Good nutrition is so important!  The food you eat is the fuel for your engine, and without proper fuel the engine cannot run at peak performance.  Back before the days of fast food, and GMO's almost everyone had a garden, and grew most of their own food, and cooked meals from scratch.  Now when we go to a grocery store we are faced with aisle after aisle of GMO riddled junk food, crammed with sugar, salt, dyes, and preservatives.  Now we have to search out the organic food, and pay more for it.  The catch is that if we don't do that, things will only get worse.  We must demand healthy, organic foods for our own well-being, and more importantly for the well-being of our children and grandchildren, and for their children.  It's a choice.  The upside is that the more you eat organic, the better you feel, and the less you spend at the doctor's office, and you really do stop wanting all the sugar and junk.  It's not easy to switch, but you can start slow.  It's one more way to take control of your own good health.

How does one go about being responsible for their health and wellness?  First, learn to listen to your body.  You live in there, so no one can know it better than you!!  Pay attention to what it's telling you. How are you feeling?  What is normal for you? One of the most useful techniques that I have found to accomplish this is to keep a health journal. Here's a link to one.  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/memoryminder-memoryminder-journals/1016953965

I'm not endorsing Barnes & Noble, or this particular journal, as I'm sure there are many others out there that are just as good.  This just happens to be the one I have used, and am most familiar with.  It has places to record how you are feeling each day, to note any pains or discomforts, where and how severe they are, what you ate, your physical activity, what drugs or vitamins you took, weight, temperature, blood pressure, sugar level, how you slept, and even the weather.  You can also rate each day on whether overall you felt good, fair, or poor.

I found that by recording these things, and it only takes a few minutes each day, I became more aware of patterns.  I found that it was much easier to relate what I was eating to how I was feeling, and was able to identify some things that I really needed to give up, or cut way back on, because I was able to see that they were causing problems for me.  For instance, I found that when my diet becomes too acidic, my joints begin to hurt.  

Give it a try.  You might be surprised at what you learn!

I don't think anyone would argue the fact that we have a health care crisis in this country.  So many people can't afford health insurance, or health care.  Our health care system is compartmentalized into specialties, and is very drug and surgery oriented.  We have been programmed to think that doctors are the only ones who know how to take care of us, and we have almost completely forgotten what "wellness" really means.  

Perhaps this is exactly where we need to be right now...pushed into a corner.  Perhaps this is what it will take to help us realize that we alone are responsible for our health and wellness.  Not the "system".  Not the doctors.  Certainly doctors are a very valuable resource, but they are not the only resource.  There is so much that we can do for ourselves, to reach and maintain a vibrant level of health and wellness.  I'd like to share some of those resources with you in this blog.  I hope you'll stay tuned!