Series: What is Healthy? Part 2

Gloria has been my friend for about, oh gee, fifteen years I think?  She works one of those deadly desk jobs like I do that doesn’t provide anywhere near the level of physical activity a human being needs.  She’s also an amazing chef, a ‘foodie,’ and plants a garden so huge that I think she’s deliberately providing for the thieving bunnies in her neighborhood.  She’s taught me a great deal about the positive benefits of locally produced, organic foods for our bodies and the environment in general.  The things she’s taught me about the mass production meat industry would keep you up at night.

She’s also reduced her body weight by I think half over the last five years or so.  She did this totally on her own through research and self discipline so there’s no diet program that can take credit for her transformation.  Gloria didn’t “diet”, she changed her entire lifestyle, and it’s a change she’s committed to keeping for life.  On days when I think to myself: “this is impossible, it can’t be done!” Gloria is the person I think about to pull myself out of that rut.  She is a true inspiration.

In her words:

“To be "healthy" is to be free of disease, both physically and mentally/emotionally.  Most people I know focus too much on trying to “be” healthy - as though it were something achievable that you could then check off your mental task list.  I think people are much better served by doing things that promote health and not doing things that promote “unhealth”.  We all know what they are - eating a balanced diet (note I said BALANCED) promotes health.  Smoking does not.  Exercise does, getting stressed out about being unhealthy does not.”