Long overdue for a Vitality post ladies and gents so here we are.
I almost titled today’s post “magic pills” but decided to leave that for a later article and focus more on the concept than actual pills like I am here
To set the stage I want to give an example of what happened to me about two weeks ago.
Basically, met this girl at a local bar, we started making out…
The next day I felt kind of *eh*. Normally I’m energetic as all hell, but that day was just bland. It got worse as the day went on.
Never the less I had that same girl come over and hang out. After a few rounds of Wii tennis ass kicking she informed me that she had strep throat, and apologizes for making out with me the day prior.
I pried a little more and apparently she had been antibiotics for almost a month and was still sick.
Great…=)
Next day I feel like shit. Not like SHIT, but just crappy as I had in a long while. The massive amount of flem was the worst part.
Just what I needed, strep throat.
Well rather than moaning and groaning about being sick and sitting around, I kept with my regular schedule.
I ate what I normally ate.
I didn’t run to Wallgreens and down the cough syrup etc…
I didn’t feel like going to work out AT ALL, but I went anyways. I ended up modifying my workout to 15 minutes of walking to warm up, 10 minutes of a hot sauna, and 15 minutes of walking to cool down.
Point was though I kept up with my regular cycle. I stimulated my body (immune/circulatory/lymph systems particularly) to help it flush out whatever the hell was in me.
When I got home, I focused on green veggies and put some aloe on them straight from an aloe plant.
I went out that night, got home late, and passed out. One thing I didn’t do that I normally do, was set my alarm, I was going to let my body decide how much sleep I needed that night.
I ended up sleeping about nine hours, three more than average for me. Woke up, and felt pretty awesome. Still had some flem, but all the other symptoms were gone such as a headache, fever, runny nose, MASSIVE FLEM, sore throat, difficulty in swallowing etc…
I spit out a bunch of goobers, and I was better than new. I was reborn (ok that’s exaggerating but you get the idea).
I was better than ever.
I didn’t take any pills, or syrups, or chemicals (read: medicine).
I took care of my body prior and during, and it rose to the call of a semi-serious infection (FYI strep has been known to lead to death in some cases).
Meanwhile, this chick is downing all the pills the doctor tells her, *getting plenty of rest* and is still sick as a dog weeks later.
I don’t remember where I read this line but it hits home for me
“Medicine is the art of keeping consumers happy while mother nature does all the work”.
Those pills weren’t doing shit for her. Neither was *taking it easy* and *getting good sleep*.
Why?
Her body is equipped to handle itself from things like this. Maybe if she understood how to take better care of herself (and by the way, this is your typical college girl that eats *healthy* and works out a few times a week, and is in seemingly good health on a regular basis), she wouldn’t have been sick this long.
What I’m getting at here is how useless pills and the like are for us.
And yes, this includes vitamin pills, supplements, and medicine.
Sure medicine is there for a reason, but the way we use it is horrendous.
Doctors usually do mean well, but think about what they have to deal with day in and day out.
The NEXT person who comes in, whining and complaining, expecting and demanding to be fixed with pills.
Hey, gotta keep the customer happy right?
That’s the society we live in, trigger happy and instantly gratified, but not in the long term.
As for vitamin pills and supplements, we survived for ages and ages without them.
*Fact*- At the very MOST, you get about 30% of the vitamins in a multi-vitamin pill/power/drink.
That’s like the absolute MOST.
The rest gets pissed out (man that’s some expensive pee huh?)
Supplements are similar, except they have side effects no one ever wants to take a look at.
Creatine for example, has no REAL clinical data for effects with long term usage. And by long term, I mean more than 30 days.
No one has any idea what the long term, or delayed side effects are of creatine, yet tons are sold and ingested every single day.
People just assume since something’s on a store shelf it’s immediately safe to use.
Yeah…
Oh and lets not forget vaccines either guys. FYI, vaccines are basically cooked (not dead, viruses are neither dead or alive), viruses extracted from animal STUFF.
Stuff as in puss, blood, intestinal leftovers, you name it…
Who really wants this injected into their blood stream?
I sure don’t.
All this said, iIf I’m on my death bed and the doctor says take this pill, Ill be first in line.
But for every day life, you don’t need this crap. A simple cold or runny nose is no reason to down chemicals that are totally foreign to your body.
Treating your body right, stimulating your lymph/circulatory systems and nurturing your body and mind will heal you.
A *balanced* (its 2007 and we cant even agree as a race what to eat) diet will fill all of your nutritional needs.
Unless your going to fight fire with fire (competitive body building/weight lifting etc…), you do NOT need any type of supplement. Eat right, expose yourself to the right information, apply yourself, and you’ll achieve outstanding results in the gym.
And surprise, the flu isn’t coming to get you ;).
-Dream
Ps-probably the number one thing you can do for optimal health/fitness, is take ordinary action, consistently. Do not let a cold sway your habits for health and vitality, and don’t let a plateau discourage you from strength training and the like.
