Your Future Self Will Thank You for Reading This 🙌

“If you don’t make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness.” -Joyce Sunada

I hate to break it to you, but there will be a time in your future that you are going to get sick, like really sick, like ill. It might happen next year, or it might happen in forty years at the end of your life (fingers crossed), but I’d bet it’s most likely going to happen sometime in your life and not just when you’re heading to the grave. Illness is an inevitable part of life, but the good news is, we have the power to take steps today that will help us when that time comes. Whether it’s something minor like a broken bone or a major health scare, there are actions we can take now to ensure our body and mind are ready to bounce back. Let me share some ideas on how to do that.

Front Load Your Health: 
Yes, this is a CrossFit image and idea but I think it pertains to all individuals regardless of what fitness, or lack there of you have in your life. This spectrum shows that there is one end of the spectrum, “sickness”, then the other end of the spectrum, “fitness” and then in the middle is the “wellness”.

The idea is that at some point you will end up at the sickness end so it’s important now to bring yourself as close as possible to the fitness end. You frontload your fitness (and health).  Frontloading means investing in your health and fitness now, so you’re better prepared to face sickness or challenges when they arise. 

I can attest to this being true because when I was diagnosed with cancer, I was grateful to be in the best shape of my life. Instead of fighting from a place of weakness, I was able to start from a point of strength, and this made all the difference during my treatment and recovery. 

Through all my various surgeries, from my cancer fight, and through the chemo, to my two pregnancies, this idea has been so true and has helped me immensely navigate these challenging times by having started closer to the “fitness” end of the spectrum.  So, please, I ask you, do your future self a favor and build out your life so you are frontloading your fitness and health to get you closer to that fitness end of the spectrum.

Being Prepared for the Unknown:
One of CrossFit’s mission is to prepare you for the unknown and unknowable so that when that happens to you, whatever that unknown thing is, you’ll be prepared. I honestly didn’t think much about it the few years I’d been doing Crossfit prior to getting diagnosed with cancer. But then, during the fight and journey of my cancer treatment I realized what it meant.

All those days I was grinding in the gym, with my head down, suffering and being miserable but continuing to put one foot in front of the other, it was preparing me for summer of 2015. It prepared me to mentally be able to handle the challenge that cancer treatment throws at you. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, there were a lot of depressed and miserable days too, but for the most part, that ability to face a challenge and just keep trekking, through the pain and mental stresses was gained through small little workouts every day and helped me prepare for the unknown of my cancer journey.  

Whether it’s a health scare, an unexpected job change, or any other unknown challenge, being physically and mentally prepared can make all the difference. How are you preparing for the unknown in your life?

Beyond the Physical Side:
The image I shared of the Health Wellness Spectrum above does emphasize the physical wellness aspect of a human, but honestly, I look at that spectrum more as a whole being. You can find wellness and sickness throughout your entire system of your body. From the physical to the mental to the spiritual and more.

One of my favorite fitness coaches, Ben Bergeron has come up with the five factors of health, which are:

• Eat
• Sleep
• Train
• Think
• Connect

He believes these five factors are what will make up the total health/wellness of a human, their entire system.

I also recently listened to a great audiobook, “The Well Lived Life: A 102- Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age”, which was super good and cute! Anyways, in this book, the spunky, passionate, and knowledgeable doctor shared personal anecdotes in her memoir about how she tried to treat a patient for the whole system.  She had various examples of how a patient might complain about one thing, but she’d work hard to get to the underlying issues, to the root of what was going in their life and a lot of times she’d discover there was more to the picture than just this sore ankle or lingering cough, etc. She truly believed and saw that the human body was all one interweaved system, from our mind, to the connections of those outside our body, to our physical health, to our spirituality (not religious necessarily). She, as does Coach Ben, and many others out there, believe you must focus on the whole body to achieve health. 

So, the next few Elevate Livin’ Life E-newsletters will dive deeper into these five factors of health, Eat, Sleep, Train, Think, and Connect. Because what we do with our mind and what we do with our body can dictate the health and happiness of our life. So, let’s take these small steps together to prioritize wellness—because when we take care of ourselves now, we build a foundation that supports us through life’s ups and downs. Stay tuned for more tips in the next newsletter!

Make it a great day! 
-Kelli