Are You Too Busy to Be Healthy?

Are You Too Busy...To Be Healthy?
by Carolyn J. Dean
Advanced Wellness Consultant/Licensed Sports Nutritionist

As a Wellness Consultant, this is the biggest obstacle that I face in trying to help clients to be lean and healthy! More and more clients who I meet with try to excuse themselves by saying, “I just don’t have time to cook... exercise…or drink all that water…and yet they want to get healthier and lose weight!

I am finding that women who cook fresh, homemade meals are becoming very rare these days. So many are eating out in restaurants and consuming pre-packaged foods or fast foods. Many women don’t know how to cook and don’t want to take the time to cook. When was the last time that you truly enjoyed a home cooked meal with your family?

Our society seems to have many more excuses for not taking the time to do what it takes to get healthy. How can we get healthier or leaner when we are feeding our bodies lifeless foods that are void of nutrients? If we over cook our foods, where are the necessary enzymes to break down our foods?

It seems more clients I speak with have some type of digestive issue. Many complain of constipation, IBS and acid reflux. If we consume mostly pre-packaged foods, over cooked foods and fast foods we cannot get the necessary enzymes we need to help break our foods down. I know that it takes time to buy food and then prepare it at home, but it is so worth it. It may take us 5-10 minutes to get a meal at a fast food restaurant, but think of the effect it will have on the state of our health. What we eat and how it is prepared will, in time, affect our health.

I’ve thought about how we can enjoy healthier foods quickly and discovered that there are healthy many foods just ready to eat, even quicker than fast food. I noticed this the other day when I stopped inside a small ranch market near my home. There were two younger women who came in to purchase a snack. Both girls were very attractive, but I couldn’t help notice the choices that each of these two girls made. One of the girls bought a beautiful large fresh peach and a bottle of water and sat outside to enjoy it. I couldn’t help notice how much healthier she looked and how she seemed to be more relaxed.

It just proved to me that eating can be healthy and fast! If you are trying to lose weight, you will lose much faster if you replace your processed foods with whole, live fresh, nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, whole grains and clean proteins such as chicken breasts, fish and turkey. Instead of reaching for a soda, sweetened juices, or coffee drinks that are loaded with sugar and sodium, drink a big glass of purified water. You will lose more weight, be more energized and have more hydrated, clear skin. If you are trying to save money, many healthier food choices are, in fact, less expensive. I’m sure that the girl with the large peach and bottle of water spent a lot less than her friend (who ended up buying a soda and donuts).

However, more than saving money, you will benefit in so many ways by choosing healthier whole foods! Actually, it does not take any more time or effort to replace those high calorie drinks with water. We are all busy these days, but we all have the same 24 hours a day. It’s not how much time we have, but it is how we choose to use our time that counts. If we choose to make excuses why we can’t drink more healthy water or eat healthier choices, we will in the long run cheat ourselves out of quality time for ourselves and our family. When we learn to make our health a priority by the choices we make daily, the rewards we will experience will far exceed any time or effort we put into it.

With the increase in degenerative diseases, it is encouraging to learn that we can prevent or reverse many of them by living a healthier lifestyle. What are some of the most important changes we should make today? To eat more live, whole, nutritious foods, drink water (at least half in your body weight in ounces daily), engage in regular exercise daily, practice stress management and get in 8-9 hours of sleep at night. Some changes may be hard, but start one step at a time and you will succeed. You can take control of your health and make a real difference now, but if we do not make the time, we will then need to make time to be sick!


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		*Are You* Too Busy...To Be Healthy?** by Carolyn J. Dean Advanced Wellness Consultant/Licensed Sports Nutritionist As a Wellness Consultant, this is the biggest obstacle that I face in trying to help clients to be lean and healthy! More and more clients who I meet with try to excuse themselves by saying, “I just don’t have time to cook... exercise…or drink all that water…and yet they want to get healthier and lose weight! I am finding that women who cook fresh, homemade meals are becoming very rare these days. So many are eating out in restaurants and consuming pre-packaged foods or fast foods. Many women don’t know how to cook and don’t want to take the time to cook. When was the last time that you truly enjoyed a home cooked meal with your family? Our society seems to have many more excuses for not taking the time to do what it takes to get healthy. How can we get healthier or leaner when we are feeding our bodies lifeless foods that are void of nutrients? If we over cook our foods, where are the necessary enzymes to break down our foods? It seems more clients I speak with have some type of digestive issue. Many complain of constipation, IBS and acid reflux. If we consume mostly pre-packaged foods, over cooked foods and fast foods we cannot get the necessary enzymes we need to help break our foods down. I know that it takes time to buy food and then prepare it at home, but it is so worth it. It may take us 5-10 minutes to get a meal at a fast food restaurant, but think of the effect it will have on the state of our health. What we eat and how it is prepared will, in time, affect our health. I’ve thought about how we can enjoy healthier foods quickly and discovered that there are healthy many foods just ready to eat, even quicker than fast food. I noticed this the other day when I stopped inside a small ranch market near my home. There were two younger women who came in to purchase a snack. Both girls were very attractive, but I couldn’t help notice the choices that each of these two girls made. One of the girls bought a beautiful large fresh peach and a bottle of water and sat outside to enjoy it. I couldn’t help notice how much healthier she looked and how she seemed to be more relaxed. It just proved to me that eating can be healthy and fast! If you are trying to lose weight, you will lose much faster if you replace your processed foods with whole, live fresh, nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits, raw nuts and seeds, whole grains and clean proteins such as chicken breasts, fish and turkey. Instead of reaching for a soda, sweetened juices, or coffee drinks that are loaded with sugar and sodium, drink a big glass of purified water. You will lose more weight, be more energized and have more hydrated, clear skin. If you are trying to save money, many healthier food choices are, in fact, less expensive. I’m sure that the girl with the large peach and bottle of water spent a lot less than her friend (who ended up buying a soda and donuts). However, more than saving money, you will benefit in so many ways by choosing healthier whole foods! Actually, it does not take any more time or effort to replace those high calorie drinks with water. We are all busy these days, but we all have the same 24 hours a day. It’s not how much time we have, but it is how we choose to use our time that counts. If we choose to make excuses why we can’t drink more healthy water or eat healthier choices, we will in the long run cheat ourselves out of quality time for ourselves and our family. When we learn to make our health a priority by the choices we make daily, the rewards we will experience will far exceed any time or effort we put into it. With the increase in degenerative diseases, it is encouraging to learn that we can prevent or reverse many of them by living a healthier lifestyle. What are some of the most important changes we should make today? To eat more live, whole, nutritious foods, drink water (at least half in your body weight in ounces daily), engage in regular exercise daily, practice stress management and get in 8-9 hours of sleep at night. Some changes may be hard, but start one step at a time and you will succeed. You can take control of your health and make a real difference now, but if we do not make the time, we will then need to make time to be sick!
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