I was recently talking to a reader of this site, and he was commenting on some of the pictures (body shots) that he'd seen of me on the website. He said to me, "You know, you were born that way! You're just one of those people that's naturally thin, that naturally has defined muscle mass. You're just one of those lucky people, and you don't really have the right to talk about how other people can be healthy. Because it's so much more difficult for them."
And I was truly shocked by that statement. But it also taught me something: that there are many people out there who are thinking the exact same thing. They assume that just because a person is healthy today, they must have been born that way. They think it didn't require effort. For some reason, it's easier for people to believe that than to think it took thousands of hours of discipline and giving up many other comforts that everyday people take for granted in order to achieve results.
It's just easier to believe that someone who has been able to achieve a high state of health didn't have to work for it. That's an easy, convenient belief. And why? Because it takes away the self-responsibility. It means that an observer of this information can simply dismiss everything with a simple statement. "That Adams guy! He was just born that way!"
I really respect my readers, and I know you are open-minded people, and that you take care of your own health far better than the average person. And because we're both health-minded individuals, I want to share with you a bit about my own health history and how I was able to achieve this healthy state over the last several years.
I used to be borderline diabetic. I was suffering from a blood sugar disorder that was clearly hypoglycemia. I would get the shakes and almost pass out a few hours after breakfast. I was also overweight. I weighed 220 lbs, and if you look at the Body Mass Index charts, you'll see that's borderline obese for a person of my height and age.
And I got that way by following the standard American diet. I ate a whole lot of McDonald's food. I remember there was time in my life that I ate McDonald's every single day. And I remember thinking at one point that I was getting healthier because I switched to Taco Bell! Now I was getting burritos with lettuce and cheese, rather than Big Macs. And boy! I thought that was a huge improvement.
So I'm not alien to the misconceptions about nutrition and health that may be common out there. I've been down that same path. I've had chronic disease, and I can tell you today if I hadn't made changes, I would be diabetic right now. I'd probably be on all sorts of prescription drugs. I'd probably look 15-20 years older than I look today. And I would no doubt be suffering from a variety of mental disorders.
In addition to the diabetes and the obesity and hypoglycemia, I also suffered from severe back pain. I'm talking about hard-core, chronic back pain here. The kind of back pain that a person who is in their twenties shouldn't be experiencing. And that's when it started with me. Maybe I was 21 or 22, but it was very early in my 20's that I started experiencing this chronic back pain.
And how bad was it? Well, it was so bad that I couldn't sit for more than a few minutes without experiencing excruciating pain. And yet, I was a writer. I used to work for a software company writing documentation. And the pain got so bad that I just couldn't sit anymore. That was a big impairment to my career. I think a lot of people would have just said, "Okay! I'm going to collect workers compensation. I'm injured, I can't work. I'm gonna live out the rest of my life on OxyContin pain killers and be a victim."
Now I don't mean to say that everybody who is suffering from workers compensation, is going through that thought process. There are certainly many justified injuries that do prevent people from working. But there are just as many people who decided to take on the victim role because it was easier to do that than to make changes in their life.
Well, I decided to make changes. Problem was, I didn't know how. I didn't know what was causing my chronic back pain. Being uneducated about health and nutrition, I thought, "Well, there must be something physically wrong with my back." And so of course, I started visiting chiropractors and eventually even medical doctors and surgeons. And they all said, "There is nothing physically wrong with your back."
And meanwhile, I was in such excruciating pain that I had to start standing up while I worked. So I created a desk where I could stand up and write. And that worked quite well. Other times, when the pain got too great, I would have to lie down and use a mouse and computer keyboard across my torso. And I would have a monitor propped up in front of me, hanging suspended from a large desk.
My next thought about the back pain was that maybe this was a flexibility issue, or maybe there was some muscle weakness. So I started getting into stretching and physical rehabilitation. And you know, that worked for a while, and it did improve things, but it didn't solve the problem.
The only thing that really worked long term was to just completely reform my lifestyle: avoid all unhealthy processed foods, get outstanding nutrition through supplements, engage in all sorts of strength training, flexibility training, and modalities like Pilates and Yoga, which today I just absolutely swear by in terms of their effectiveness at enhancing core strength and eliminating chronic back pain.
So I did these things and I educated myself about the true causes of health. And as you well know if you read any of the info about me on the site, I spent more than 4000 hours learning about nutrition and how we can use whole foods to heal ourselves. And in all this, I became a huge believer in the wisdom of the body and the wisdom of nature, and our innate ability to achieve health if we just provide the proper nutrition to our bodies while avoiding dietary and environmental toxins.
So today, it's rather rewarding to announce that I am now 100% free of back pain. I don't ever experience chronic back pain these days. I can sit for hours if I wish. And yet, every day, I invest in my own health. I spend several hours a day stretching, strength training, engaged in physical activity, and continuing to learn and research foods, the healing effects of medicinal herbs, and how we can become healthier human beings by relying on the wisdom of nature.
Weight loss was a major challenge
Weight loss didn't come easy for me at all. In fact, most of the men in my family have been overweight. I came from a family of people who overate and the men were always heavy. They had large bellies and a high percentage of body fat.
So, if anything, I'm probably programmed to store quite a bit of body fat. It's not at all easy for me to become a thin person. In fact, it was quite a challenge and I struggled with it for years. Ultimately, that's what motivated me to learn more about foods and to continue refining my diet. Because frankly, if I had eliminated my back pain and lost all my excess body fat and been a thin person by taking some magic pill ten years ago, I would have just taken that magic pill and forgot about everything else! I wouldn't be writing articles about health and nutrition today. I wasn't looking to be a health writer and inspire others to achieve new milestones in human health. I was just looking to eliminate my pain and lose some weight.
But it was my body that became my teacher, because it forced me to continue learning and to explore knowledge areas with an open mind and to look beyond conventional medicine. I learned to really question the theories of nutrition held by physicians. I learned to ask questions about the true nature of the human body and how it is carrying a blueprint for perfect health (if we would only listen to it).
Today, I greatly respect every human body and specifically my own body for being such a teacher, and for showing me the pathway to gaining new wisdom on peak human health.
With all that in mind, you can imagine how surprised I was to hear somebody saying, "Mike, you were born this way. You are naturally thin." As you can see, that's absolutely not the case. In fact, I struggled with health transformation, and it is that struggle that I believe holds the most value in this entire experience. It's the ongoing challenge to keep learning new information and enhancing my own health while finding new ways to share that knowledge with others.
Because as much as I feel that I understand the core causes of health and disease in humans, I feel like I've only scratched the surface. Nature has so many more mysteries to explore. We've only explored 1% of the medicinal herbs in the rain forests. Our best scientists still haven't even been able to measure or quantify or even recognize the vibrational nutritional qualities of homeopathic remedies.
We are infants, really. We are children in understanding the true causes of health and the complexities of what it takes to be a healthy person that lives in balance with our environment. We're nowhere near understanding what we need to understand in order to even call ourselves an advanced society.
And for myself, I feel like I've just barely begun this health journey. And yet, others keep telling me this is breakthrough information. This is amazing stuff! They say, "You are going way beyond traditional science and making a whole lot of physicians and medical researchers look pretty darned ignorant." And maybe that's true. But I don't claim to be the source of all that wisdom. In fact, it was my own body that taught me most of this and it's simply the observation of nature that brings this information to light. I'm no health genius. I'm just a guy who was willing to listen to nature.
All we really have to do to be good scientists or to be healthy human beings is calm our minds long enough that we can listen. And if we listen to what nature is telling us, and if we listen to what our own body is trying to communicate, then the answers become rather apparent. The answers to every disease are right in front of us.
Health is not some complex mystery. It is in fact the natural state of existence. The body wants to be healthy. All you have to do is give it the nutrition it needs and stop poisoning it, and it will achieve that health on its own.
And for me, I want you to know that when you look at my pics on the site, those pictures represent thousands of hours of struggle, effort, and self-taught wisdom about what it takes to transform your body from a state of chronic disease to one of outstanding human health. And I'm thankful for every hour of that journey, for it is the journey itself that is the most rewarding, not the end result.
The journey continues
Today, I'm dedicated to sharing the good news about health with others. And I invite you to join me on this journey through a variety of downloadable reports and ebooks I've made available (some are free, some have an associated cost).
To begin your own health transformation and take charge of your health outcome, read Take Back Your Health Power! It's a powerful book, and it helps you dispel false beliefs about health that have been taught to you by old school medical doctors.
To give yourself a strong foundation in nutrition that will protect you from chronic disease while greatly enhancing your health, read The 7 Laws of Nutrition. After reading this book, you'll instantly understand how to choose foods that create health while avoiding foods that promote disease.
To learn about new technology that can predict your health future with a simple three-minute scan, check out The Pharmanex BioPhotonic Scanner Revolution. (No, I don't have any financial relationship with the Pharmanex company.)
Most of all, just keep reading and learning. Subscribe to the NaturalNews Insider on this site, and you'll get free articles every week, authored by yours truly, on achieving and maintaining peak human health.
Enjoy the journey!
- Mike Adams
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, and he has authored and published several downloadable personal preparedness courses including a downloadable course focused on safety and self defense. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body.
Have comments on this article? Post them here:
people have commented on this article.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Email this article to a friend
