I am not the most organized person on the planet. It drives my husband crazy, and he calls me a bumblebee thinker… I flit from one idea to another at the speed of light as my brain takes me there. If I were a child, I’d probably be diagnosed with ADD and put on drugs. I guess all entrepeneurs are ADD to some extent, and quieting the chatter can sometimes be a challenge.

Where I find it impacts my life is that my follow through leaves something to be desired. I’m not consistent with certain actions, preferring instead a sprint/rest/sprint/rest pace. And I am always working on this. I’m better now than I was a year ago, and I trust I’ll be better a year from now than I am today.

It’s becoming clear to me that fairly soon in my career, I will need a personal assistant who has fantastic follow through, because frankly it’s not the highest and best use of my income generating time. Seeing patients is number 1, public speaking is number 2, and writing is probably number 3. After that, I have a family to take care of and a husband who would really like to see more of me.

So what does this have to do with health? (You know I’ll get there eventually!)

Let’s talk about yo-yo dieting as an example of not following through, especially since it affects so many people. You get to a certain upper limit weight, find you’re feeling sluggish and tired and think “I’m done! Time to lose this weight.” Off you go, eating right, exercising, and you feel fantastic. You drop a few pounds, people start to comment, and slowly, your attitude shifts. “I’m doing great, I can have those chili cheese fries tonight. I’ll eat healthy again tomorrow.” And before long, you’ve lost momentum and are pretty much back to where you were.

What happens to your body every time you go through that? Whenever you lose weight, you lose a certain percent of fat and some muscle (unless you are building muscle by doing strength training). When you gain weight back, you gain back all the fat you lost, and you replace the muscle you lost with fat! So now you are the same weight you were when you started, but you have a higher percentage of fat.

You would have been healthier overall to never have lost the weight in the first place! This is why your motives for health should be for health’s sake and not for beauty’s sake (not that looking good isn’t a good goal, it just shouldn’t be your MAIN goal). And honestly, when you are healthy, you are more attractive. When you nourish your body with good, real food, your hair has luster, your skin is clear, your eyes are bright and you sleep deeply (and deep sleep is the fountain of youth.)

But just like learning to get organized, these changes take time and focused, consistent effort.

Start by replacing one pre-packaged food that you eat with a whole food alternative. Start by looking at your posture (or getting checked by a chiropractor) and learning to balance your structure (your posture can tell you a LOT). Start by turning off the TV one night a week, and reading an inspiring book. Start by turning off your phone for one lunch per week and having a mini date with your spouse. It’s the small, consistent changes you make in your life that can have the biggest impact. Remember the tortoise and the hare… slow and steady wins the race.

Look for a future post about your spinal health and how not following through on maintaining correct posture can seriously impact your life in the future (and not in a good way!).

And now, I have some things to follow up on! 😉

As always, yours in good health,

~Dr. M