As a child in Central Africa, health was taken for granted. Neither me nor my brother ever went to a doctor or dentist, nor was their any medicine in our home, despite the fact that I hated veggies (handfuls of peas went out of the dining-room window when no-one was looking!).
Inarguably, the food and the environment was better in those days, or maybe we were just lucky.
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As a teenager, it became more about eating right to stay thin! But with the eternal battle against fat and calories. 4 Marie biscuits was 100 kcal and low in fat. You could have at least 8 without feeling too guilty! I also discovered Jane Fonda aerobics - 3 of us managed to do it in a 6-bed dorm! During these years, the only malady that comes to mind was a frequent cough which came and left on its own.
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At 21 real life caught up with its demands and stresses and probably maintaining poor menu management!. After a long bout of Mononucleosis (Epstein Barr) followed by various secondary infections, I discovered what it was to lose your health. Getting out of bed was an effort and I battled with one infection after the other. I promised myself and what I knew of God, that if ever I got better I'd be a good person! :)
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Following my recovery, I spent 5 years running miles, gymming eating my meat and veggies, drinking lots of water (still indulging in a weekly party or two - smoking included) and managed to avoid any further medical dramas.
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Being married and raising 3 children, health priorities fluctuated with time and budget. It still amazes how one of the first things to suffer in tight times is the food budget. The very stuff that makes us tick!
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I know what it is to buy 5 and get 2 free instead of half the healthier option for twice the price. I know what it is to nurse babies and toddlers from one bronchitis to the next, each with an antibiotic, cortisone and Ventolin pumps in various funky colours. Whilst happily handing over the next factory farmed, pasteurised, cows-milk bottle that was most certainly causing the dilemma.
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I was the one making the school lunch boxes with gluten filled 'baguette' sandwiches laden with margarine and peanut butter! - and an apple for good measure. The youngest, Megane luckily caught me on the way up and got more veggies than the others did and less junk. She escaped with only one or two antibiotics up until now and not much illness. It just goes to show.
I also had my share of bronchitis strep throats, pneumonia and raucous coughs. Living in Mauritius since 1998, these were all par for the course : ).
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As time moved on, I started to realise that although we were now generally eating 'healthily', (not too much of the processed junk or overdoing the sweet stuff) there were certain foods I ate that made me feel bad. So I started to make more effort to listen to my body and try to avoid those things. Mostly sugar and carbs.
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A few years ago came Paleo and the internet-health-revolution for the masses. At this stage my most notable affliction was an annoying reoccurring candida infection, not uncommon on this humid island, as well as joint issues ; neck, back and knees mostly - these I resigned to premature deterioration, possibly exaccerbated by over-doing the running in my youth with not enough food. Or just bad genes.
I would often feel tired or lethargic, would rarely miss out on the current episode of flu floating around, and generally lacked drive on all levels. Basically the things you hear everyone else complain about, so resign oneself to it accepting it as quite normal.
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I started to devour websites, blogs, webinars and summits sifting through tonnes of 'experts' in search of the uncompromising ones who tested what popular thinking accepted without question, even in the so called 'alternative/wholistic' world which was by then booming.
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I soon started to build an idea of what health was and how to get there and went about putting my family on paleo, juicing, 'clean, whole-food eating', all manner of fermented foods and supplementing with basic multi-vitamins.
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Within a year it was clear that all of it was doing us good. Once we started supplementing with high quality nutrition, issues fell away, one by one. The last time I was 'sick', I had a cold, caught on a rainy run more 3 years ago which barely lasted a couple of days. Normally this sort of thing would take up residence in my lungs for weeks. My childhood cough had finally left this temple :).
Michaela, my oldest daughter who suffered with IBS and many food intolerences for years, now lives her life more normally, but still has to watch out for grains, legumes and dairy.
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However, many people around me were sick and tired and I started to speak about a healthier lifestyle. Studying was the next obvious step.
I enrolled in a cancer coaching certification, not only to help those close to me with a diagnosis, who would inevitably face the pressure of conventional treatment, but also to educate people around me about a preventitive lifestyle and from becoming one of the 1 in 2 men, or 1 in 3 women who would get cancer in their lives.
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I continued to dig into functional medicine for its root cause perspective, fascinating gene testing, micro-biome madness, endless lab investigations but with a positive nutritional and lifestyle emphasis. This hands-down, beat the drug centred Medical System we all know to be ineffective in lifestyle and chronic disease management.
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As I progressed with my insatiable hunger for the holy grail of health, I finally found my fit in the world of Wholistic / Mind-Body / Natural Medicine often referred to as 'Alternative' - which seems absurd when you look at where the mainstream paradim has brought us today. (Mechanical or Trauma Medicine aside)
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This approach recognises the mind, body and spirit as one which cannot be separated or reduced down to mere parts and treated as such. There is nothing new, but often a re-inventing of what older civilisations have been doing since time immemorial.
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I invite you to a facinating world of constant discovery, as we explore the miracle of the human creation, and see how putting it into practice brings us to be whole once more.
