Being healthy and happy is the life goal of most people, right? For my job security and sanity sake, I honestly hope so. I believe that there is clear evidence to support my argument. Follow the money and examine the billions of dollars spent each year on diet books, gym memberships, and weight loss supplements. We put our money where our interest lies… and clearly the health and wellness industry is at the top of our priority list.
The evil flip side to this is that as a society we are NOT getting healthier. Our waist lines are continuing to grow as we lose faith in our ability to achieve the utopia of being a happy, excited about life, jump out of bed first thing in the morning kind of person. And I’m using the plural here because I have been there. I, myself as a dreamer, have been there quite a number of times. For example, the gluten fad hits and I think, “Man, this is going to be the magic bullet that stops the cycle”. I make a plan to first cut out gluten for myself, as the wise and noble expert, to test out the theory of course. After which I will start the journey of telling all of my clients the honest and real truth that gluten is the enemy and your utopia can be realized only after you cut out gluten. I start the “experiment” phase and realize that A) I’m a dietitian and hunting gluten is hard even for me, B) the price of “non-gluten” items is crazy, and C) the serious limiting of options when actually having a life and eating out gluten free. Then, I struggle because I understand the science behind the negative impacts of gluten on the gut… and let’s make no bones about it, they are there. After my experiment, it turns out that I did see the waist tighten, but no improvement to my skin or brain fog. Rats…. It wasn’t the silver bullet. No utopia for me or my clients.
So does the silver bullet exist? If it does exist, do I have to shoot my social and family life with it so I can have only time for this one thing? I my humble opinion, no. I am not an extreme person by any STANDARD; and I do not believe that the “health” aspect of your life should negate the other parts of you. If eating perfectly, working out perfectly, having the perfect body were taking away from my joy of going to brunch, eating pancakes, drinking mimosas, I would say to hell with this… I need to find a new job. But, again in my humble opinion, living healthfully is not an all or nothing kind of thing. Living healthfully is only the journey to learn what our body’s need to move, what our minds need to think, and what our hearts need to love. It is the journey every day to explore the strength in our arms and the power behind our legs. It is the journey of balancing different aspects of yourself and then letting those different parts overlap. And lastly, it is the journey of accepting the sheer joy of eating the pancakes and loving every minute!
So, that in a nut shell is the Savage Standard….. Let the journey begin.
Mari-Chris Savage, MS, RD, LDN 