health

So many people are curious about the fact that our medical expense are so low. It dawned on me recently why we rarely need to go to non-preventative medical visits. Our children do have preventative medical visits, I have yearly visits, Jonathan has preventative visits, and I have prenatal visits. for us preventative care is extremely important. I think this expands into our daily lives and explains why our medical expenses are low. How?

1. My health insurance is great - preventative visits are covered at 100%. Much better than J's insurance!
2. We exercise daily.
3. we maintain a healthy weight
   
4. We eat whole grains
5. we eat very little meats, sugars, and unhealthy fats
6. Lots and lots of fruits and veggies
7. We drink water - a lot of it.

We exercise daily. Jonathan swims 1-2 miles everyday. I run 1-2 half marathons (or full) every year. This means running at least 3-5 miles a day (10 or more when closer to races). Right now I walk as much as I can (to the store and/or for enjoyment).

I cook everything from scratch using the freshest ingredients possible - freshly ground grains, a lot of grains, a ton of fresh fruits and veggies. We rarely eat anything from a box or any fast food. I say rarely because I think it is okay - just very infrequently. We don't drink soda often.

In spite of all of this, we do not obsess over our weight or appearance. We try to stress having healthy and strong bodies. Jonathan knows his family health history (heart disease on his father's side) and I know my parents (my mother died from breast cancer). Thus, we do take certain precautions in our food and fitness choices. I avoid soy products and alcohol as there may be a relationship with breast cancer. Jonathan does what he needs to in order to keep a healthy heart. We each have great heart rates, low blood pressure, great cholesterol.... We do not obsess, however. We try to stay healthy and active! In this I hope that we give our children the same attitute toward health and foods. I was overweight at one point (depression, abusive marriage, etc). Well, I chose to make a change and started to exercise and eat well. Exercise and healthy foods helped with depression and weight. Of course, escaping the dangerous marriage (and keeping my three oldest kids safe) was also a good solution to my health. Now I maintain a very healthy weight, attitude, and relationship.

Jonathan has seen first hand (as an MD) the reprecussions of years of an unhealthy lifestyle. The best way to avoid many diseases (heart, cancer, diabetes, etc) is to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.

Well, I suppose it also helps to have someone in the house who can check for ear infections... ;)

The other day I was walking through the campus and was amazed at what I saw. When I was in school I remember being of skinny to average size. yes, I was on the cross country and track teams (through college), yet I didn't feel unusually athletic. It seemed as if most people were of similar health. Now, however, as I walked through the campus I felt thin. Thin! At 37 weeks of pregnancy I felt thin! What a sad statement. These were late teen/early 20s girls. They should be at the peak of health - yet most are overweight to obese. We are certainly at a sad state of our culture.

Can you do anything to increase your health?

Start with walking 10 minutes a day, replacing one soda with water, or use whole wheat bread instead of white. Make one small change to start. Maintain that change and add another!