First Steps: are you ready for your journey?

• October 25, 2014

How do you start a journey? With one step. It’s that simple. So how do you start your journey to BodyWHealth? With one step. It’s still that simple.

You see, when we talk about a healthy body, we basically mean a body that is doing exactly what we want it to, when we want it to, and we’d like to see some evidence that its going to be doing this for some time. Right? And so, we should ask “what exactly was our body designed to do”? And to answer this, we need to understand a little about our origins, and a little about the time scale we as human beings are living on.

First, what were we designed for? That’s simple too. As a biologist, I can tell you that we were designed to build, nurture and propagate our species. In simple terms, we had to have children and ensure they survived to have their own children. In order to do this we had to compete for a mate, be attractive to a mate, mate with our mate, then feed our children, fight off bad guys who wanted to eat our lunch (or eat us for lunch! ☹), and live long enough to protect our children towards their own fertility. Sorry if that doesn’t sound very elegant, but it’s true. And in order to do all of this, we needed to be fit and strong and we were constantly exercising. So, that’s what we were designed for, and for our body to be happy that’s what we must do! In subsequent blogs I will show you the science behind this. For now, it’s enough to know that exercise triggers a cascade of chemical changes in our body that drive health and happiness.

Next we must appreciate what has happened since we were designed. In an evolutionary nanosecond, our lives have changed (for the vast majority of us) from being physical hunter-gatherers out on the plains or mountains or beaches (or wherever your early ancestors made their home) to a largely sedentary population that ensures the same goals (perpetuation of our genes) using our brains more than our brawn. But here is the big dilemma. Our body design has not kept pace with the extraordinary pace of our social and behavioral evolution. No body possibly could. So, we’re still living in bodies that require exercise in order to be healthy. Without exercise, we simply don’t trigger the cascade of those chemicals that make us healthy and happy. In fact, we allow a whole team of bad chemicals to prevail. Look around and you’ll see the consequences.

So, step out! Start your exercise today. Your aim will be 10,000 steps at least 5 times per week, but for now, any walking is good. Visit this site again, and we’ll teach you more about how to start, build and maintain your steps towards BodyWHealth. We’ll also review gadgets and apps in our WHealthTech product reviews that will help you on your journey.

Have fun!

Roddy