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What does every entrepreneur and business have in common? The health of the entrepreneur. Your health. I have devoted much of my life to this study. I am very young in my entrepreneurial journey, so in the spirit of adding value to this community I want to start by exploring topics in health science that could bring you and your business an increase of time in quantity and in quality. This post will be a general overview where I touch on many topics. If this is received well and there are requests to elaborate on any given topic I will continue.
First, a little about myself. I have worked as a healthcare professional for over 18 years. For the past 12 years I have worked as a registered nurse in a variety of fields. I chose the nursing profession over that of physician intentionally and for many reasons. If reasons of economics and time are set aside, foremost is that where doctors and surgeons tend to focus on medications and procedures to fix issues, nurses are trained to take a wholistic approach to improve health or ease suffering. I have studied a very broad scope of subjects in health science from emergency medicine, rehabilitation, mental health, exercise physiology, nutrition and more. There is so much information and misinformation about health that it can be truly difficult to root out the best practices. I value evidence based practices, where good data from well executed studies show how different practices affect health outcomes. So, without further adieu let’s look at the first few topics.
If it’s something is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.
What does THAT mean? It means that you don’t have to do something perfectly for there to be lasting and growing value. It’s better to go for a 5 minute walk than to not walk at all. It’s better to eat fruit in a can with light syrup than to eat another candy bar. Drastic changes, while they have their place, often don’t last. Don’t underestimate the power of small incremental change. Many aspects of health are connected. Making progress in one aspect can pave the way for improvement in other areas, including your business!
See a general practitioner at least once a year.
Serious health conditions can often be detected before you have symptoms. Seeing a doctor, or nurse practitioner/PA, and having your labs drawn at regular intervals can save you a lot of pain, or even your life. If the only change to your health hygiene you can make room for right now is to make an appointment to see or start seeing a Primary care provider, then that’s the most important change you can make. To find a good provider, find someone that treats procedures as a last resort and medications like bandaids to be used for a time and weaned off whenever possible. If your doc says you have to take something for the rest of your life, run for the hills! Lifelong medications should be the exception, not the norm.
Exercise, Nutrition and Weight
These topics have the most noise and misinformation out there. Even professionals can struggle to sift through it. The basic guidelines in these categories remain the best. There is no easy way to do this. Drastic changes yield temporary results, while small improvements over time can snowball into the best health of your life. Small changes to improve your exercise health could be 7 to 10 minutes of cardio or resistance training a couple times a week. Balance is key. For every pushing action there should be a pull, for every strengthening activity there should be a stretch as well. If you’re like me, you might struggle on your own to exercise at a level necessary to notice your progress. I prefer classes or appointments with personal trainers. This gives me something on my calendar and I am more likely to show up and exert myself.
Nutrition is tricky, and primal. I recently had pancreatitis as a long hauler covid symptom, and my doctor told me for six weeks I couldn’t eat meat… I literally growled at her in response. It came from a real place. By the time my pancreas was in the clear, the thought of returning to my original diet turned my stomach. I did reintroduce meat into my diet but it’s in very diminished quantities. Nutrition really benefits from small changes, it doesn’t take long before your body doesn’t even want the lower nutritional value foods, which reinforces your improved nutrition habits. To avoid getting bogged down with specifics, I’ll leave it at this. You need more fiber in your diet! Beans, whole grains or supplements are good sources to name a few easy options.
If you struggle with weight despite making all the right choices in nutrition and exercise, you should see a doctor, as the surgical options for weight reduction have come a long way in the last decade. These should still be a last resort though because they come with their own challenges and problems.
Mental health
Buzz word alert! Seriously though, we need to get better at talking about this. We all have our struggles, I’m no exception. Because of chronic pain I also get to deal with depression and anxiety. Oh joy! At my lowest point I had to be admitted to a behavioral health facility after a psychotic episode that was triggered from chronic pain, anxiety, and an inappropriate prescription which led to almost zero sleep for 3 days. The inappropriate medication was removed and I was given more appropriate medications that helped as a crutch while I recuperated and learned better coping skills. I worked with a therapist for a time and now I have much better tools to maintain and improve my mental hygiene. I’m not longer on those medications, and I graduated out of therapy. The meds and therapy helped me get to a place where I didn’t need them any longer. Don’t let stigma keep you from helpful tools.
My two go-to tools for mental hygiene are spending time in nature, and meditation. Meditate in nature for the best results! Trees and plants are constantly exuding molecules for their own purposes, but when they enter the body they can lead to an increase of serotonin as well as many other benefits. It’s not just a coincidence that being in nature or near moving water feels so good.
Meditation might be a subversive topic for some, but let me break into the science of it for a moment. We have a nervous system that has two dials. Sympathetic and parasympathetic. Fight/Flight and Rest/Digest. Dialing one up results in dialing the other down. Chronic anxiety is often a result of having a constantly dialed up sympathetic dial, easy to find yourself there as an entrepreneur. This makes your sympathetic system stronger, leaving the parasympathetic dial really low and too weak to dial up seamlessly anymore. To change this, we have to actually exercise our parasympathetic nervous system by actively turning off the sympathetic system. SIt still, slow your breathing, close your eyes, and be. 5 to 7 minutes of meditation, 3 to 5 times a week can bring about some of the most profound healing you’ll experience. Guided meditations on YouTube or apps like Calm can help if you don’t know where to start. I really hope there is an interest in this topic, I have a lot I could share.
Practice rest without the guilt.
We all need it, we all ignore it, and when our bodies force us to rest, we suck at it, and we feel guilty, which leads to low quality rest, which leads to less energy recharge for our mandatory rest periods, which forces activities to draw on a diminishing reserve and will require that much more energy to perform at peak efficiency. That run-on sentence alone increases my anxiety! Practice giving yourself permission to rest guilt free, and you’ll notice an improvement in your energy levels. Key word: Practice. Whenever you catch yourself feeling guilty for resting when you know you need it, take a moment to remind yourself that the guilt is getting in your way of your goals. It takes time. Be gentle with yourself.
I am going to end part one of this series here. I think these are the areas that small changes can bring the most impact to your life. If you’ve read this far, thank you for taking the time to consider your health hygiene. On a closing note, I became a nurse to help people. I can be there for my family and friends in ways that are incredibly meaningful. I want to be there for you as well, feel free to contact me about anything. There are rules that I have to follow as I am not a doctor, but I can almost always help in some way. Cheers!
First, a little about myself. I have worked as a healthcare professional for over 18 years. For the past 12 years I have worked as a registered nurse in a variety of fields. I chose the nursing profession over that of physician intentionally and for many reasons. If reasons of economics and time are set aside, foremost is that where doctors and surgeons tend to focus on medications and procedures to fix issues, nurses are trained to take a wholistic approach to improve health or ease suffering. I have studied a very broad scope of subjects in health science from emergency medicine, rehabilitation, mental health, exercise physiology, nutrition and more. There is so much information and misinformation about health that it can be truly difficult to root out the best practices. I value evidence based practices, where good data from well executed studies show how different practices affect health outcomes. So, without further adieu let’s look at the first few topics.
If it’s something is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.
What does THAT mean? It means that you don’t have to do something perfectly for there to be lasting and growing value. It’s better to go for a 5 minute walk than to not walk at all. It’s better to eat fruit in a can with light syrup than to eat another candy bar. Drastic changes, while they have their place, often don’t last. Don’t underestimate the power of small incremental change. Many aspects of health are connected. Making progress in one aspect can pave the way for improvement in other areas, including your business!
See a general practitioner at least once a year.
Serious health conditions can often be detected before you have symptoms. Seeing a doctor, or nurse practitioner/PA, and having your labs drawn at regular intervals can save you a lot of pain, or even your life. If the only change to your health hygiene you can make room for right now is to make an appointment to see or start seeing a Primary care provider, then that’s the most important change you can make. To find a good provider, find someone that treats procedures as a last resort and medications like bandaids to be used for a time and weaned off whenever possible. If your doc says you have to take something for the rest of your life, run for the hills! Lifelong medications should be the exception, not the norm.
Exercise, Nutrition and Weight
These topics have the most noise and misinformation out there. Even professionals can struggle to sift through it. The basic guidelines in these categories remain the best. There is no easy way to do this. Drastic changes yield temporary results, while small improvements over time can snowball into the best health of your life. Small changes to improve your exercise health could be 7 to 10 minutes of cardio or resistance training a couple times a week. Balance is key. For every pushing action there should be a pull, for every strengthening activity there should be a stretch as well. If you’re like me, you might struggle on your own to exercise at a level necessary to notice your progress. I prefer classes or appointments with personal trainers. This gives me something on my calendar and I am more likely to show up and exert myself.
Nutrition is tricky, and primal. I recently had pancreatitis as a long hauler covid symptom, and my doctor told me for six weeks I couldn’t eat meat… I literally growled at her in response. It came from a real place. By the time my pancreas was in the clear, the thought of returning to my original diet turned my stomach. I did reintroduce meat into my diet but it’s in very diminished quantities. Nutrition really benefits from small changes, it doesn’t take long before your body doesn’t even want the lower nutritional value foods, which reinforces your improved nutrition habits. To avoid getting bogged down with specifics, I’ll leave it at this. You need more fiber in your diet! Beans, whole grains or supplements are good sources to name a few easy options.
If you struggle with weight despite making all the right choices in nutrition and exercise, you should see a doctor, as the surgical options for weight reduction have come a long way in the last decade. These should still be a last resort though because they come with their own challenges and problems.
Mental health
Buzz word alert! Seriously though, we need to get better at talking about this. We all have our struggles, I’m no exception. Because of chronic pain I also get to deal with depression and anxiety. Oh joy! At my lowest point I had to be admitted to a behavioral health facility after a psychotic episode that was triggered from chronic pain, anxiety, and an inappropriate prescription which led to almost zero sleep for 3 days. The inappropriate medication was removed and I was given more appropriate medications that helped as a crutch while I recuperated and learned better coping skills. I worked with a therapist for a time and now I have much better tools to maintain and improve my mental hygiene. I’m not longer on those medications, and I graduated out of therapy. The meds and therapy helped me get to a place where I didn’t need them any longer. Don’t let stigma keep you from helpful tools.
My two go-to tools for mental hygiene are spending time in nature, and meditation. Meditate in nature for the best results! Trees and plants are constantly exuding molecules for their own purposes, but when they enter the body they can lead to an increase of serotonin as well as many other benefits. It’s not just a coincidence that being in nature or near moving water feels so good.
Meditation might be a subversive topic for some, but let me break into the science of it for a moment. We have a nervous system that has two dials. Sympathetic and parasympathetic. Fight/Flight and Rest/Digest. Dialing one up results in dialing the other down. Chronic anxiety is often a result of having a constantly dialed up sympathetic dial, easy to find yourself there as an entrepreneur. This makes your sympathetic system stronger, leaving the parasympathetic dial really low and too weak to dial up seamlessly anymore. To change this, we have to actually exercise our parasympathetic nervous system by actively turning off the sympathetic system. SIt still, slow your breathing, close your eyes, and be. 5 to 7 minutes of meditation, 3 to 5 times a week can bring about some of the most profound healing you’ll experience. Guided meditations on YouTube or apps like Calm can help if you don’t know where to start. I really hope there is an interest in this topic, I have a lot I could share.
Practice rest without the guilt.
We all need it, we all ignore it, and when our bodies force us to rest, we suck at it, and we feel guilty, which leads to low quality rest, which leads to less energy recharge for our mandatory rest periods, which forces activities to draw on a diminishing reserve and will require that much more energy to perform at peak efficiency. That run-on sentence alone increases my anxiety! Practice giving yourself permission to rest guilt free, and you’ll notice an improvement in your energy levels. Key word: Practice. Whenever you catch yourself feeling guilty for resting when you know you need it, take a moment to remind yourself that the guilt is getting in your way of your goals. It takes time. Be gentle with yourself.
I am going to end part one of this series here. I think these are the areas that small changes can bring the most impact to your life. If you’ve read this far, thank you for taking the time to consider your health hygiene. On a closing note, I became a nurse to help people. I can be there for my family and friends in ways that are incredibly meaningful. I want to be there for you as well, feel free to contact me about anything. There are rules that I have to follow as I am not a doctor, but I can almost always help in some way. Cheers!
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