Why the triangle?

Change

I want to come back to the triangle I used in the prior post. The points on the triangle represent the 3 components of a healthy lifestyle. The triangle is also the medical professions symbol for the word change.

Why do I mention this?

Because in order to live a healthy lifestyle there is often a part of ourselves or our routine that we must change. This is important because the change cannot happen all at once if we want to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into our daily routine. In nature change happens slowly, the seasons change from one to the next over the course of months, trees grow over a period of years, and animals evolve slowly over millions of years.
I do not want anyone to decide overnight that they are going to workout 7 days a week and loose 25 lbs in a month and eat only vegetables. That is ridiculous and guaranteed to fail.
If you want to live a healthy lifestyle you must slowly make it a part of your routine.

Remember slow and steady wins the race.

If you have a desire to live a healthy lifestyle set realistic goals, " I will eat a apple with my sandwich for lunch today, I will do 10 minutes of yoga before work every day , I will eat one less cookie today". These small changes will add up to a healthier lifestyle but it takes time.

Set realistic goals + Keep it positive + Keep it simple = Change

More to come stay tuned...

The 3 components of a healthy lifestyle

Exercise

Diet

Psychosocial

These are the 3 components of a healthy lifestyle; exercise, diet, and psychosocial. I like to picture each of these components as the points of a triangle with exercise on top and diet and psychosocial at the bottom points.I picture exercise as the top point of the triangle because it is the most important of the 3 components of a healthy lifestyle. This is because when I observe my most healthy patients (regardless of age) exercise is always a large part of their lifestyle. The diet and the psychosocial aspects of my healthy patients can fluctuate and differ but exercise is consistently a key part of all of my very healthy patients lifestyles.

Each of these three components can vary and be tailored specifically to the individual but all of the components are absolutely necessary for a healthy lifestyle. For example, johnny patient may exercise 8 hours every day and eat a perfectly balanced 3 square meals a day but he is a social outcast who lives in a underground bunker. Johnny patient may have the body of a god but the mental capacities of Mr. Potato Head. His lack of the psychosocial component makes him mentally very unhealthy.

I recognize that there are other aspects of a healthy lifestyle that do not fit into one of these three categories, ie: brushing your teeth, but I would like to simplify this blog as much as possible to make it easy for people to understand and implement. I will continue to address each of the three components as this blog continues.