Pillars of Life - Part 1
I was at a dental conference in Los Angeles last fall and, after a couple days of dental lectures, the organizers threw in a few self-improvement courses to round out the venue. One course caught my attention and, with a cold front that just moved in accompanied by rain, taking a tour of the Hollywood Boulevard didn’t look too inviting…
So I spent the afternoon listening to a fairly renowned life coach, Jonathan Rhoades, on wellness topics titled, Four Pillars of Life. Most life coaches I’ve heard say pretty much the same thing. They just sort of reverse or change the order! Jonathon was different. Jonathan was quite energetic and, with his father being a national speaker on nutrition, the course content was quite biologically accurate and he wasn’t selling anything. This was most unusual in and of itself. I took copious amounts of notes, but I will spare you all the reading and just give you my short rendition of a truly interesting afternoon with Jonathan.
This week we’ll look at the first two pillars and next week we’ll examine the second two.
Pillar #1 - Nutrition
The first pillar of health and wellness is nutrition. Yes, we are what we eat. Our body turns over 1 billion cells every sixty seconds. There are 100 trillion cells in the human body. Every seven years, our body has completely turned over every cell and we are a new person. This I found quite interesting because my grandmother used to say your taste changes every seven years and now I had a basis for it. Divorce rates spike on a seven to ten-year interval. Keeping our diet as alkaline (ph 7-14) as possible by eating fresh vegetables was one of the best ways to avoid degenerative diseases that thrive in acidic (ph 1-6) environments.
Fried foods must be kept to a minimum. But the eating of fat in moderation was not a no-no as long as hydration and exercise were on a regular basis. Sugar was another evil that our society has formed a love affair with. Not only does it cause enamel breakdown and cavities, but it aids in the development of cancer due to its negative effects at the cellular level. The biggest problem is the camouflaging of sugar in listed ingredients on the packages of what we eat! Corn syrup, sucrose, and fructose all contain sugar. The amount of sugar in beverages, such as soda and energy drinks, have brought almost as much sugar to our diets as the sugar in our processed foods.
The speaker, Jonathan, ended this section with the following nugget: “Tomorrow, we are wearing what we ate yesterday!”
Pillar #2 - Exercise
The second pillar of health and wellness is exercise. The classic three-to-four-times-a-week was emphasized, with the caveat that an exercise routine followed religiously, even if light and not very excessive, was better than random all-out body crunching. Yes, systems like cross-fit, cycling, and Zumba are great but must be personally tailored to the individual with respect to age, health, and fitness level to reduce the chance of injury.
Walking has always been entry level for good health, but one can ramp it up with strap-on leg weights and carrying two five-pound hand weights. The human body is 50-60 percent water and dehydration, according to Jonathan, can begin within ten minutes of beginning exercise and exponentially increase the longer and harder you exercise without drinking water! Dehydration is quicker at higher altitudes and warmer temperatures and symptoms range from dizziness to early fatigue and all the way to unconsciousness or death.
Then, Jonathan dropped the bomb, “When do you think our body is most dehydrated?” Yep, in the morning. Now, if you read no further and remember nothing else… try this... it has really worked for me. Have an eight or twelve-ounce glass of water by your alarm clock every morning. Turn off the alarm, drink the water, then go get your coffee. Remember, Johnathon said to keep your body alkaline. Coffee is acidic and one of the worst things to hit your brain and stomach first thing in the morning!
If you’ve had a night of too much celebration, alcohol dehydrates every cell in your body, especially the brain. Try water before hair-of-the-dog concoctions to get your body back on track. Water early in the morning will clear your head and begin cellular activity in your body to get you ready for everything from eating breakfast to driving to work.
There you have it - the first two pillars of health on which to begin building the new you! Nothing tremendously new or revolutionary like on TV. Just practical information that our parents and grandparents told us but we didn’t believe them ‘cause, hey, they grew up without Google or Siri.
Stay healthy,
- Dr. P
Interested in Part 2 of this series? “Pillars of Life - Part 2” is available for your reading pleasure here.