A Healthy Lifestyle Isn't Enough

5 reasons why health is more than just living a "healthy lifestyle".

Let me introduce you to Mike.

Mike wakes up every morning at 5:30 AM to go to the gym. He hits a 6 AM workout class, cooks a protein-dense meal of real foods, and hits a quick meditation before work.

Lunch rolls around. Mike cooks himself another meal with real food and follows lunch with a quick one-mile walk.

He finishes work. Mike meets up with some friends to go rock climbing and have a few beers with friends.

Let me ask you. How would you describe Mike’s lifestyle?

I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I’m assuming something along the lines of “healthy”. And I would agree.

Mike does live a healthy lifestyle; working out in the morning, eating real foods, and spending time with friends. In fact, some may say that he makes being healthy look easy!

But let’s pull back the curtain a bit…

Mike rarely gets enough sleep. He tries to prioritize his sleep but thinks it’s more important to hit the gym in the morning so he continually runs on five to six hours of sleep.

Mike is beyond stressed at work. He tries to calm his nerves by eating home-cooked meals and going for midday walks, but his job is demanding.

Mike’s socialization is often focused on alcohol. He understands how alcohol negatively affects his sleep, but that’s what his friends like to do.

So maybe Mike doesn’t live that perfect, healthy, lifestyle you thought he did. But it’s not his fault.

In this piece, I’ll explain five reasons why health is more than just living a healthy lifestyle, and how society makes it challenging for us to actually live healthy lives.

1 - Health is not a lifestyle.

Health has historically been treated as a “lifestyle” thing. For example, if you make healthy choices, you are considered to be living a “healthy” lifestyle. There’s a problem with that.

Let’s get something straight. Health is boiled down to three priorities: sleep, exercise, and nutrition. So if you want to be healthy, you must prioritize these things.

However, society has branded people who prioritize their health as those who live healthy lifestyles. Therefore, there are people who DO live healthy lifestyles and those who DO NOT. But living a healthy lifestyle shouldn’t be about lifestyle at all.

Prioritizing sleep, exercise, and nutrition shouldn’t be a lifestyle thing. It should be a healthcare thing. Lifestyle should be removed from the equation.

2 - Health isn’t just for leisure time.

If health is prioritizing sleep, exercise, and nutrition, then why is it only advertised as something you do in your free time?

The number one reason why people don’t exercise is that they don’t have time. However, they have time to go to the doctor when they get sick!

Health isn’t something to squeeze into your eight hours of leisurely time. Health is something to be prioritized 24/7. Yet most people think of it as something they have to use their free time on as opposed to something to prioritize around the clock.

3 - Society does not prioritize sleep.

Didn’t get your work done? Stay up late to finish it.

We live in a culture that does not prioritize sleep. When life gets chaotic, sleep is the first thing to go out the window. Don’t get me wrong, there are times in life when you’re going to have to stay up later or get up earlier and your sleep will suffer.

But here’s the thing. That should not be the norm.

Insufficient sleep has been linked to the development of numerous chronic diseases and conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and depression.

The data is there. Our culture is not.

4 - Work environments aren’t designed with health in mind.

I think we are getting better at this, but it’s not nearly where it needs to be. Work is work. Right?

However, one-third of our day is spent working. And over 80% of all US jobs are predominantly sedentary. That’s an 83% increase since 1950.

I’m not saying sedentary jobs are the sole contributor to the increase in obesity, but it certainly is a contributor.

Take a look.

We’re only getting fatter, folks. And our sedentary jobs and workplaces that don’t prioritize exercise, sleep, and nutrition are one of the reasons why.

5 - Systems focus on reactive over preventative healthcare.

Tell your boss you’ll be out of the office for 3 hours for a doctor’s appointment, and they won’t bat an eye.

Tell your boss you’re going to be out of the office for 45 minutes to make lunch for yourself, and if you’re at the wrong company, you’ll probably get some resistance.

Everyone knows sleep, exercise, and nutrition are important. They are the main contributors to health. However, the workplace doesn’t treat them as such.

Prioritizing health is hard. We need to make it easier. There are a lot of things that need to happen in order to get there.

Health is prioritizing sleep, exercise, and nutrition. Health is not simply living a healthy lifestyle.

There need to be fundamental changes in the way we live, the environments we inhabit, and the cultures we exist in. Then and only then will health advance in the way society needs it to.