How healthy are you, really?

I hear many versions of “healthy lifestyles.” Some involve only shopping at the most expensive grocery stores; others involve living solely off the land. Some involve a level of dissonance apparent to people like me, and others involve no accountability at all. Then of course you get the person that is fully aware of what they’re doing.

Here’s the thing.

None of us can be 100% healthy.

100% healthy would mean living in a remote area untouched by industrialism, unpolluted air and water, mineral-rich soil, no agricultural fallout, zero microplastics, no heavy metals in fish, manageable levels of stress, good genetics, and minimal generational trauma.

So, does that mean you just throw in the towel?

I see many people doing this. I see the pattern because I have done it for years.

For years I was the epitome of health on the outside, but on the inside, I still had wine on weekends. I still snacked on protein bars. I still ate factory-farmed meat when needing cooked food from a store. I still drank milk from unhealthy cows on my morning coffee run. I still do. And I still couldn’t find compromise for many things I really enjoyed that sneaked industrial seed oil into my body in a very covert way.

But I was 99.9% healthy.

I was also 99.9% lying to myself.

I still had bouts of inflammation. I still had autoimmune responses. I still had metabolic dysfunction, all while wondering why, when my diet was 99.9% clean.

This is cognitive dissonance.

So now you’re thinking, well if half the environment is stuffed, then why the hell follow a healthy diet?

That is where most people get it wrong.

Let’s call it what it is, a cop-out. An excuse to do the wrong thing because you’re lying to yourself about the right thing.

You still do the best you can.

It doesn’t mean that because your diet and nutrition are 100%, or your version of 100%, that you won’t end up with disease. What you absolutely can and must do is your best, always.

Minimize the risk as much as you can, in all aspects of your life. Diet. Nutrition. Trauma. Stress. Environment. So that you are giving your body the best chance.

Your immune system needs to switch off for just a moment to have something grab hold of you.

What switches it off in that moment could very well be the poison of a shot of whiskey, the bitterness you’re holding onto because you were wronged, the grief you can’t make peace with, the buildup of oxidative stress in your body, the break from the office you never gave yourself.

All these things matter.

Does it mean you give up?

No.

It means you do the best you can with all that you have, to give your vessel, the only body that carries you, the best opportunity it has to look after you in return.

If this resonates - grab my recipe book, Eat Like A Human Again - The No-Drama Guide to Start Eating Well in a Modern World. Available for a limited time via Paystack

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