The Most Basic Things Of Life

There are four basic things you need in life, at least there are four things that I base my life on.

Sure you need things like air, water, shelter but to me there are four core things that will make your life matter, will make your life worth living. These things are Fuel, Fitness, Focus and Flow.

The first, fuel, is how you are feeding your body. One of the hard truths we face as humans is that we only get one life, one time around this earth and yet we treat our only mechanism for helping us on our journey like total crap. We expect our bodies to perform the way we want them to when we want them to. How many times though has your body yelled back at you "hey wait a minute, I am not doing that!"

The truth is if you are treating your body poorly it will never do what you need it to do when you need it to. Imagine pouring unleaded gas into a diesel engine, yes it may go for a bit but eventually that engine will break down. You were not giving it the right fuel. Now take that same thing and apply it to your body. Imagine feeding your body highly processed junk for years and years but expect to run a marathon or even simpler expect to get out of bed every morning without pain and discomfort. Imagine trying to exercise for the first time in a while and your body stops you because you have not been fueling it the right way.

Your body is no different than that diesel engine. For years we have been taught that a marketing label on a box saying “healthy” actually means something. We have all fallen for it, I did. ( Trust me about this as I am a partner in a food packaging company and know all about how those labels are made.) My entire childhood consisted of processed foods that were quick and convenient, I lived on Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Pop-Tarts. But just like that diesel engine eventually broke down so did my body and if I had to guess your body has too. It's starts with simple things like a bloated feeling but you dismiss that as just eating too much that one time. Pretty soon the bloated feeling is so normal you don't even realize that you aren't supposed to feel that way. This may then lead into irregular bowel movements or achy joints that you blow off again as a one time thing. This will build up over the years until you walk around saying "that's just the way I am" or "that's just my system." Guess what? That isn't the way your system should be.

We are not made to eat quick and convenient foods unless they are one ingredient foods like carrots or apples. Our bodies are not made to process the crap that has been peddled to us over the last 50 years. Society may have changed, technology is ever advancing but our bodies, the DNA that makes us has not changed. Well at least the concept hasn't changed, we may have actually altered our DNA over the years unfortunately. The basics of how food is processed and what foods our bodies like to use for fuel really hasn't changed all that much though.

The basic function of the human body has remained the same but yet we continue to push it beyond the limits by fueling it in less than optimal ways. I am no different, I have struggled with weight fluctuations, with digestive issues, with hormone issues and even infertility issues and it has all led me back to one thing, how I was fueling my body. Sometimes this is a hard lesson to learn and one that may take you years to correct but in the end it all came back to food for me. I tried every diet, every pill and every surgery for my issues and every time it came back to the food I was eating or the food I was not eating enough of. It has been the most eye opening journey of my life and is why I talk about fueling your body so much. It is something so basic but because of that we as humans have tried to overcomplicate it and allowed others to tell us how we are feeling instead of listening and fueling our bodies correctly.

You cannot change the past but you can get educated and change the future. The first place to start is educating yourself around the things you use to fuel your body.