Health has been washed down and overcomplicated. It wasn’t until I quit health that I realized health for what it is. Learn my unpopular health opinions that changed my health inside.

Five years ago, I quit health. I got into the health space to save the world from its health problems. The problems the health space seemed to be capitalizing on and the same ones that seemed to follow you around like your own shadow. These were the problems I was determined to fix.

I seemed to be making progress, at least in other people’s lives, until one day, I lost my health while doing everything right.

In weeks, I had turned into the person I had gotten into the space to fix. The problems were so overwhelming I decided fighting for health wasn’t worth it, so I quit.

The problem was I still wanted to be healthy. On some level, I think everyone wants to be healthy even more than they want to be skinny. But getting healthy seemed impossible. A system of cycles that too often led you right back to the same place you started, broken, swollen in problems, and chasing a solution.

But when I quit health, I also set down everything I had believed. In the process, this opened up space for me to see health in a new way. It shifted my perspective on health to experience it in a new way.

Quitting health is what led to my health.

Inside this podcast, I share seven unpopular health opinions I learned from quitting health and why they helped me finally get healthy. To fully soak this podcast in, I encourage you to come with an open mind.

Seven Unpopular Health Opinions

01: Health is not a destination.

It’s easy to assume you’ll be “healthy” when you reach your goal weight, run a 5K, or perfect your diet. Believing that health is a place you arrive. But this thinking leaves you missing what health is, the action to arrive. Contrary to popular belief, health is not a noun. It’s a verb. It’s not the day you run the 5K. It’s every day you woke up early to train. Health was the choice to eat a good breakfast, go to bed a little earlier, set down your phone, engage in conversation, accept the compliment, and drink a glass of water.

Health is the millions of little things you do that create health because health is an action, not a destination.

02: Food isn’t your problem, It’s just a distraction.

Food is important, of course. It can change how you feel and your health. But food is only one component of many when it comes to your health. It’s one piece of the pie, not the entire thing. Stop giving more credit or all credit to what you eat when health is the entirety of your life. Health is everything from the food you eat to how you move, your work life, relationships, soul, mindset, financial situation, how you play, or if you do. Don’t get so distracted with food that you miss the most important aspect of health, and that is supporting the whole of who you are. You are only as healthy as your most unhealthy relationship or the work-life balance you’ve created. Health is your life.

It’s all of you leaving me to remind you if you want to get healthy, you have to healthify your whole mind, body, and soul.

03: Carbs are not the problem (neither is stress or your hormones).

Carbs can be a problem, just as too much or insufficient insulin or cortisol. But they’re generally not the root of the problem. The problem is our pull to the extremes, taking good things and pushing them beyond the point of being helpful and making them hurtful. Too many carbs are certainly a problem. But so are too few. It’s not about more or less but always about balance. Every second of every day, your body works to achieve a state of balance called homeostasis. The goal is not to work against this but to work for it, creating a safe space for your body to change.

Stop villainizing things that are for your good, and learn how to use them to create balance and support your body. The key to health is always about balance.

04: Willpower is not the reason you can’t change.

“If I just had more willpower, then…”
I know what you are thinking. If you had more control, willpower, and discipline, things could be different. But the reason you can’t change is not that you don’t have those things. You don’t have those things because you don’t have the energy to create willpower, discipline, and change. It takes energy to do something.

You might struggle to do the things you know you should, but more than a willpower problem, it’s an energy problem. You have to learn how to create energy or at least channel it in a direction to use it to produce change. Producing change takes work, which means doing things even when you don’t feel like it.

Learning to create and channel energy produces the motivation and willpower to continue.

05: Your job is not to change your body but to support it.

Common health ideas leave you chasing a change. If you don’t like how you look, sign up for this diet or try this workout program. If you hate your symptoms, try this solution. In some ways, they can be supportive, but often chasing a change leaves you ignoring your body for a destination.

I know you may not like where you are or what your body looks like. But the only way to change it is to supply what it needs (outside of what you think it needs). That means you must pay attention to it. Instead of eating to change your body through macronutrients and calorie restriction, you eat for nutrients. Instead of working out to look a certain way, you work out to feel strong and light.

When you support your body, your lifestyle may look similar, but your body will respond differently. It will respond in health. But you have to trust that supporting your body will allow it to change in the ways it needs.

Get more tips + unpopular health opinions!

Two more tips, perhaps the best ones, can be found in the podcast explaining all seven unpopular health opinions. Spoiler alert, they deal with your identity!

Listen to the podcast to shift your perspective and rewrite your definition of health. Leave a comment with what you would add to the list!

Check out these 10 Common Health Mistakes That Prevent You From Living Healthy!