7 Health Principles That Will Serve You The Rest Of Your Life

What does the word “health” mean to you?

Does it mean going to the gym?

Does it mean losing weight?

Does it mean going on a diet?

If you asked 100 women what “being healthy” meant to them, you’d get 100 different answers. And while some might sound similar, each one is unique in that each one came from an individual. The same way that each one of us is an individual that experiences life completely different from everyone else around us.

And while there are tons of different health and wellness programs, diets, supplements, coaches, and solutions that like to say they are the easy road to health and happiness, the truth is that each one of us has our own road, and nobody else is going to walk it.

That’s why us women struggle when we see someone join a “special cardio program” and drop 15 pounds or try this “keto, grain-free diet” and feel great—sure, it works for one person, but not all of us.

It’s taken me 52 years of personal health endeavors to come to this understanding and even today, 20 years into health and wellness coaching, I still am uncovering so much about how we as women can find our best state of personal well-being.

Though I’ve yet to find the perfect solution to achieve this, and I know I never will, there are a few things I’ve learned in the process of walking with women in their own health journeys that I think we can all benefit from.

I’ve taken these learnings and turned them into a set of 7 principles that I use in my coaching process with all of my clients and for myself.

Here are the 7 RESTORE Health Principles

 

1. Releasing limiting beliefs.

We all come from different experiences and backgrounds and because of that, we process life differently. Over our time on earth, this constant processing has led to developing beliefs around everything that we do, even if some of them are subconscious. These beliefs—both positive and negative—then become part of our identity and who we are.

While many of these beliefs are great, there are some that hold us back from uncovering our best state of well-being—we call these limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are those small moments in the day when we say, “I don’t have time, I’m not good enough, I can’t do that,” and all of those other thoughts that weigh us down. The result of these limiting beliefs is a judgmental mindset and creates a lack of confidence to take any steps forward to the goal.

That’s why releasing limiting beliefs is at the top of this list!

When we flip the script on our limiting beliefs and turn them into empowering beliefs, something amazing happens–we see a change! It happens because we have shifted our perspective from a judgemental mindset to a learner’s mindset. Instead of looking at our situation and being critical of where we are at, we are looking at the situation and figuring out how we can patiently learn from it and grow.

When done repeatedly, we start to develop a better understanding of ourselves, mind, body, and faith. Then, as cues as they present themselves, we can respond accordingly.

 

2. Understanding your unique metabolism and bio-individuality.

Both of these are critically important when we’re talking about making changes to our health.

Why?

Like I said before, we’re all different and as such, our metabolism and bio-individuality is tailored to us!

While we could spend hours talking about both separately (which I do in these articles), the real important part is that we all have a clear understanding of what each of these terms are and how they relate to one another.

Metabolism

Our metabolism is an intricate combination of all the chemical processes in our bodies that sustain our life. It takes the food we eat and converts it into energy our body needs for life-sustaining tasks like breathing, circulating blood, building and repairing cells, digesting food, and eliminating waste.

While the world likes to view metabolism as a calculator, simply adding what is taken in and subtracting what comes out, this is not exactly correct.

I like to look at our metabolism like the thermostat in a house, reading, evaluating, and responding to the outside environment. Though instead of responding to temperature rises and drops, it’s responding to the food we’ve eaten, sleep we’ve gotten, exercise we’ve done, and stress we’ve experienced.

This approach allows us to understand that our metabolism is not just simply what goes in and out, but rather a constant back and forth of managing the environment we create for ourselves both internally and externally.

Hence, as we add more stressors to our lives, our metabolism responds like it’s supposed to. Over time, the constant stress put upon our metabolism can result in a variety of health issues both physical and mental.

Bio-Individuality

This one is super simple—bio-individuality means that there is only one you.

Think about it, you are the only person on the planet with your specific DNA.

Your physiology, psychology, personal preferences, and practical life circumstances, are unique to you alone. That’s why one-size-fits-all diets, programs, and supplements don’t work for everyone!

Bio-individuality is a part of health that many people ignore, simply calling it, “how their body works” and the funny part about that is, they’re completely right! Our bodies work a very specific way and only we know that about ourselves.

Maybe we have knee pain and running is not a viable option for movement. Maybe we have an allergy to certain vegetables so salad is a tough option for meal prep.

All of these things are important to know when we decide to take a step forward in our health journey. Awareness of such can allow us to actively avoid certain potholes in the road and overcome the big obstacles more easily when they arise.

 

3. Feeding your body with whole food nutrition.

We’ve all remember mom saying, “eat your fruits and vegetables” but she really was right.

Whole food nutrition is at the pinnacle of improving our health and wellness. Food is fuel and if we are not putting high-quality gasoline inside the tank, our bodily vehicle is going to be flashing lots of lights on the dashboard.

The challenge here is that many of us have been inundated with the idea that healthy, convenient, and cost-effective don’t coincide with one another.

The truth of the matter is that you can make all three happen when you focus on whole foods. I’m talking about healthy, whole foods like lean protein, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats. You know, like the colorful things you see in the store?

It’s no surprise that when you look at your local grocery store all the middle aisles are loaded with colorful bags and creative names—it’s a distraction. A distraction from all the great stuff sitting outside of boisterous wrappers that can give our body real nourishment!

When we feed ourselves with whole foods every day, our body likes to pay us back by tuning in and tuning up to a new standard of operation. Over time this leads to major shifts in the way our body feels, moves, and looks.

 

4. Regular movement and exercise.

As we go through different seasons our lifestyle changes and those changes often throw regular movement and exercise habits into a spin. One minute we’re working out and going for walks on a regular basis, then we blink and it’s been 6 months since we took a stroll around the neighborhood to get some fresh air.

Regular movement and exercise is one practice that can make a major impact on your health no matter your capabilities. You don’t need to run a marathon to be active. Even walking down your stairs or emptying the dishwasher are activities that keep your body in a state of Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) which helps benefit your overall health.

While there are plenty of ways to get active throughout the day, my favorite thing is Exercise Snacking. Yeah, you read that right, Exercise Snacking.

It’s like snacking but healthier because it boosts your energy and kickstarts that body back into an active state. It’s simply a set of movements (less than 3) that can be done anytime, anywhere, without any experience needed.

And the best part is that they take less than 5 minutes to do!

 

5. Nourishing your mind, body, and faith.

Finding our personal state of health and well-being is a multi-faceted effort that happens over the course of our entire lives. As such, we must understand the deep and intimate connection our mind, body, and faith have with one another.

I was raised Catholic and exposed to the Gospel at an early age. In my late twenties, post-marriage, after my first baby, I surrendered to Christ with a fullness that I had never experienced before. My eyes were opened to see myself in a whole new way, the way Christ saw me.

Over the course of my 20 years as a health and wellness coach, I’ve come to see God work in amazing ways when people invite Him into the health journey. It reminded me that all three of these elements (mind, body, spirit) require attention, care, and love if we want to truly live in our best state of well-being.

When we dedicate time to focusing on each of these, something transformative happens. No longer are we hung up on the obstacles that stand in the way of our goals or the habits that used to hold us back. We have an anchor we can lean into and remind ourselves of the WHY that is driving us forward.

 

6. Stress management, sleep, self-care.

Life, as we know, is busy. When it gets busy, we can get caught up in the chaos of it all and fall back into habits that don’t support our well-being, but rather hinder it. Over time as life continues to pile on the stuff, we start compensating in critical areas of our health like sleep, stress management, and self-care.

Sleep

Sleep is arguably the most underestimated element of health and most people don’t get enough of it. It’s estimated that over 50 million Americans suffer from sleep-related problems.

Sure, back when we were 26, 4-5 hours a night was considered “good enough” to keep going the next day, but now, tough luck. Quality sleep, we’re talking 8 hours, can change the game when it comes to finding our best state of well-being.

It gives the body an adequate amount of time to recover, rest, and repair itself from the day’s activities. Plus, it allows the brain to find a state of rest that is needed to function at a high level the following day.

Stress Management

We could go on for days talking about stress and the impacts that it has on every aspect of our well-being, but for the sake of time, the thing to know about stress is that we have the control—sometimes, we just don’t know it.

Stressors are all around us all day long and when it comes to managing them, it takes time and experimenting to understand what works best for each of us. Luckily there are tons of different ways to mitigate stressors that we can use, ranging from diet and activity, down to meditation and mindfulness.

Self-Care

We hear this term a lot in the world today, but I do think that each and every one of us deserves to be cared for, even by ourselves. Finding ways to do that throughout our lives and the health journey is just as important as anything else on this list.

Self-Care is our way of saying, “I love you” back to ourselves. While it is becoming a lost art form, there are simple ways for us to create the space for opportunities of self-care. From short walks outside to quiet time journaling or meeting for coffee with a friend, it’s these little moments that not only feed our brain with much-needed feel-good hormones but also feed our soul with a gentle reminding act of self-love.

 

7. Forging Ahead With Faith

The health journey doesn’t end after our six weeks together, it lasts a lifetime!

That’s why it’s important to lean into the one coach who will be there for us forever—God.

He has made us in HIS image and likeness with unique gifts and talents that only we can bring to the world. By aligning our faith with our health journey, we position ourselves to live in a state of health and wellbeing that allows us to follow our purpose and passion and be all God created us to be.

God wants to be a part of our lives in every aspect, including the ups and downs of the health journey. Bringing Him into this mix is one of the most powerful things you can do in the process of transformation.

 

A life filled with health and happiness is waiting for each one of us…

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the last 20 years of working with women is that we are all so unique. Each one of us was forged by our beautiful creator who intended for us to walk out lives filled with joy, love, purpose, happiness, and so much more.

And that life is waiting for us. All we need to do is listen to ourselves.

If that voice in you is pushing you toward a new health journey, I highly encourage you to tap right here and read more about the RESTORE Program and how 6 weeks together can change your life forever.