Are you really healthy? It depends on how you’re defining it.
Healthy can be difficult to put into words, but when we hear it most of us have a picture in our heads of what it means.
In our 20s and 30s, the go to picture is exercising regularly and eating right.
For some, this might look like attending a spin class 3 days a week and eating Paleo.
For others it’s lifting and eating clean.
Healthy might be the guy who has a kale salad for lunch every day, or the girl who swears by hot yoga.
By default then, we tend to think of being unhealthy as choosing Ben and Jerry’s for dinner, smoking a pack a day, or not meeting our Fitbit step goal.
The more people I talk to, it seems as though we’re defining health as the behavior we are or aren’t doing in the moment.
If we feel like we should be exercising more or eating better, we’re likely to consider ourselves pretty unhealthy.
On the other hand, when we’re regularly going to the gym or successfully sticking to our new diet, we’re proud of ourselves (rightfully so) and feel pretty damn healthy.
But there’s something missing here.
If we define our health by the behaviors we think we should and shouldn’t be doing, where does real, vibrant, lasting health fit in?
When it comes to definitions I like em to be official (this may or may not put me into the nerd category and I am 100% OK with that).
The Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology defines health as:
…a dynamic state or condition that is multidimensional, a resource for living, and results from a person’s interactions with and adaptation to the environment and therefore exists in varying degrees unique to the individual. (McKenzie, J.F., Pinger, R.R., & Kotecki, J.E.,2012)
I recognize not everyone shares my love of definitions, but I swear this one is a goody.
So I want to break it down a little bit because it gives us 4 awesome insights into what real, lasting health looks like.
1.Health is a dynamic state or condition that is multidimensional
Real, lasting, health is an interconnected and ever changing balance of our mental, physical, social, environmental, and spiritual health.
This means that just because our blood pressure is normal, we have a great BMI, and we workout regularly, we aren’t necessarily healthy.
It also means that when we neglect one area of our health, we in turn negatively affect other areas.
Don’t believe me?
Think back to a time when you were stressed out of your mind.
Maybe it was the end of the semester and finals were approaching, or you had an important presentation for work that you spent a month preparing.
I’m willing to bet during that month you might have stopped working out, you probably grabbed fast food more often than normal, and you might have had more than a few drinks to calm your nerves.
Chances are pretty good when that stress period was over you were also physically exhausted and ready for a complete mind, body, soul recharge.
Real, vibrant, health is a balancing act – when one area is affected, so are the others.
2.Health is a resource for living.
This might just be the most important part of the whole definition.
Notice they don’t say here that health is the reason for living, it’s a resource for living.
Health is not the endgame here.
Yes, we want to exercise and eat well to prevent future disease and help us recover from sickness faster.
But we’re also working to keep our bodies and minds functioning optimally.
When we’re at our healthiest, we have the energy, stamina, and desire to get out in the world and pursue the deep connections, impactful careers, and fun and adventure that make life really worth living.
Health is a means of pursuing all of the other goals we have in life.
Being healthy makes us happy.
3.Health results from a person’s interactions with and adaptation to the environment.
Whether we recognize it or not, our environment plays a huge role in defining our health.
There are the more obvious factors such as unsafe neighborhoods, bad weather, and little access to fresh foods that certainly make it difficult to follow a healthy lifestyle.
But how often do we consider the elements of our environment that we can control?
You read correctly, instead of relying on greater self discipline or just trying harder, we can manipulate our environment to support our health endeavors.
Take the example of Hulia, a completely fictional character I swear, who is wanting to better manage her stress.
Her immediate reaction to feeling stressed is to wolf down an entire package of Oreos and then sit on the couch binge watching tv and feeling bad about it.
How might I, er Hulia, manipulate her environment?
To change her physical environment, a first step might look like getting rid of all the cookies in her apartment and placing her yoga mat in front of the couch to remind her that yoga de-stresses her much more than Law and Order SVU.
Her environment isn’t just physical though, it also includes the people around her, and her mind environment.
So she could look at scheduling a date with a girlfriend to catch up and destress, and setting aside some time for meditation to clear her mind space.
Whichever Hulia chooses, by interacting with and adapting to her environment in an intentional way, she’s strengthening her health, mentally and physically.
4.Health exists in varying degrees unique to the individual.
Health isn’t a check box.
It’s not something that’s done once we tick it off our list.
It’s constantly changing and may look very different at different points in our life.
Sometimes we’re going to feel super balanced in all areas of our health.
Other times we may be mentally healthy, but less physically or socially healthy.
And still other times we’re going to feel like we’re just sucking in all areas.
When we can scroll through feeds of Instagram models with abs-for-days before we’re even fully away, it becomes far too easy to berate ourselves for not attending more spin classes, eating more kale, or just naturally being fitter.
What’s vital is that we recognize that our health is unique to us.
My challenges, successes, outright failures, and values are unique to me.
My story and version of living as my healthiest self may look very different from yours, and my best friend’s, and definitely a lot different than 85% of Instagram’s.
And that is A OK.
Because health, real, lasting, vibrant health, exists in varying degrees unique to the individual.
I love this definition because it shifts health from a behavior we should be doing, to an ever changing, mind, body, soul, totally personalized journey to our happiest, best selves.
This means that maybe what healthy really looks like is accepting our current selves exactly as we are, and in our own time focusing on behaviors that allow us to show up as the best version of ourselves.
I’m a health and happiness coach because healthy isn’t just about about losing weight or going to the gym.
I believe in radically shifting our health so we can step into our most vibrant, happy, extraordinary lives.
That’s a version of healthy I can get on board with.
What about you?
to your health + happiness,
Julia
P.S. Whatever healthy and happy look like for you, I want to help you get there! Sign up for a totally FREE, ‘Vibrant Health and Happiness’ coaching session before all the spots are filled!
