Are you struggling to reach your fitness & wellness goals and are not sure why?
Do you feel you are committed to your fitness program and/or nutrition plan but still seem to not be achieving the results you desire?
Well, it's possible you may need just some "tweaks" or if you're being honest with yourself, you may need an entire fitness/nutrition "overhaul". Either way, your diet, exercise habits and daily routines have a huge impact on your overall Health & wellness.
Definitions of Health
Health is elusive to define and ways of thinking about it have evolved over the years. Three leading approaches include the "medical model", the "holistic model", and the "wellness model".
This evolution has been reflected in changing ways to measure health.
The most common approaches to measuring health are the medical model and the "holistic model.
THE MEDICAL MODEL
The medical model in its most extreme form, views the body as a machine, to be fixed when broken. It emphasizes treating specific physical diseases, does not accommodate mental or social problems well and, being concerned with resolving health problems, de-emphasizes prevention. In this model, health is defined as the absence of disease and the presence of high levels of function. The medical model might define a healthy population as one in which its members were all healthy (so life expectancy is high).
THE HOLISTIC MODEL
The holistic model of health comes from the 1947 World Health Organization definition, "a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".
This model broadened the medical model perspective, and also introduced the idea of positive health (although the WHO did not originally use that term).
Each of these models has something to contribute but of course each can be (and often are) debated at length as to which one is the "best".
MEDICAL MODEL - PROS AND CONS
PRO - Disease represents a crucial issue facing society, and disease states are readily diagnosed and counted.
CON - Disease as the sole focus on health is narrow, and in extreme cases implies that people with disabilities or fatal genetic circumstances are "unhealthy," and that health is only about physical disease and mortality. Further to that point, prevention is not typically the focus in the medical model.
HOLISTIC MODEL - PROS AND CONS
PRO - Focus on mental as well as physical health, and on broader issues of active participation in life for all people, including those differently abled or thought by the medical model to be "unhealthy" by definition.
CON - Because of the huge demographic that can be included, it can be difficult to distinguish between health and the determinants of health. For example, social health may be viewed as a determinant more than a marker of health status; it is subject to influence by very different factors.
If you want to know if or how much your lifestyle needs to be redesigned, check out this quiz from The British Heart Foundation at https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/wellbeing/how-healthy-are-you-quiz. In order to receive the most accurate results, answer as truthfully as possible. Remember that the results are not a substitute for medical advice but the questions are very basic and relate to every day nutrition and fitness decisions that you and I make everyday so it's safe to say the result you receive is pretty accurate.
Interested in a fitness/wellness consultation or have some questions about nutrition and your current fitness program? Join any of my groups online (Facebook) and/or pick up my book, How to be Fit for Life - Eight Proven Steps to Reaching Your Fitness Goals, Getting Results, and Living the Fitness Life for more help with your fitness journey. And please feel free to contact me and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have:).
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