For some, this may be music to your ears.  For others, you may be shocked to hear these words come out of the mouth of a wellness guru.  My motivation stems from the frequent comments I hear from people, “Tom/Mary worked out all the time, I can’t believe he/she had a heart attack (or cancer, or other disease.).The names and diseases will change, but the story is the same…working out in the gym or being a runner does NOT make you healthy or prevent you from getting sick or a getting a disease.  In fact, quite the opposite is true.Americans put the cart before the horse when it comes to health.  We want to lose weight or “get healthy” so the FIRST thing we do is start some extreme exercise program like running, jogging or weight-lifting.  You may be thinking, what’s the problem with this?  The problem is, your nutrition needs to be in order BEFORE you start a rigorous workout program.  Rigorous exercise like lifting weights and running/jogging creates free radicals in the body.  For folks that are eating whole, clean foods like loads of fresh raw fruits, veggies, dark leafy greens, whole grains, nuts and seeds, this isn’t a problem.  However, very few of us eat like this.Picture your body as a scale where it is loaded with free radicals (top heavy) and the antioxidants are scarce.  Winning the game of health is about having more antioxidants (from whole, clean food) than free radicals in the body.  This is how we build the immune system.

However, exercise isn’t the only way you are incurring free radicals.  They also come from toxins in your foods like large quantities of chicken, beef and dairy laden with antibiotics and hormones.  Toxins also come with large doses of synthetic supplements.

So better than joining a gym, lifting weights and starting to run a marathon, your first step should be learning what whole, clean foods are and start building up your immune system by feeding your body what it needs to heal and grow strong muscles naturally.

The second step is to start that exercise program (with an experienced personal trainer or running coach).

So, stop exercising and start eating (whole, clean food)!