Dr. Nancy Miggins - Mastering the Health Continuum 8 Daily Practices to Boost Energy, Optimize Health, and Age Gracefully

Your body is your most priceless possession.
Take Care of it.

Jack Lalane

We are all aging. From conception to birth, we all go through a cycle of growth and degeneration. Thus, aging and death are inevitable. No one lives this life forever.

Throughout our lives, we earn wrinkles, gray hair, baldness and shriveled bodies. We bear the marks and scars of battles won and lost during a life well lived. As our bodies fade, our wisdom grows and we become more interesting, adding more dimension to our character. Beauty and vitality are entrenched below our skin, and they continue to radiate through our deteriorating exterior. Mastering The Health Continuum goes beyond aesthetic vanity and instead focuses on optimizing you on the inside to fuel the flame of your vitality so your inner beauty will long outlive your outer beauty.

With the abundance of information available at your fingertipsGoogle, Facebook, Amazon, Instagram, You Tube, and Pinterestyou have endless options for diets, exercise, miracle drinks, recipes, fads, and gimmicks. Websites, blogs, and even celebrities have dedicated their time and energy to providing innovative solutions for your health. But how do you know which solutions are true? Not everything out there is false or misleading; however, it is difficult to wade through all of that information and determine what is real, true, and most importantly, wise.

The age of selfies and living out loud online has caused an epidemic of comparison, as opposed to inspiration, that is eroding our self-confidence and self-love. Our unique minds, bodies, and life experiences make us interesting and beautiful.

Yet if an online post shows pictures of a beautiful young woman who has lost fifteen pounds in two weeks drinking a special concoction, how can you feel good about yourself? You think you are eating a good diet and exercising appropriately, but you still do not look like her. We are inundated with pressure and noise constantly reminding us of the unrealistic expectations we have set around beauty, health, healing, and aging for that matter. It is an illusion with an impossible immediacy to achieve.

Those photos do not show that same young woman three months or even two years later. They don't show the impact that her myopic actions have had on her body. Yes, she may look great on her wedding day or for that cruise, but every action has a consequence. Some consequences are worse than others. For example, ever-popular fad dieting has detrimental effects on your thyroid, kidneys, liver, mitochondria, and even your gut health, brain function, and fertility.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Bio-individuality is a key consideration when determining the most appropriate plan or program to follow to achieve your health goals.

Over the years, many of my patients have appreciated my approach to helping them develop an appropriate health strategy based on their unique bio-individuality. They say it is the first time they have worked with a practitioner and have felt heard, not shamed or judged.

Keeping your bio-individuality in mind, you need to know where you are right now on the health continuum, what health challenges you are experiencing, and your end goal. You can then efficiently and intelligently sift through your options, determining what will bring you closer to or further away from your goal.

Ultimately, what matters most is how you feel about yourself and the progress you make toward your goals. This journey is about you compared to you. You are not in a race against anyone else. Your starting point, health challenges, and commitment to achieving your goals determine your results.

Many things can get in the way of our success. The most common is fear. Whether or not it is fear of failure, fear of success, fear of inability, fear of disappointment, fear of criticism and judgement, fear of the unknown, or all of the above, fear is a major paralyzing force in our lives.

What if fear is your opportunity? We all know that eliminating fear is a losing battle. Embrace it. Lean into it. Be honest with yourself. Let your fears fuel and motivate your passions and actions.

I really hate to be the one to tell you this, but no one is going to show up to rescue you or do this work for you. Hopefully, you are not expecting that. You need to be the one to make the decision and take action to make your health the priority.

While you can come up with a variety of excuses to not make it a priority, you need to decide to not give in to your fears or excusesno one can do it for you. We all feel that we have an overabundance of demands placed on us. Work, family, social obligations, and philanthropy efforts all tend to take precedence over our individual needs. We put off eating intentional and delicious food in favor of convenience. We put off the exercise that we know we need in favor of the unexpected requests from the people we love or because we are just too damn tired. We dont want to disappoint or inconvenience those people in our lives that matter to us. In general, we procrastinate and lower the priority of the activities that will keep us healthy and vibrant.

In that light, I want to remind you that flight attendants instruct you to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others because if you dont take care of yourself first, you will not be in a position to help others. The same applies to your health.

Making health your top priority serves two purposes:

1. It positions you to be able to care for others.

2. It acts as an example for everyone else in your life, making a commitment to healthy habits contagious.

This book can help you with your commitment. I do not claim to have all of the answers and this is not a silver bullet, but I hope this book can answer some of your questions, raise other questions for you, and inspire you to take ownership of your health journey.