Fitness Terminology

There are many words today associated with fitness. Many of those terms are new for readers, and some of the terms are interchangeable between fitness, wellness, and health. So let’s take a minute to explain some of the terms you may see from time to time.

Fitness is defined differently from different sources, but the overall meaning of fitness is our ability to function with vigor and alertness throughout the course of our day to day responsibilities.

Fitness refers to the condition of our physical body and mental fitness would of course be addressing our mental state. Often we will join and participate in fitness centers that provide personal trainers, and stationary fitness equipment. There are numerous pieces of equipment available that perform many different exercises to address specific areas of the body. The best time to learn about this equipment is during the orientation session of the fitness center you have chosen.

Meditation, an exercise recommended for everyone, but especially those of use with hectic, stressful lifestyles, is defined as an engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature. Meditation has been shown to be an effective method of lowering blood pressure, relieving stress, and promoting overall good health, by simply reflecting upon our day, and finding happiness within ourselves.

Your nutritional needs refer to the physical supplements of vitamins, minerals and calories needed in order for you to sustain optimum physical health. Much discussion is centered on this topic right now, because our nation faces obesity problems of epidemic proportions.

Alternative therapies refer to the alternative medicine options such as chiropractic care, acupuncture, herbal cures, and holistic medicine. Of the examples given here, chiropractic and acupuncture are becoming more widely accepted as complements to the traditional form of western medicine. Studies are conducted often that support the evidence that chiropractic care and acupuncture are effective forms of medicine.

Herbal cleansing and healing are terms used by many of the natural healers to describe what ingestion of certain herbal combinations can provide for the body in the effort to bring it back to optimal health, or to sustain optimal health.

Exercise covers a lot of ground. There are so many forms of exercise that we can only try to cover some of the more popular and well defined programs. There are aerobic programs that focus on heart rate and your cardio health. There are water aerobics that again focus on your heart health. Weight training and free weights are used for building muscle mass, and sculpting the body. Walking is one of the best exercises available, as it doesn’t jar our bodies, but uses all parts for toning and building heart rate. Running, swimming, jogging, and skiing are all forms of exercise, but not recommended for the novice.

Today fitness is used not only in conjunction with health and wellness, but also fitness of the mind, body, and spirit. There is an ever increasing movement among the health conscious citizens, that fitness should include not only our physical being, but our mental and spiritual fitness.

Fitness of the Spirit

    Fitness of the spirit refers to our ability to cope with the everyday stresses and strains of living our life. Quite often, the ability to cope overwhelms us, and if we don’t give sufficient time to the fitness of the spirit, or soul, we lose our ability to function properly.

    Today, the evidence of that inability exists in the form of anxiety attacks. The attacks can range from extremely mild to unbelievably severe. What is happening to us when we experience anxiety attacks? Our system goes into a form of shock. I refer to as a sort of “soul shock”; nothing is physically wrong that should cause us to become ill, and nothing is wrong mentally that should cause us to experience the panic; it is within our spirit that we have lost control.

    This loss of control can be momentary, or it can last for years. The most debilitating part of the process is the inability to function even in the most usual of routines. Short trips to the grocery store become impossible, because of the panic they create within the person.

    Having experienced these panic attacks for a brief period of time, I can attest to their reality. It is a frightening event that only serves to add to the panic. The person experiencing these attacks feels as if they have lost control over their ability to function. They cannot meet deadlines; they aren’t able to provide for their family, there are a host of reasons that cause us to come to the place of loss of control.

    I believe the hectic pace of life in this 21st century only serves to enhance the need to give our spirit, our soul, our inner voice a chance to be heard. We drown out any opportunity to connect with ourselves during the course of our day, because we schedule everything, multi-task everything, and leave no down time for a conversation with our self. It’s impossible to listen to your inner needs, if you’re talking on the phone, listening to the radio, or interacting with your children.

    At the same time this era has taken from us any chance meeting of our spiritual needs, it has also provided more opportunity for planned downtime. We have audio, video, and even massage clinics that offer us the chance to slow down and connect with our inner self. Never before has there been so much available to help us help our selves. What is the hold up? The biggest detriment is our lack of discipline and devotion to our own health and well-being. What we tend to forget during this age of super-human feats, is that the only way to sustain the super-human person, is to keep that person, all aspects of that person, well.

    Fitness comes through concentrated effort, discipline, and devotion, to our body, mind and soul. The fitness of our spirit or soul affects all other parts of our person, as evidenced in the presence of panic attacks, mental breakdowns, and the inability to cope. The need to attend to our fitness needs should be added to our daily “to do” list, so that we schedule in enough time for our selves!

Fitness of the Mind

    Meditation, an exercise recommended for everyone, but especially those of us with hectic, stressful lifestyles, is defined as an engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature. Meditation has been shown to relieve stress, and promote overall good health, by simply reflecting upon our day, and finding happiness within ourselves. This and other mind exercises help us to keep our mind fit, and functioning at top performance levels
   
    Our spirituality and meditation practices are the tools we have available to keep our mind as fit as we keep our bodies. The mind is a complicated and versatile machine, but it can become overwhelmed and unable to function correctly, if we don’t take the time to keep it cared for.


    Our mind has varying levels of operation, known as brainwaves. As we pass through the different stages of our day, we enter various stages of brain wave activity. The brain uses this tool as one way to allow us time to rest our busy mind, and cope with all the pieces of information we’ve received, a way to kind of “mind file” for the day.

    When we don’t give adequate time for these processes, or we simply don’t get enough rest, our mind cannot maintain its state of fitness, just like our bodies aren’t capable of fitness if there is no chance to rest and replenish.

    Modern alternative medicine and holistic healers believe in the power of the energy that flows through our bodies; this energy radiates from our mind as well. It is believed to be the chief from of transportation for our body’s nervous system to carry out communication.

    Breathing techniques, music, aromas, and candle therapy are all ways we utilize the opportunities to reflect on our day, allow our mind to rest and replenish itself for further use. But are these methods keeping us mentally fit? Yes, but they don’t work alone. The absorption of new information, new opportunities to learn, and creative play provide our mind the stimulus it needs in order to stay fit and functioning.

    The onset of many age-related mental disorders occurs because we haven’t taken the time to keep our mind youthful, and involved in new learning. Learning new things forces our mind to form new neural pathways. We need those neural pathways for the transmission of information from the body to the mind, or with our ability to form new memories. If we don’t exercise the mind, we lose the fitness.

    We must remember over the course of our daily routine, to make time to maintain mental fitness, as we strive to maintain physical fitness. The nice thing about the whole process is that, as we go about accomplishing these tasks, quite often the opportunities for preservation and care are interchangeable. We can help to quite our mind as we take our twenty minute walk. Or we have the opportunity to build muscle strength as we meditate.

    Often just the opportunity to listen to music will allow our mind the chance it needs to relax and regroup. It’s not always the most formal of occasions that we find an available chance to reflect and listen to that inner voice. It can be in the middle of the day, with the wind blowing through your hair, and the radio turned up really loud!

Fitness of the Body

    Bodily fitness is being able to deal with and handle the daily stresses of life, good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits. Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do. Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes is a part of overall fitness. Fitness refers to the condition of good physical, mental, and spiritual health.
   
    Fitness of the body occurs when all the body processes, physical and mental are functioning as the peak levels. What does it take to achieve complete body fitness? It requires more than simply taking a trip to the gym, or a walk in the park.
   
    Many factors come into play when we consider our body’s fitness. The daily intake of food, vitamins, and water are absolute necessities, and most often the items thought about. What about the conditioning of our body to deal with life each day?

    Does our physical exercise have anything to do with the fitness of our body? Absolutely. For one condition without regard to the other, is not a complete whole. The body includes all of our physical processes, our mind, and our physical being as a whole. When we give thought to the fitness of the body, most often we contemplate our physical condition as it applies to our cardiovascular needs and our weight. But our bodies are much more than heart and a nice figure. What about all of our other organs? Are they fit? How do we maintain a fitness of the entirety? Daily physical exercise that benefits the body as a whole, taking time to rest and restore what has been depleted from our body over the course of the day, and making sure that we adequately supply our entire body with the nutrition necessary for healthy function.

    If we use our resources wisely and educate our selves about the things our body needs to maintain fitness, over the course of our life, it isn’t a difficult thing to attain. But you cannot abuse your body for years, and then hope for immediate results in trying to attain overall fitness. It didn’t become unfit overnight, and it won’t become fit again that quickly.

    Proper attention to the physical needs of each part of your body results in the fitness of the whole. Every part of your physical body exists to work in unison with another part of the body. Two hands are necessary for optimal functioning of the limbs, two feet, two eyes, etc. The physical body is designed to work better than any machine invented to date. It is more complex and powerful than any piece of equipment we have on the market. It takes more abuse than believable, and continues to operate, even without the daily requirements being met, for several days. It is a fascinating machine, as machines go. But it is an even more fascinating subject, when we choose to care for our bodies as the temples they really are. They house our mind and soul, and when the body is fit, it does its job tremendously well.

Fitness Centers: An Investigation

    Today, we have many Americans who are obsessed with health, and yet we are a nation of obese individuals. Obesity in this country has reached epidemic proportions, and we have more available than at any other time in history to help us control our weight. What is the problem? Why do we still have health issues, when we have some many health facilities available?

    There are facilities that cater to the young, the old, the male, the female. There are 24 hour facilities, facilities that offer daycare, individualized programs, youth programs, organized classes, and fitness assessments.

    It would seem with all these choices, that Americans would not have any problem controlling their weight, their health or their overall wellness. Many fitness centers offer the new client an opportunity for an initial assessment, personalized training plans, and continued consultation services, free with their membership.

    If you happen to be a mother, with small children, many of the fitness facilities offer built in daycare facilities. You are free to exercise, while your children play in a supervised and safe setting. If you also happen to feel uncomfortable exercising in mixed company, there are fitness centers that offer men only or women only exercise times. If not designated times, often they have segregated facilities.

    What about Pilates, aerobics and other forms of organized and instructed toning and cardiovascular health? Most fitness facilities have that covered also. Upon joining a gym or center you are usually provided a schedule of classes that are being taught, and the times that they are taught. Then once each month, you will receive a newsletter and calendar that provides updated information about facility changes, class offerings and any other points of interest.

    There is just simply no reason that a person could not locate a fitness that suits his or her needs and become a part of the health movement. Cost is usually not an issue, either. Today, many companies offer free memberships for their employees in an effort to cut medical expense and lost time due to sickness and injuries. On the average, a healthy employee costs an employer $1000 dollars less each year, than the coworker who does not participate in health and fitness programs. That simply takes medical costs into consideration. What about lost productivity due to illness or injury?

    If you find that your company doesn’t offer such a plan, the monthly expenditure for a membership to the gym, should more than pay for itself in the course of your attaining a level of increased health. You should see a decrease in your medical bills, and over the counter health needs, simply because your body is in a better position to fight off germs and bacteria.

    Fitness centers and gyms across this country open each day, to provide persons form all walks of life, a better chance at health; to afford each person the opportunity to work toward overall wellness and a fit and conditioned body. It is up to each individual to take advantage of that opportunity.

Fitness: Fit N' Fine

    You pick up the magazines each day, and you’re bombarded with health and fitness information. Advertisements and articles that are designed to impart much needed information to the reader about the state of fitness and health in America today, and what we as responsible citizens should do. I want you to stop, and think for just one moment. How do you determine your current fitness and wellness levels? Does your regular doctor as you each time you go if you believe yourself to be fit and well? Probably not. Nor does he give you any method for determining the status on your own. Fitness centers abound in this country, and most are staffed with counselors who can test your fitness level. What about your wellness level? Are they one and the same? They are not one and the same, yet they rely heavily on each other to keep you healthy.

    Being fit and being well are totally different conditions. Your wellness rating is dependent upon your immune system, and what vitamins, supplements, and nutrition you provide for your immune system. Fit people can sometimes be unwell. And well people can sometimes be unfit. However, when you do combine the two, and use sound principles based on clean living, exercise, and healthy eating, you attain a state of equilibrium where you are both fit and well.

    Most individuals do not take the time to completely understand the advantages of being both fit and well. We read and absorb the information we’re given through the media and health organizations, without ever pondering if we’re receiving all the information we need, or simply the part that is profitable to be seen or heard. Fitness gyms need your monthly fees in order to remain operational. They have no real concern about the condition of your immune system. Physical fitness is a condition of the body alone.  Hospitals and doctors need you as a patient in order to remain operational; they want you to know you need to be fit and well, but often leave out important pieces that affect your wellness and, therefore, your ability to be fit.

    What about eating habits? What about vitamins? What role does our daily intake play in our health, our wellness, and our fitness? More than you have been lead to believe or understand. The body’s ability to remain well under anything other than ideal conditions is a direct result of the nutrition received on a daily basis. The mind’s ability to remain well is, again, a direct result of our nutrition intake. For instance, the human brain doesn’t develop well without the necessary input of protein in our daily diet. No protein, no intelligence. No intelligence, then none of the other states is attainable.

    Our spiritual input is a determining factor when establishing our fitness level. We all need the benefit of spiritual reflection, as a way of cleansing ourselves of the stress of our daily life.  Spirituality is a way of assuring ourselves of a renewing, and rebirth of ourselves as humans. Fitness encompasses our body’s health, as a whole and in this respect it includes the mind. It is a condition of the whole body. Fitness is a condition of wellness for our physical body.

What Are Your Fitness Needs?

    As we go about our busy lives, our fitness needs do not often come to mind. In fact, probably the only thought that is given to our fitness needs relates to the 15 pounds we think we need to lose. But even when we are fairly fit, we have needs that help us to sustain that fitness.  Have you ever given thought to what those needs are?

Meditation, an exercise recommended for everyone, but especially those of us with hectic, stressful lifestyles, is defined as an engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature. Meditation has been shown to relieve stress, and promote overall good health, by simply reflecting upon our day, and finding happiness within ourselves.

Your nutritional needs levels are dependent upon your eating habits and whether you use daily supplements of vitamins and minerals in order for you to sustain optimum physical health. Much discussion is centered on this topic right now, because our nation faces obesity problems of epidemic proportions. Our eating habits make up a large portion of our nutritional daily intake. What we consume goes a long way to keeping our bodies fit.

Do we understand what our nutritional requirements are, how to fulfill those requirements, and how to look for real nutritional value in our foods? I’m not sure that nutrition has been successfully addressed in its own right. We hear nutrition in relation to our vitamin intake, our fortified cereals and milk, and in the context that we need “nutritional value” from our food choices. But what really is nutrition when applied to our daily bodily functions? Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do. Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes. Quite often, our vitamin and mineral needs outweigh our caloric needs. In those instances, we turn to manufactured vitamins and minerals to fill the gap.

Alternative medicine options such as chiropractic care, acupuncture, herbal cures, and holistic medicine are all ways we can help to keep ourselves fit. All of these alternative healing approaches offer ways to incorporate their use into staying fit and healthy. Of the examples given here, chiropractic and acupuncture are becoming more widely accepted as complements to the traditional forms of exercise and nutrition. Herbal cleansing and healing are used by many to provide for ways for body keep itself in a state of fitness and optimal health.

What role does exercise play in this process? Well, exercise conditions our body to keep it in optimal shape. To keep muscles functioning correctly and build muscle mass. The more muscle mass we have, the more calories we burn. The more calories we burn, the better our metabolism is at using up the calories we take in through food consumption. Can you begin to see how our body is really a well functioning machine? It’s a continual circle of events, one feeding off the other. When all the events are coming together properly, we are healthy, happy individuals.

Today, we must determine how much nourishment we need, how much physical exercise we need, and how best to accomplish those ends. Calorie needs, nutritional needs, physical needs, and education about those needs now is information we should all understand, at least as it applies to our ability to maintain our fitness levels. If you will visit your local doctor, library, or fitness center, there is massive amounts of information available to help educate and to help you make good health choices, no matter what the ultimate goal, fitness maintenance, or fitness improvement.

Exercise and Play: What Do We Learn?

    Quite often, when our children return from afternoon play, they look exhausted, and ready for a nap. That is the most accurate description, and quite the truth. Play is hard work. It is exhausting to the mind and body of the young person, and plays an extremely important role in helping them to become productive, healthy citizens.

    The role of exercise and play in a young child’s life provides them with many benefits. Exercise of the body is an important part of keeping the young body fit as it grows into an adult body. When we reach adulthood, if we have had the benefit of exercise and play, we tend to continue that habit into our adult years.

    What else is to be gained from the opportunities that play affords? We often participate in organized sports, coordinated play times, and are a member of a large group during all of these activities. Play on this level teaches us how to interact with our peers, develop camaraderie and perform as a team with other players. These skills are absolute necessities in today’s business world. But what else is happening here, during this time of play and exercise?

    What we learn in body language, coping skills, and the interaction of the mind and body during our interaction with others, is invaluable. When we learn these skills well, we not only learn how to interact with others, we learn how to interact with our self. Interact with our self? That seems like a pointless exercise, but it is an all important part of maintaining our health and wellness. There are times that our bodies try to tell us things about our physical or mental condition, and we simply refuse to listen. If we have learned how to listen to others around us when they attempt to point out a need or desire, we have a useful tool in listening to ourselves. This often can mean the difference between optimal health, and creating an unhealthy situation.

    What else do we learn? We learn what our physical and mental limitations are. During play, you see children and young adolescents push themselves to the very limit. But as children, we are better able to distinguish between a real limit versus what society deems our limits. As a child, or young adult, the pressures of the world do not weigh on us as they do when we are adults. We are better keepers of the temple at ten, than we are at twenty. We are still very in tune to what our body tells us, because it is our true master as a child. As an adult, we have let outside influences master our body and mind, and dominate our time.

    As you can see, the benefits to be gained during our exercise and play time as children, is a benefit to us for the remainder of our lives. Too often, we adults forget the importance of exercise and play and the principles that are to be learned from time spent in these activities. We want to rush our children into their daily responsibilities, forgetting that their chief responsibility during the younger years is the play and interaction of young minds.

How Do We Evaluate Wellness?

    Wellness of the body occurs when all the body processes, physical and mental are functioning as the peak levels. What does it take to achieve a complete body wellness? It requires more than simply taking a trip to the gym, or a walk in the park.

    To evaluate our state of wellness, we must establish the goals we achieve through being well.  We make our lives more enriched and easier to live. We are able to reap the benefits of well thought out plans of diet and exercise many years into our life, just because we have taken the time to remain well and fit. 

Your immune system is a tale tell sign of your state of wellness and one of the real benefits of a healthy, well immune system is the prolonging of the onset of many age-related diseases.  Conditions such as macular degeneration, Alzheimer’s, strokes, heart attacks, and overall feelings of good health depend upon a healthy immune system.

    Our ability to continue in a normal routine many years past the accepted age of retirement is a goal achieved through maintaining a state of wellness.  To many older people, their work becomes a genuine source of enjoyment.  Work no longer appears as the thief of our free time, it becomes an old friend that we are accustomed to visiting with.  It can become a reason to continue to get up and go about our day.  Either way, our ability to continue participating is a direct benefit of our state of wellness and continued good health.

    In evaluating our wellness goals, and state of being, the mental capacity for continued learning, teaching, and experiencing is a top priority.  Mental sharpness comes from continued use of the mind to learn, communicate and think.  The benefit of retaining those resources is felt even longer than the benefit of physical wellness.

What about the physical benefits of continued wellness?  The peace of mind that comes from knowing your body is in top shape, ready to deal whatever comes along, is a priceless possession.  To be able to ascertain that you’ve spent your day wisely, and invested in yourself is a real accomplishment.  The benefit seen from adding just 20 minutes of exercise to your daily routine are unbelievable.  I can attest to the tremendous increase in energy, as a participant in walking for exercise.  I lost a total of 74 lbs. in one year, by simply adding walking to may routine.  I had been dieting for almost two months, with very little in the way of results.  Walking was suggested by my physician, and I’ve never been so impressed.  My energy levels were three times what they were prior to beginning the exercise program.  Increased energy levels are one of the greatest benefits of a well and fit body.

Continued wellness and evaluation of our level of wellness is a lifetime responsibility. If we use our resources wisely and educate our selves about the things our body needs to maintain wellness, over the duration of our life, it isn’t a difficult thing to attain. The benefits of continued wellness are reaped will into our later years.  Look at it as an investment you make, not of dollars and cents, but of time and education.  The return on your investment is as yet unmatched by any prescription available.

Energy Levels for the Fit N' Fine

Fitness itself is defined as the ability of the human body to function with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue and with ample energy to engage in leisure activities, and to meet physical stresses.

Fitness refers to the condition of our physical body and mental fitness would of course be addressing our mental state. When our bodies are physically fit, we should have enough energy to address all of the activities that are faced by our peers, and at the end of the day, still have some energy left for our families.

Learning to incorporate fitness into our daily routine is where the biggest obstacle to fitness is placed. Many of us would truly benefit from being more physically fit; we simply do not want to devote the time it would take to condition our bodies. We would rather sit at the table and chat with our friends or tune in to the latest hit television series, than devote thirty minutes each day to our health.

Walking is one of the most productive forms of exercise, and causes a tremendous increase in our energy levels. The benefit seen from adding just 20 minutes of walking to your daily routine are unbelievable.

I can attest to the tremendous increase in energy, as a participant in walking for exercise. I lost a total of 74 lbs. in one year, by simply adding walking to may routine. I had been dieting for almost two months, with very little in the way of results. Walking was suggested by my physician, and I’ve never been so impressed. My energy levels were three times what they were prior to beginning the walking, and I truly enjoyed the peace of mind that I achieved during those daily walks.

I think exercise and being fit does something for a person’s self-esteem, and the mind. Deeper forms of relaxation accompany physical fitness. When meditation is incorporated into the routine, the energy levels continue to soar. When you are able to relax, and truly enjoy the way your body feels, and the accomplishment of a day’s tasks, you can renew physically for the next day, overnight. That’s one of the greatest benefits of exercise and fitness, tremendous energy.

Physically, what is happening to us as we become more fit? It’s a process that has been addressed so many times, but we fail to make the connection most of the time. Our metabolic process is a finely tuned process. When we have it working at maximum capacity, we feel great. We’re eating right, exercising, and our metabolism is making the most of those calories we’re consuming. It fires up and runs, into overdrive if necessary, in order to keep that energy coming. It’s a concept our forefathers really didn’t need to understand, because their living conditions kept them physically fit. Today, however we’ve become quite sedentary, and our livelihood no longer requires us to physically work, we do the mental work all day, and sit while we are on the job. No physical activity interferes with our preprogrammed way of living. Our bodies still function just like our grandfather’s needed. But we’ve changed the process, our bodies haven’t.

That’s why we still need to keep physically fit, If not through our work, we need recreational routines to accomplish that task. It will keep us healthy, running at top speed, and feeling great!

Does Your Income Affect Your Health?

    Our level of income directly affects our health. Did you know that? How much money you make helps to determine how healthy you will be. Doesn’t really make sense, if you don’t’ look at the broader picture. In the big picture, however, here is the view: you are educated, have a degree, and are exposed to tons of information during your college years. You are exposed to health classes, athletes, and all sorts of professional people who already understand the importance of health in your life.

    You graduate college, your income levels are quite nice, and you have the opportunity to purchase magazines, health and fitness of course. Can you see how your education and intelligence levels affect your health now? This is a generalization that has proven itself time and again. All you have to do is observe your developed countries versus the third world, underdeveloped countries. Standard of living and health are directly related. Past the consideration of intelligence development, our level of education and income plays a tremendous role in our ability to educate ourselves about the health options we should exercise. Affordable fitness centers are one of the nicer privileges of higher income. Most fitness centers provide their customers with individualized weight and exercise programs that further advance the customer’s health.

    Having higher income levels provides us with access to fitness centers, better choices for our eating patterns, and better medical care.

    It is in the final section of the previous sentence that there is found a real benefit of higher income, in direct relation to our health. Higher levels of education and income almost always have access to better medical care. The availability of better care, whether it is through better company paid insurance, life in a metropolitan area versus rural area, or simply being able to afford a more specialized doctor when the situation warrants.

    In most cases, higher income families live in more populated areas, with access to better doctors and larger medical facilities. Often their employers have nurses or doctors that are retained, if not on staff, as emergencies warrant.
If the evidence presented above is not enough to satisfy your curiosity concerning the role income plays in our health, take the time to visit the US Census. This information is available through the internet. There you will find all kinds of statistics, from income averages in areas of the United States, to education levels in those same places. Also available is information related to the household. Check for yourself. You can see a direct relationship in many areas of the country between income levels and health statistics for that area.

    It is sad indeed, that many of the people who are in the greatest need are not able to get that need met. Socialized medicine as been studied as a possible solution to our some of our health problems, but when studied in detail, socialized medicine really does not improve the level of health for the population, it just makes medical care free and generally of less quality.

A Benefit to the Well Individual: Chiropractic Care?

    We don’t often think of the chiropractor until some part of our body isn’t functioning as it should, most often our back. But what about chiropractic care for the well individual? Is it a benefit to the well person, to visit a chiropractor when really nothing is wrong? You bet it’s a benefit and here’s why.

    The very nature of chiropractic care is the belief in the body’s own healing properties. Quite often, we can have small problems in one area of our body, and not even realize it until the effect is felt in a much larger way, somewhere else.

    The practice of chiropractic care focuses on the relationship between your spine and your nervous system. The spine is the structure, and the nervous system is the function. Chiropractic believes these two systems work in unison to keep and then restore your body’s health. The word “chiropractic” is taken from Greek, and means “done by hand”. This is exactly how chiropractic care works. The chiropractor uses his or her hands to manipulate your body, and help it to heal itself. It is the branch of the health sciences which focuses on the neuromusculoskeletal system. That’s a very big word to simply say how your spine and nervous system work together. The spine is the highway for your central nervous system; if the highway is blocked or traffic is jammed, they are usually able healers. Many cultures, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Chinese, and even the Africans have used some form of chiropractic care for hundreds of years.

    Why has it taken so long for chiropractic care to receive its proper recognition in western medicine? Because by its very nature, it creates a divide between traditional, western philosophies and practices and what the chiropractor practices. In modern, western medicine, prescription drugs play a huge role in our healing process. To circumvent all those years of development, and investment on the part of the drug companies, is like climbing a rock cliff. It has taken many years, much evidence, and the demand of the general public to finally make progress towards the implementation chiropractic medicine as a realistic form of healing.

    Chiropractic care in the western civilizations however has experienced many hurdles on its way to becoming one of best forms of back care and preventive medicine available today. To date, much research has been done and much material published on the benefits and cost-effective nature of chiropractic treatment. The number of Americans who seek chiropractic care has more than tripled in the last ten years, and continues to grow each year. It is a known fact, if you’ve ever visited the chiropractor, the philosophy works, your body feels better, it heals better, and you aren’t cut, drugged, and off from work for 6 weeks to recuperate. It is interesting to note here, that chiropractors are still classified as holistic healers. In other words, they believe in the whole body approach to healing. So do the acupuncturists, and the herbal healers. It would seem to me, that traditional medicine as had a lot of catching up to do, and they thought they were in the lead!

A Benefit to the Well Individual: Acupuncture?

Before we begin a discussion about the benefits of acupuncture, let’s talk about the origins of acupuncture. It was first used in China over 2000 years ago, and is one of the oldest medical procedures in the world. It is a family of procedures that stimulates the anatomy of the body and helps to balance the energy flow throughout the body. It is this kind of acupuncture that is practiced in the United Sates today, through the use of tiny, metallic needles placed in affected areas and manipulated by hand or by electrical stimulation.

Acupuncture is the basic foundation for Traditional Chinese Medicine and is based on the belief that there are two opposing and inseparable forces within our body. They are known as the Yin and Yang of the entire person. The Yin is representative of the cold, slow, or passive principle, and yang represents the hot, excited or active principle. A healthy state is achieved by maintaining a balance state of the yin and yang. This is done through vital pathways or meridians that allow for the flow of qi, or vital energy. The vital energy flow occurs along pathways known as meridians. These meridians connect over 2,000 acupuncture points along the body. There are 12 main meridians, and 8 secondary meridians. Although traditional western medicine does not completely understand how acupuncture works, the proof that it does work has been shown in several studies conducted by western medical facilities.

Now, let’s move to the question of does it work? According to the National Institute of Health, the answer would be yes. Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in many areas of health care. Areas such as postoperative nausea, chemotherapy side effects, osteoarthritis, low-back pain, headache, menstrual cramps, addiction, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma, just to name a few. The study revealed that acupuncture was able to provide pain relief, improve function and mobility of joints due to arthritis inflammation, and served to complement standard care.

Although there are many who would doubt the effectiveness of acupuncture, once they are a patient, they are believers. It has been proposed that acupuncture works and produces its effects through regulating the nervous system. The theory proposes that since acupuncture produces its effect through regulation of the nervous system, it induces the release of endorphins and immune system cells at specific sites on the body. There is also the theory that acupuncture alters the brain chemistry by the changing the neurotransmitters in the brain.

Without doubt acupuncture was a benefit in the study, and as a patient myself, I can vouch for the wonderful effect it has had on my back. Although acupuncture is classified as an alternative medicine therapy, and there is still much to be understood about the way it works, it is a proven aid in maintaining optimal health.

But what about the well individual, can acupuncture provide a benefit to them? Absolutely. Because acupuncture works off the belief that we must maintain balance of our vital energy flow in order to remain healthy, acupuncture serves as the tool for realignment. Our vital energy flow can be out of balance, and we still feel and appear quite healthy. It is in this capacity that acupuncture serves as a sort of preventive medicine. Checking and balancing the flow of energy on the meridian points in your body is like your car receiving a tune-up before it is in need of a repair.

Are You Well?

Wellness refers to the condition of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, and habits. Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do. Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes. But do we know if we are really well? How do we tell?

The first place to start would be with the examination of your eating habits. Since we are a product of what we eat, if our eating habits are unhealthy, or do not provide for the nutrition we need, we’re not going to be healthy individuals at the end of the process.

Do you take in more calories than your body needs? Are you supplementing your vitamins and minerals to make sure you are getting your recommended daily allowances? If you’re not making the most basic of efforts to take care of your nutritional needs, you aren’t a well individual. You may not look sick, you may not have any noticeable symptoms of ill-health, but you’re not the well individual you could be.

Next, you might want to look at your exercise habits, if there are any. If there aren’t any exercise routines to examine, no wellness. Everyone, no matter what their age, benefits from exercise. It keeps our bodies conditioned, our mental sharpness working at top speed, and thanks to the physical aspect, we get a boost to our cardio health, extra calorie burn, and more oxygen to those cells!

What about the stress levels in your life? Do work in an environment with high levels of stress? Is your personal life a source of comfort or does it add to your stress levels? Do you engage in some form of stress-relieving activity? Stress is the number on contributor to heart attacks and strokes, since they manage to speed up the affect of the real culprits. Stress is basically an out of control situation for most adults today. We manage to schedule every moment of our free time, and leave ourselves with no time for quiet reflection, or time to deal with life’s unexpected emergencies.

Stress brings us to the next two topics of health abuse. Smoking and drinking are often used to offset the effect that stress has on our nervous system. These solutions however do not provide any real help. If you smoke, drink, or lose sleep to excess, you’re not the well individual you could be. Smoking, drinking, and loss of sleep work to our detriment, and it takes extreme discipline to stop. Smoking fills our body with carcinogens, and works to keep us tired and lethargic.

There are so many occasions to stop and question our efforts at maintaining optimal health, that we usually don’t even take the time to begin the examination. But it is beneficial to our overall health, the quality and quantity of our life, to make every effort to be well, healthy, individuals.

The Benefits of Being Well

Wellness of the body occurs when all the body processes, physical and mental are functioning as the peak levels. What does it take to achieve a complete body wellness? It requires more than simply taking a trip to the gym, or a walk in the park.

The many benefits of being well make our lives more enriched and easier to live. We are able to reap the benefits of well thought out plans of diet and exercise many years into our life, just because we have taken the time to remain well and fit.

Your wellness is dependent upon your immune system, and one of the real benefits of a healthy, well immune system is the prolonging of the onset of many age-related diseases. Conditions such as muscular degeneration, Alzheimer’s, strokes, heart attacks, and overall feelings of good health depend upon a healthy immune system.

Our ability to continue in a normal routine many years past the accepted age of retirement is a benefit of keeping ourselves well. To many older people, their work becomes a genuine source of enjoyment. Work no longer appears as the thief of our free time, it becomes an old friend that we are accustomed to visiting with. It can become a reason to continue to get up and go about our day. Either way, our ability to continue participating is a direct benefit of our state of wellness and continued good health.

The mental capacity for continued learning, teaching, and experiencing is a direct result of our efforts to keep our selves mentally well, and fit for the opportunities and activities that present themselves over the course of our life. Mental sharpness comes from continued use of the mind to learn, communicate and think. The benefit of retaining those resources is felt even longer than the benefit of physical wellness.

What about the physical benefits of continued wellness? The peace of mind that comes from knowing your body is in top shape, ready to deal whatever comes along, is a priceless possession. To be able to ascertain that you’ve spent your day wisely, and invested in yourself is a real accomplishment. The benefit seen from adding just 20 minutes of exercise to your daily routine are unbelievable. I can attest to the tremendous increase in energy, as a participant in walking for exercise. I lost a total of 74 lbs. in one year, by simply adding walking to may routine. I had been dieting for almost two months, with very little in the way of results. Walking was suggested by my physician, and I’ve never been so impressed. My energy levels were three times what they were prior to beginning the exercise program. Increased energy levels are one of the greatest benefits of a well and fit body.

If we use our resources wisely and educate our selves about the things our body needs to maintain wellness, over the course of our life, it isn’t a difficult thing to attain. The benefits of continued wellness are reaped will into our later years. Look at it as an investment you make, not of dollars and cents, but of time and education. The return on your investment is as yet unmatched by any prescription available.

Being Fit N’ Fine Do We Need Meditation?

Meditation, an exercise recommended for everyone, but especially those of us with hectic, stressful lifestyles, is defined as an engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature. Meditation has been shown to relieve stress, and promote overall good health, by simply reflecting upon our day, and finding happiness within ourselves. This and other mind exercises help us to keep our mind fit, and functioning at top performance levels. But up until the last twenty years, meditation was something the western world new little about. Is it necessary for our health? Or have we just come up with a new fad, to fill up the empty hours of our day?

Well, the empty hours don’t exist for most of us, and quite frankly, without the opportunity to reflect and relax, I would quite possibly go completely mad Our spirituality and meditation practices are the tools we have available to keep our mind as fit as we keep our bodies. The mind is a complicated and versatile machine, but it can become overwhelmed and unable to function correctly, if we don’t take the time to keep it cared for.

Our mind has varying levels of operation, known as brainwaves. As we pass through the different stages of our day, we enter various stages of brain wave activity. The brain uses this tool as one way to allow us time to rest our busy mind, and cope with all the pieces of information we’ve received, a way to kind of “mind file” for the day.

Modern alternative medicine and holistic healers believe in the power of the energy that flows through our bodies; this energy radiates from our mind as well. It is believed to be the chief from of transportation for our body’s nervous system to carry out communication. Breathing techniques, music, aromas, and candle therapy are all ways we utilize the opportunities to reflect on our day, allow our mind to rest and replenish itself for further use. But are these methods keeping us mentally fit? Yes, it does help to keep us mentally fit. The great benefit in meditation, however, the mind’s ability to transform itself into a vehicle for higher awareness. Meditation is a way for us to become aware of the fact that there is more to our being than just our physical activity. We have so much more potential locked away in our mind, resources that we never tap into until we have the chance to quiet the mind, quiet our surroundings and open the door to the possibilities we don’t examine on a day to day basis.

In our meditative state, thoughts that never have the opportunity to be heard during the bustle of the day are afforded the opportunity to come forward and be heard. Every step that we take is a step in some direction for our life. The opportunity to set our own destiny, develop our manifestation of what we believe our life should be, is the opportunity meditation provides. Every action we’ve ever taken started as a thought. The thought was then brought into reality by our action on that thought. So are we able to produce new thoughts, new possibilities, in this time of quiet reflection.

Benefits of Meditation for the Wellness of Ourselves

Meditation, an exercise recommended for everyone, but especially those of us with hectic, stressful lifestyles, is defined as an engagement in contemplation, especially of a spiritual or devotional nature.  Meditation has been shown to relieve stress, and promote overall good health, by simply reflecting upon our day, and finding happiness within ourselves.  This and other mind exercises help us to keep our mind fit, and functioning at top performance levels.  But up until the last twenty years, meditation was something the western world new little about.  Is it necessary for our health? Or have we just come up with a new fad, to fill up the empty hours of our day?

Our mind has varying levels of operation, known as brainwaves.  As we pass through the different stages of our day, we enter various stages of brain wave activity.  The brain uses this tool as one way to allow us time to rest our busy mind, and cope with all the pieces of information we’ve received, a way to kind of “mind file” for the day.

Modern alternative medicine and holistic healers believe in the power of the energy that flows through our bodies; this energy radiates from our mind as well.  It is believed to be the chief from of transportation for our body’s nervous system to carry out communication.  Breathing techniques, music, aromas, and candle therapy are all ways we utilize the opportunities to reflect on our day, allow our mind to rest and replenish itself for further use.  But are these methods keeping us mentally fit?  Yes, it does help to keep us mentally fit.  The great benefit in meditation, however, the mind’s ability to transform itself into a vehicle for higher awareness.  Meditation is a way for us to become aware of the fact that there is more to our being than just our physical activity.  We have so much more potential locked away in our mind, resources that we never tap into until we have the chance to quiet the mind, quiet our surroundings and open the door to the possibilities we don’t examine on a day to day basis.

In our meditative state, thoughts that never have the opportunity to be heard during the bustle of the day are afforded the opportunity to come forward and be heard.  Every step that we take is a step in some direction for our life.  The opportunity to set our own destiny, develop our manifestation of what we believe our life should be, is the opportunity meditation provides.  Every action we’ve ever taken started as a thought.  The thought was then brought into reality by our action on that thought. So are we able to produce new thoughts and new possibilities, in this time of quiet reflection.

It is in these small moments of creativity and higher conscious operation that our mind heals itself from the stresses of the everyday activities, and maintains a real level of healthy operation.  Our mind is like our body, we don’t have to look unhealthy to be unhealthy, and sooner or later, the illnesses show.

The Benefits of Being Fit N' Fine

Being able to deal with and handle the daily stresses of life is a benefit afforded to the fit person. Making sure we take the time to accommodate our needs for stress relief, such as downtime, therapy time, massage time, or simply take the time for a nice, hot bath. The body tends to retain stress in the muscles of the shoulder and back. Taking the time to relax, do relaxation exercises, and combine this with physical exercise for the entire body benefits the fit and unfit.

The added exertion of physical exercise is often the catalyst our bodies needed to boost weight loss into high gear. For the individual trying to loose weight, the benefits of being fit far exceed an infringement on personal time, or detraction from television time that occurs. Not only is it good for your body, when you’re trying to cut back, it gives you something constructive to do with your time. Exercise also decreases our hunger pangs, increases our fluid intake, and helps our blood to circulate much better.

The peace of mind that comes from knowing your body is in top shape, ready to deal whatever comes along, is a priceless possession. To be able to ascertain that you’ve spent your day wisely, and invested in yourself is a real accomplishment. The benefit seen from adding just 20 minutes of exercise to your daily routine are unbelievable. I can attest to the tremendous increase in energy, as a participant in walking for exercise. I lost a total of 74 lbs. in one year, by simply adding walking to may routine. I had been dieting for almost two months, with very little in the way of results. Walking was suggested by my physician, and I’ve never been so impressed. My energy levels were three times what they were prior to beginning the exercise program. Increased energy levels are one of the greatest benefits of a fit body.

    Raised self-esteem and confidence in your appearance are also benefits to keeping a fit body. A fit and healthy individual shines in how they look, how they treat others, and the pleasure they take in going about their daily activities.

How about the benefits of a fit mind? The onset of many age-related mental disorders occurs because we haven’t taken the time to keep our mind youthful, and involved in new learning. Learning new things forces our mind to form new neural pathways. We need those neural pathways for the transmission of information from the body to the mind, or with our ability to form new memories. If we don’t exercise the mind, we lose the fitness.  There’s also the added benefit of being able to participate as a productive citizen, well into our retirement years. For many older citizens, keeping their bodies and minds fit means that they are also able to continue to interact in their chosen work profession, keeping them continually active, and serving as a continued source of enjoyment.

Are You Fit N’ Fine?

Fitness refers to ability of the body to function with vigor and alertness.  Nutrition refers to the nurturing of our body, in our ability to keep it healthy and functioning as it is supposed to do.  Our ability to provide the body with all the necessary food, vitamins, and minerals so that we continue to thrive in our daily life processes.  But do we know if we are really fit?  How do we tell?

First, you might want to look at your exercise habits, if there are any.  If there aren’t any exercise routines to examine, no fitness.  Everyone, no matter what their age, benefits from exercise.  It keeps our bodies conditioned, our mental sharpness working at top speed, and thanks to the physical aspect, we get a boost to our cardio health, extra calorie burn, and more oxygen to those cells!

Do you take in more calories than your body needs?  Are you supplementing your vitamins and minerals to make sure you are getting your recommended daily allowances?  If you’re not making the most basic of efforts to take care of your nutritional needs, you aren’t a fit individual.  You may not look sick, you may not have any noticeable symptoms of ill-health, but you’re not the fit and toned individual you could be.

What about the stress levels in your life?  Do work in an environment with high levels of stress?  Is your personal life a source of comfort or does it add to your stress levels?  Do you engage in some form of stress-relieving activity?  Stress is the number on contributor to heart attacks and strokes, since they manage to speed up the affect of the real culprits.  Stress is basically an out of control situation for most adults today.  We manage to schedule every moment of our free time, and leave ourselves with no time for quiet reflection, or time to deal with life’s unexpected emergencies.

Fitness requires us to examine more than just our exercise routine.  The mere definition of fitness refers to the body’s ability to meet physical stresses. That includes coping with our day to day life, getting from the beginning of the day to the end, without being worn completely out. In order to be truly fit, we find ways to rid ourselves of built up stress, the kind that begins to affect our muscles, muscle tone, and composition.  Massages are the best cure for ridding our bodies of the stress buildup that can occur, even with exercise regimens and detract from our overall fitness. 

Exercises that demand total body involvement are the best for maintaining and improving your level of fitness most effectively.   Running, swimming, jogging, dancing, cycling, and very brisk walking are some of the more popular total body involvement exercises.
There are so many occasions to stop and question our efforts at maintaining optimal health, that we usually don’t even take the time to begin the examination. But it is beneficial to our overall health, the quality and quantity of our life, to make every effort to be fit, healthy, individuals.