The Importance of Proactive Health Maintenance: Listening to Your Body and Taking Action

*How are you?* “I’m fine.” *Where do you hurt?* “Oh my neck is bothering me, my low back is tight, my left shoulder is acting up and my digestion is off.” Western medicine defines health as an absence of disease. We wait until there is a problem before we take time out of our busy lives to fix ourselves. More often, we become disconnected to how we feel and reach for cravings like sugar, alcohol, and comfort foods in order to feel better. We have little time to pay attention to what our bodies are trying to tell us. We end up pushing through our day and our pain. It is only when problems become big enough that we can’t ignore them any longer that we are forced to take action. A while back I was asked, “what do you do to be healthy?” My answer was I really work on my diet. I eat plenty of organic vegetables and healthy proteins. I stay away from sugar, gluten, processed foods, alcohol, and never eat fast food. I take whole food supplements every day in order to give my bod...