Are You Having Fun Yet?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath Are you having fun yet?

Image from Northern Sound

If you are like most of my new clients that answer would be no. Even when individuals share that they have a good focus on health and wellness, they are often forgetting to think of health and happiness. Far too often I see those focusing on health and wellness creating life styles that are far too rigid. I am sure you have seen these people. They don’t ever eat or drink anything considered bad for them. They spend more time at the gym than they do their family and friends. They spend much of their time going from one wellness consultation to another. And another huge point to make is their happiness is thought to be derived from something that can be measured rather than felt.  Good luck with that… It’s funny that I have had people email, phone or simply mention to me in person that they cannot believe I make comments on my articles or social media about margaritas, putting up before and after photos with an inflamed belly before a program and a lean midsection after. Here’s the deal. I am just like you. A human being, a person and someone that likes to have fun. I don’t do everything perfect and I do not teach my clients to do this either. In fact, every person that I know that is doing everything “perfect” is so rigid and dysfunctional that they are anything but happy, thus anything but healthy. Sure, I do not eat any of my cross reactive foods, and I’ve got a lot of them. I do go to a gym

Our Familly

a couple of times per week and I do seek assistance from other health professionals to maintain my health. Beyond this though, I focus on what is fun for me. I play tennis and golf once per week, ride my Harley, hang out with Dawn (my wife) and Ruben (our boxer), play cards with the guys, play board games with our friends, hang at the pool, hit the hot tub and so much more. Heck, I even make the best margarita ever with all fresh ingredients. I am over the top intolerant to corn so I cannot use any of those mixes. And even though I have multiple intolerances such as gluten, corn, rice, almost every grain, dairy, yeast, coffee and more but my wife has still figured out how to make an occasional chocolate cake and cheese cake that I can actually eat and I love them! So to make it simple, I have fun! When a client of mine is falling into regular mental/emotional or other health challenges, I often ask them what they do for fun. Do you know that about 90% of the time, they don’t have an answer and you know why of course, they don’t have any fun. So let’s make a pact here today. Let’s make 2014 the year that you not only focus on health but health and happiness. And think about it, what good is health if you’re not happy?!?!? Here’s an easy start. Make a list of at least 10 things that you like to do that are fun for you. Here’s my sample list.

1. Golfing
2. Tennis
3. Snuggling with my wife watching a movie
4. Playing with Ruben
5. Board games with friends
6. Having my killer margarita with friends
7. Riding my Harley
8. Hanging at the pool
9. Most anything with my wife
10. Most anything with friends

So guess what was the hardest part of this list for me? If you guessed stopping at ten, you are right. I could have kept going and going… So do I have fun because I am special? Are you kidding me, I am just like you, no better and no worse. I simply focus on having fun and you can too. So make your list and don’t stop at 10. When you are feeling a little down and out, instead of feeling sorry for yourself and doing the whole “woe-is-me” thing, take out your list and do something fun. How important is the list? Look at how much fun you are having right now in your life and this will tell you how bad you need a list. Remember, out of sight, out of mind. Make this list, have some fun and recognize that health without happiness is not health at all. Yay!!!