Body, Health School, Life, Mind, Podcast
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How to get healthy is a question that comes up repeatedly. I’ve spent the better part of my life asking the same question. Why has health become so complicated?
This question is what brought me to the health space.
Growing up, I watched countless people I love invest everything they had into health while getting seemingly nothing in return. It felt like they sold their souls only to end up more frustrated and hurt than they went in.
I couldn’t understand why it felt so complicated, nearly impossible to achieve. Yet I also understood we needed it.
The question was, what were we missing? What had we failed to see?
I knew it couldn’t be this complicated. We had to be missing it.
I made it my mission to find it.
Unbeknownst to myself, I’d have to lose my health to find the answer I had been seeking. It was my own crash and burn, which happened when I was doing everything right, eating perfectly, and working out all the time, that led me to the answer.
The answer is energy flow.
Energy is the most critical element of health. It’s what determines whether you are thriving or surviving and even what type of structure you build. Muscle or fat. Understanding energy and how it flows changes the entire outcome of your mind, body, and soul.
In the first podcast of the Health School series, I break down energy, why you need it, how it interconnects all of you, and what changes it. Plus, you’ll learn why it’s the most influential factor in your weight.
YOUR ENERGY LEVEL DETERMINES YOUR HEALTH
Energy is the nutrient that weaves through every cell of your body. It’s also the factor that connects your biology to your mind and your soul to your whole, not to mention the molecule that allows you to interact with all of life. It’s the thread running through the entire tapestry that is your life.
While the word itself sounds woo-woo, it’s not. If you pay attention, you’re aware of your energy every second of the day. It’s why you need the extra cup of coffee, crave your bed at night, and what we’re all looking for in health—more energy.
But more than how you feel, energy determines the cellular outcomes of your biology and, thus, the structure of your body. It’s what dictates your cellular response, action, and outcome.
It also proves you were physics before you were physiology. How much energy you have changes the structure you exist within.
Balanced energy creates a healthier, stronger, more resilient structure.
Out-of-balanced energy means energy conservation that weakens the structure, isolating cells that create dysregulation.
How to get healthy comes from learning how to balance energy to make your body stronger, more resilient, and able to not only handle life but fully embrace it.
When you balance your energy, you healthify your whole.
But first, you must know how much energy you have or your metabolic output. Understanding your starting point helps you identify what changes you can make to positively influence your energy. Here are five (free + easy) ways to track your energy level and learn how to get healthy.
Five Ways to Track Your Energy Level
01. Pay Attention To Your Biofeedback Signals
Your body is always talking to you. It’s in constant communication through a series of signals to tell you how it’s responding and what it needs. In some cases, they’re the same signals that we call a problem or at least deem annoying.
But these signals are a tool for measuring your body’s energy based on how it is reacting. Instead of viewing these signs as ‘problems,’ use them to identify what area your body is out of balance and what action you need to take to regain balance.
Your symptoms say a lot about your body’s health and energy level.
A healthy, energetic flow looks like this:
- Steady energy throughout the day
- Warm hands and feet
- Regular daily bowel movements
- Healthy libido and fertility
- Pain-free periods
- No PMS
- Sleeping well
- Stable and happy moods
- Easily maintain weight without excess dieting and exercise
- Limited cravings
- Flexibility in biology and mind
Using your symptoms and lifestyle, I’ve put together a quiz that helps identify your health status and energy level. It sounds silly, and those Buzzfeed quizzes may have ruined you, but I promise you can understand a lot by paying attention. Take the quiz to find out your energy threshold and the steps to start making changes right now.
02. Understand Your Body Composition (Without Judgement)
This isn’t my favorite tool for measuring metabolic output, but it is a decent measure because your energy level determines your structure. Of course, unlike other markers, this one takes longer to see the changes visually. In health, internal changes happen before external ones.
Body composition is a good indicator of energy because energy begets structure. Or better said, energy determines your structure. Given that muscle is metabolically active, more muscle mass means you live at a higher metabolic threshold.
On the other hand, more body fat means you’re living in an energy deficit, or at least at a lower energy threshold, because something within your system is out of balance.
The key is recognizing weight loss does not indicate a healthy metabolic output. It comes from the structure you build. Health is about muscle gain, not just fat loss. What makes up your structure says a lot about your metabolism and energy level. It’s also proof that it’s not set in stone.
You are not a metric of your genetics, but you can influence your structure at any point throughout your life by altering your energy flow.
03. Ask yourself, How do you feel?
It seems too simplistic to work, but it may be the most beneficial marker of metabolism. Pay attention to how you feel.
How much energy do you feel like you have?
Feelings are generally the best indicator of how much you actually have. Don’t neglect how you feel. Trust it.
Pay attention to your energy levels throughout the day, even tracking them to understand when your energy is waning and peaking. Try to determine what is causing it. Then, take action. Do more things that boost your energy and less that work against it.
04. Track Your Body Temperature
Now we’re getting into the good stuff. Your basal body temperature is an excellent indicator of your overall metabolic output because it measures how much heat (a byproduct of energy) you produce at rest.
In health, your body thrives at roughly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything significantly above or below this is a sign your energy is dysregulated.
You understand this with a fever. A fever is a sign of sickness.
But we often overlook that a low body temperature is just as dangerous, if not more, than a high body temperature. Anything less than 97.5 degrees indicates that your energy threshold (metabolism) has dropped. Instead of producing energy, your cells are hoarding and conserving it. It’s a sign of downregulated energy that leads to illness and disease.
Track your average body temperature over a few weeks to understand your energy threshold. Remember, anything less than 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit first thing in the morning indicates energy dysregulation.
The goal is to reach 98 degrees at rest.
05. Take Your Pulse Rate
Your pulse rate is similar to your body temperature. It’s indicative of your energy flow and metabolic output. A healthy or balanced metabolic output is measured between 75 and 85 beats per minute.
A higher pulse rate could be a sign of work or stress. It’s not always bad. In fact, it can be really healthy to pull your body out of balance. You do this with exercise. But it’s only good when done with positive stress. It could indicate a more significant stress outside of that or for prolonged periods.
Likewise, a slower pulse rate indicates energy conservation, a state in which the entire body slows to hold onto any excess energy.
Your pulse rate mimics your metabolism. The lower it goes, the slower your body works, pumping oxygen at a slower rate.
The goal of energy and health is not too much or too little but balanced. Your pulse rate is a good indicator of balance. It’s also a good indicator of how your lifestyle influences your health, even changing based on what you eat.
Learn more and start tracking your pulse here.
IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT ENERGY
No matter what, health is always about energy. You’ll never fully thrive without boosting your energy rate. In the upcoming series of Health School, you’ll learn how to positively influence your energy to return to a place of balance. Achieving this changes your entire life.
Remember, your energy changes your structure, and your structure determines your resiliency—not just biologically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It’s energy that connects all of you and all of you to all of life.
TAKE THINGS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
If you want to learn more about energy and how to get healthy, check out Health Made Simple.
It’s a course I created that lays the foundation of health. A framework you can use no matter where you are starting from. Health is not complicated. Learn the simple way to live it out.
“Health Made Simple blew my mind. I cannot tell you how much understanding I gained. Alexa has changed my entire outlook on health. I especially loved the practical steps and guides I used, which changed my relationship with food and my body, making health feel possible for the first time in a long time. Taking this course has been the best decision.” – Cindy L.
