If you’re like many people who are trying to lose weight or improve your health, you may think that you have to follow a restrictive diet and exercise to burn the excess calories. While this approach may work for some people in the short term, the reality is that most people who diet end up gaining all the weight that they have lost within 5 years.
Similarly, you may be trying to improve your health and believe that taking many supplements, using natural products and exercising regularly will help you to raise your body’s defenses and physical health. While there are certainly some key supplements that you may want to include in your lifestyle (e.g., a quality multivitamin, fish oil, vitamin D, Magnesium, and probiotics), there are several problems with this approach.
By diverting your attention from what is important to you, your focus will be on what is wrong with your body to the exclusion of all the other domains in your life (e.g., relationships, career, community, service, leisure, spirituality) that enrich your life with meaning and purpose. Moreover, many of these behaviors are different forms of avoidance and may be masking the root cause of your illness and DIS-ease.
Over-training physically, eating under stress, being dissatisfied with your relationships, feeling that you are “stuck” at your job that you only hold on to pay your bills all sound “alarms” to your sympathetic nervous system and will raise your cortisol levels dramatically. This alone can directly contribute to adrenal fatigue, enhanced intestinal permeability (i.e., leaky gut syndrome) and low stomach acid production, which can open the gateway to diseases such as IBS, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
So rather than continue with these unproductive and potentially harmful behaviors, learn to shift gears and focus on what truly matters to you in your life. And while you’re at it, make sure that you get the basics to good health down pat (i.e., adequate sleep and rest, savoring and enjoying whole unprocessed foods, sensible Sun exposure, nourishing the relationships with the people who are important to you, developing a spiritual practice, spending time outside in nature consistently).
To your health and success,
Dr. Sandoval
To learn more about how working with a psychologist, holistic health coach and personal fitness trainer can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a brief consultation.
