What Exactly Does 'Being Healthy' Mean?

There's so much talk about becoming more healthy. But what exactly does 'being healthy' mean?





For the past several years, being healthy to me meant losing the extra weight I've been carrying around. But the older I get and the more I think about things I find myself researching and changing my thinking on so many different things I never even gave thought to before.





Yes, I do need to get rid of this extra weight. But before now I've been willing to take different things in order to help me get thin faster. Now, I'm not too keen on that idea. Who really knows what that stuff does to a person's body. If you are putting something in your body to change how it works (when there really isn't a sickness present) simply because you're impatient and not willing to put in the effort to change your eating habits and get in some daily exercise, then in the end you are no healthier than when you started.





But aside from me needing to lose weight, my husband is a very high candidate for heart disease. Both sides of his family have had significant heart issues and, like me, he also has some extra weight to get rid of. But besides getting in better shape, what else can we be doing to help ensure his heart stays healthy?





What is going to help our bodies function the way God intended them? What's going to help keep our minds sharp and our immune systems working strong? What's going to help ward off many of the diseases and health problems that are so common today?





I know that our lives are in God's hands and that ultimately only He knows when our time to die will come. But I also believe He gave us a brain and common sense to take care of ourselves and those we love. I feel it is my duty and responsibility to do what I can to find what is best for the health of my family.





So as I research and learn new things, I will post them here under the catagory 'Becoming A Healthy Mommy' so you can also learn how to best take care of yourself and your family. I don't claim that everything I find will be the gospel truth, but things that I think are worth looking into, I will share.





And if you're wondering where this thinking has come from all of a sudden, we have a friend who is a very young mother of a 7-year-old and 10-month-old who was just diagnosed out of the blue with stage IV melanoma cancer and given only 4-9 months to live. I had been looking into some things before, but now I am even more determined than ever to learn about what's best and healthiest for our bodies.