Practitioner's Blog - For Your Health
 
Are You Storm Proof?
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Jun
29
2013

Healthy Body

There is no way to sugar coat this – it’s Hurricane Season.

Ideally, all populated areas will experience a mild season with barely a fallen tree limb to talk about.  Still, the news outlets and public safety announcements are right; preparation is the key to safety.

Our home is our sanctuary.  It’s a safe place to shelter, relax, and bond with our loved ones.  In our local area, an early June tropical storm has many of us stocked up on batteries, candles, canned food, water, plywood, etc.  Every year, we do a lot to make sure our homes are safe and strong enough to shelter us from storms.

Pre-season preparation includes trimming trees, clearing gutters, testing generators, and making sure hurricane shutters are free of obstructions and working properly.  We invest time, effort, and money into making sure we have done everything possible to protect our homes.

That got us thinking - illness and injuries are like storms that attack your body.  Are we as proactive about defending our bodies as we are about defending our homes?  After all, what truly houses us and nourishes us is not the house we live in, but our bodies.

Think about it, we spend a small fortune on batteries, flashlights, plywood, etc., but how many of us get a physical every year?  When was the last time you went to the dentist?  Or the eye doctor?  Guess what?  Your body needs care and uptake just as much as your home.

We spend hours, perhaps even days or weeks making our homes perfect while simultaneously sacrificing the well-being of our bodies.  We somehow accept pain as normal, but pain isn’t normal.  Pain is your body clearly saying “Hello, we have a problem here!”  Yet, so often we ignore pain and refuse to take care of our bodies until we are immobilized.

We take pill after pill to hold off going to doctor and we think that we are doing something wise.  Think about it. For many, it’s almost a badge of honor to staunchly endure pain without complaint.  And avoiding the co-pay at the doctor’s office is like winning an Olympic event!

Yet small pains that are ignored often become major health issues that costs us even more in treatments and lost wages.  And think about the sacrifice in the quality of life.  This is unfortunate, because a low impact wellness plan can keep you healthy, pain free, and put a layer of protection between you and the raving storm of a major illness or injury.

How many people do you know who accept limping around because their back/knee/hip is just “messed up”?  They have problems with their ankle or their shoulder aches on a daily basis.  Things we wouldn’t imagine letting happen to our homes, we allow every day with our bodies. We tolerate pain and impediments rather than seeking treatments and cures.

If a tree branch breaks through a window in your home, are you going to throw aspirin at it and praise yourself because you are saving the cost of a repair?

No way! If something happened in your home that threatened your safety or interfered with the functionality of your home, you would get it fixed!  Yes, you might groan about the cost, but you wouldn’t let it get worse by letting rain and dirt invade your home.  Your body needs you to do the same.

If your home was slowly flooding, would you let it happen?  Would you put off blocking the water source until next month after vacation?  Or make a New Year’s resolution to deal with it? Would you just move into a different room while the water took over more and more of your home?

Sounds weird doesn’t it?  Yet, so many of us, i spa team members included, did exactly that with weight gain.  We just watched the pounds pile on, we put off healthy eating until after a vacation or a holiday, and we bought bigger clothes until one day we just couldn’t ignore it anymore.  Just like the water damage in your home won’t take care of itself, so it is with weight management.  If you want to lose weight safely and effectively, you need to take proactive and decisive action.

Our body is our temple. Unlike a house, we can’t but a new one.  We get one body for a lifetime and these precious bodies need attentive maintenance.  Our well being, quality of life, and longevity are fully dependent on the proactive steps we take in caring for our bodies.

Protecting your home from storms adds to your wellness by keeping you safe, comfortable, and relatively-worry free.  As storm season begins, we ask that you also consider the important of keeping your body safe from storms that threaten your wellness.

For more information on storm-proofing your home, visit the Bay News 9 website for helpful checklists and articles.

For more information on protecting your body from storms, call i spa Health Studio at 727.386.4004 and let’s discuss options for restoring and maintaining your well being.

If you are living with aches and pain, if you want more energy and strength, or if you are struggling with your weight, we can help!  Do not accept these conditions as normal.  You CAN feel better and the i spa team is available to help you storm-proof your body.