.
3. Exercise boosts endorphins (natural feel-good chemicals) in your brain, so you feel happier.
4. Exercise tones your muscles for a sleeker appearance.
5. Exercise helps prevents heart disease and cancer.
So, get started on some summertime exercise now, while your mood is up, the sun is shining, and the living is (relatively) easy.

Test your drinking water regularly for toxins, metals, and contaminants to assess your household needs, and get the best water filter you can afford. Then be sure to change the filter regularly, to avoid reintroducing contaminants.

After you’ve taken the time to test and purify your water, don’t forget to use it. At home, use filtered water to make tea and coffee, and for cooking. Send your child to school or camp with a fun water bottle filled with water you’re confident is clean and pure, and take your own with you. Don’t leave home without it.

Don’t fall for advertising about bottled water from some exotic place. It’s not healthier—in fact, there’s a good chance it’s plain tap water in a fancy bottle. Ounce for ounce bottled water costs more than gasoline. Billions of plastic water bottles are discarded each year, resulting in an environmental disaster that future generations will have to clean up. Plastic bottles contain toxins that can leach into the water; when you drink from a plastic water bottle, you’re drinking those toxins down.

Summer Movement Style

With more vacation time, and possibly shorter workdays, the summer is the perfect time to move more, while splashing up daylight to help you make loads of vitamin D. Most of my clients find it easier to get out and be active in summer, mainly because everyone feels better with more sunlight. The luxury of longer days for walking outside in the nighttimes or getting a charge out of an early-morning run before work is a short-lived gift. If the idea of exercise challenges you, but you have a strong desire to be healthy, vibrant, younger-looking, and toned, the summer is a great time to begin.