Choose Your Crazy

3.18

A wellness lifestyle is about choices that help our bodies and minds thrive. Healthful, nutritionally dense foods, gracious interactions with the world around us, beneficial physical activity, plentiful sleep, natural stress reducers ... these are all markers of a wellness lifestyle that will help us thrive. But sometimes these don't sound fun at all, and they can even seem like crazy choices; who needs it?

I've recently been re-convicted of all the benefits of healthful choices, and being thoughtfully engaged in our wellness, even if it seems crazy. I have a business friend who decided to get his weight under control through some nutritional coaching and great food choices. He is engaging these new wellness choices with his wife, and both are benefiting: shedding pounds, having more energy, feeling better overall... these are great results.

Another friend has been battling cancer for about 7-8 months, and after extensive research, decided to go a naturopathic route instead of surgery, radiation and chemo. He is eating only organic foods, mostly veggies, and nothing processed; getting regular physical exercise; sleeping 8 hours a night; getting out in the sun daily for natural doses of vitamin D. At his latest check up the cancer was 25% reduced in size, and the oncologist said, "whatever you're doing, keep doing it..."

Eating healthy all the time? Where's the fun in that? That's crazy... Going an unconventional treatment route for serious cancer? It might not work, and you may literally threaten your life. That's crazy...

But as Hippocrates is credited with saying, "let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food." There are fundamentally beneficial results to the crazy choices of a wellness lifestyle. Now if you're fortunate enough to not have any physical infirmities, weight challenges or aches and pains, lucky you. But if you're like a majority of people in our western culture, you have some physical issues, if not numerous ones.

So think about what crazy thing you're willing to do for your health. Giving up empty calories and processed foods? Forgoing the conventional medical treatments of recent decades? Maybe these are crazy, but you may be convicted to choose your own crazy, with appropriate professional guidance, research and accountability, and walk a wellness journey instead.

By the Way

Naturopathic doctors are fully licensed MD's and add to that, coursework and training in CAM (Complimentary and Alternative Medicine). So if you decide to go that route, you can have confidence that your doctor has both traditional medical training and alternative, naturopathic training... the best of both worlds.