Balancing The Books of Your Health

This article explores the importance of balance in terms of our health and wellbeing; utilising the analogy of a bank balance to highlight the importance of making positive daily choices that affect our long term health.

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Just like some people are emotional spenders, others are emotional eaters, and the real challenge in our fast paced culture is that we are always looking for quick fixes to keep us going.  Have you ever reached for something sweet or caffeine based to provide a temporary burst of energy due to feeling lethargic?

Whilst understandable, this approach, creates a rollercoaster ride of peaks and troughs in terms of your energy levels… think of how caffeine-based energy drinks such as Red Bull provide a temporary burst of energy which spikes your energy levels but then leaves you feeling drained and depleted for the rest of the day as your energy levels crash.

It is the same principle as if someone were to take a drug like ecstacy; their serotonin levels are boosted to the point they’re neuroreceptors are overwhelmed with feel good hormones – but then, there is a ‘comedown’… just like a tide, coming in then going out… and that’s the thing, what goes up must come down, and in terms of your health, what you’re really looking for is a state of equilibrium – to keep things in balance.

To better explain this concept, picture a bank account.  There are deposits and withdrawals.  The deposit nourishes and invests whilst the withdrawals detract and deplete.  If there are too many withdrawals, the account becomes overdrawn, and you end up in financial trouble.

Using this metaphor for nutrition, supplementing with aloe vera or bee propolis, for example, could be considered a deposit because you are investing nutrients that are going to replenish and revitalise your body, whereas eating a chocolate bar or McDonald’s could be considered a withdrawal.

Making the occasional withdrawal is fine, as this way, there is still an equilibrium.  However, if you are to withdraw more from this bank account, nutritionally, than you are putting in – that’s when you run into problems.  That’s when serious diseases start to occur.

There’s a point at which we start looking to Health Insurance Innovations in order to have some sort of safety net for the damage we have caused by taking too many withdrawals; yet prevention is often the best way forward – and with this simple metaphor – you can start making better incremental choices, by simply asking yourself whether the activity is going to add to your bank balance or subtract from it.

Just think about that word for a moment; dis-ease.  Your body is striving for a state of balance, known as homeostasis, and when you have a disease it represents your body is in a state of dis – ease; due to being out of balance.

No matter what your current condition of health, the way to ensure a healthy life is to make better daily choices and ensure you keep the books balanced, in terms of the deposits and withdrawals you’re making on your health.

This is stuff we all know, but it’s interesting to note that there’s a large difference between having knowledge and applying knowledge.  Hopefully, this simple metaphor of the bank account will inspire you to make better day-to-day choices.