The Five Fingers of Health

Five Fingers of Health: My Quirky Philosophy on Staying Healthy

When I was very young, health was not something you did, it was something you had. Now I can see that health is something you do to yourself. Certainly, some health issues are beyond our control – getting hit by cars, genetic predispositions to breast cancer, mental illness. However, so much of what goes wrong with our bodies after 40 could be cut off at the pass through lifestyle changes. Eat less. Eat better. Get exercise. Don’t smoke. Get sleep. These things seem logical, but sometimes impossible in the chaos of the day by day.


America is not built for healthy people: It pretends to be, with its huge diet magazine selections and gyms on every corner – but who has the time to use them with the pressure to work longer hours to keep your crappy job and then get home and watch the DVR’d finale for American Idol? We prize thin, sexy bodies, but fill every surface with ads for Chillis Too and Coke. It’s a jungle out there, and we’ve forgotten how to say “Enough.”


Here are the my guiding beliefs when it comes to staying healthy – there are five of them, like five fingers:


Eat Consciously
People who have a reason to eat consciously often eat more healthfully. Vegans and Vegetarians, people with food allergies are forced to check ingredients and ask questions about the food they are eating. People who eat only organic food, or local foods take the time to look at not only the content of what they eat, but the process by which it is (or rather, isn’t!) processed. You are what you eat, but you eat what you are: Part of being an adult is discovering your relationship with food. Ultimately, food fuels us. It can also be the place we go when we’re sad, tired, and even celebrating. At 40, it’s high time to be in charge of what goes in your mouth. You’re too old to ‘eat what’s put on your plate.’


Move Your Body Every Day
I believe that the less you move your body, the less able it is to move. We have become a culture that is sometimes embarrassed to walk at lunch; to close our office door and stretch after a couple hours hunched at the computer. We need movement every day – and a variety of movement, too, not just a few minutes on the stairmaster: You’re better off doing 5 minutes of stairmaster, 5 minutes of the bike, and 5 minutes of calisthenics like jumping jacks. Little kids romp and play and their bodies stay flexible, strong and agile.


Moderation
I don’t believe in monastic diets or pursuing long term fitness goals that tear the body down more than they build it up. I do believe that constant splurging can cause trouble, even if it’s splurging on running. Or French fries. But somewhere in the middle is a lifestyle where you truly feel like you’re enjoying the food you eat and the exercise you choose, where it fuels your busy life rather than impedes it. It’s all about Balance Finding balance between work and rest, healthy foods and luxury foods, exercise that’s fun and exercise that you know you’re supposed to do is important. If you push yourself too hard, your body breaks down. If you’re not rigorous to some extent, your body breaks down…(or in my case, breaks down sugar!)


Everybody Lies: Trust Nothing/ Get Evidence
It doesn’t matter what I believe – or even what any scientist or researcher believes: Nobody has the silver bullet for health, diet or exercise. There’s some evidence about what makes you live longer, but we don’t know for sure. One study can tell you to eat like a caveman, another study can tell you to eat like a Southbeach metrosexual. My yoga teacher tells me to stretch one way, my running book tells me that’s completely wrong. You can’t trust anybody or anything – get opposing viewpoints. Read. Find non-advertiser supported resources. (All my favorite workout books are in cahoots with different supplement companies! I read them with a grain of salt.) And most especially – don’t trust anything on the front of a label. It’s the ingredients on the back that count.


Eat Simple: The less processed, the better
I’ve heard the phrase “don’t eat anything with ingredients your grandmother wouldn’t recognize.” Well, my grandmother hardly ever read food labels or would have cared about High Fructose Corn Syrup. But it can be helpful to keep in mind that there is a pervasive use of processed additives in the past 40 years. I try to keep the bulk of my foods as natural as possible – fruits, veggies, fish. I’m eating less bread lately, but whole-grains can be a part of this (If you read the labels carefully!)


There they are – five fingers of health. So, the next time somebody rolls their eyes when you go for a run at lunch, or your date gives you a pained look when you ask your waiter what’s in the entrée, give them the finger.

Following my Gut: Digestive Obsession

At my last checkup, the one where the doctor says “You’re 40, let me stick my finger up your butt,” I received some disquieting news: Some of my lingering health complaints lined up with the symptoms of Gluten Intolerance. I have always thought of myself as a tolerant person, I love everyone of all races and creeds! And I also love to eat anything and everything! So my doctor suggested that I do some homework on Celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and food allergies and check in at my next check-up.
In ancient cultures, they would read the entrails of a slaughtered animal to look for signs of bad omens. My entrails give bad omens, and they’re still safely housed in my body: I poop a lot, and it’s usually runny. I also sleep poorly more often than not. I eat a ton and never gain weight. I have an aunt who was just diagnosed with gluten intolerance. These are a few of the signs of gluten intolerance. So, I thought “How hard can it be to cut gluten out of my diet to see if I’m intolerant?”

Apparently, it’s impossible when you’re working on a cruise ship. Everything is battered in flour, even the raw vegetables. Nonetheless, because I’m obsessed with the thought of gluten now, I’ve cut out all the apparent sources of gluten (bread, crackers, breaded things, delicious croissants fresh from the oven with melty butter on them) and the sneaky sources (soy sauce, beer, liquor, fun) although I can’t quite cut out the ‘probably tainted’ sources (meats probably dusted with flour, rice, oats.) It will be easier when I’m off the ship to really dig into a restricted diet – meanwhile, I’ve made adjustments where I can.

And then every few days (usually the day we’re in New York), I cheat and eat a slice of pizza. I know it screws up my scientific testing, but I could die tomorrow and I’ll be damned if I die with nothing more than a quinoa cracker digesting in my gut! (Speaking of which, I have tried several Gluten Free foods, including crackers made from Quinoa and Flax Seed. They taste like a real cracker that has been burnt and stripped of any flavor. I eat them to punish myself for wanting to snack.)

I have noticed I’m pooping less. I’m sleeping maybe a bit better. Still, I don’t feel as though I’ve found the silver bullet; I could have a completely different food allergy altogether; or I may be ingesting buckets of wheat gluten in hidden forms on the ship. While I certainly have a new understanding of what people with severe food allergies must go through, I’m hoping that I resolve my minor complaints and that it has nothing to do with gluten: It’s a big lifestyle change and makes you a pain in the ass at every dinner party for the rest of your life. Still, there’s something exciting and sexy about a drastic food allergy – the way it allows you to draw attention to yourself every few minutes in a restaurant. “Can you make this dish without soy sauce? Is your ice cream organic – does it have cookie dough in it? Did I mention to everybody at this meal that I CANNOT EAT GLUTEN? DOES EVERYBODY KNOW HOW SPECIAL I AM? No, lady, I cannot move my chair so you can get your Wheelchair to the bathroom, I have a GLUTEN ALLERGY!”