What Does It Mean to Be Healthy?

What Lyme Disease Taught Me About Creating Health

Now there’s a question for our era!

And one I’ve been grappling with for years, since I first got contracted Lyme Disease. Overnight, I went from being focused on my career, relationships, family, and a vague curiosity around whether I was healthy, to focusing 100% of my energies on my physical health.

Over the course of the next 18 months, I would learn in slow-motion through painful trial and error what it meant build a strong foundation of health, brick by brick.

The Foundation of Good Health: What You Eat

The first success I saw in Lyme recovery was reducing my inflammation through eating well. And not the powerful antibiotics, interestingly. After grieving the loss of spaghetti, a food I considered happiness on a plate, I threw myself head first into the Lyme diet, which involved cutting out gluten, dairy and refined sugar.

It felt like I’d changed my identity overnight, having loved these foods for years. But I couldn’t deny the results. Within three weeks my dizziness went away. My energy significantly increased. Not only that, but I wasn’t crashing after lunch the way I used to. Friends told me I seemed more consistently energetic than before I got Lyme.

A lot of the improvement came from eating more low-glycemic, high-fiber foods to compensate for the lack of gluten and rice (I lowered my carb intake to combat my high blood sugar). This meant eating more brussel sprouts, broccoli, leafy greens, leeks, berries (vs. bananas), nuts, and meat with every meal.

I started eating eggs for the first time at breakfast. Out was my oatmeal and café au lait with a teaspoon of added sugar. In was my egg scramble, avocado, kimchi and side of sauteed kale and jalapeno with my cup of black decaf.

Fewer carbs meant no more sugar spikes and crashes.

Add in What You Need, Remove What You Don’t

Most people won’t have to make such draconian dietary changes to see improvements in their health. There’s a lot to be said for eating in moderation, or in following the 80/20 rule.

Reducing processed foods, avoiding GMOs, incorporating nutrient-dense foods like pastured animal meats and hearty vegetables, buying organic and eating seasonally will help ensure you get most of the things you need – macros, nutrients, vitamins, even a little help with detox – and fewer of the things you don’t – pesticide residues, excess sugar and carbohydrates, trans fats, etc.

If you are still low in certain vitamins or nutrients, you can always supplement the difference.

Pro-tip #1: To make clean eating more affordable, refer to the EWG’s Clean Fifteen list of veggies and fruits that typically have lower pesticide levels and are safe to buy conventionally grown.

Pro-tip #2: Buy frozen organic fruits and veggies. They’re more affordable than their fresh counterparts, and have higher nutrient content since they’re frozen when picked and don’t sit on a truck for days, shedding nutrients before they arrive at the store.

How To Become Healthy? Take Control Over Your Habits

Lyme taught me that what you eat matters, even if you don’t change your calorie intake. It also taught me that no one is coming with a magic wand to save me. Despite all the doctors and their combined expertise and education, the onus of choosing the doctor-recommended protocol that would work best for me and implementing the right habit changes to get my health back was always on me.

Thankfully, Lyme also taught me that we all have far more power over our health than we realize. It’s in our best interest to take control over our health and prevent as much illness as we can rather than having to treat it later. By making certain food and lifestyle swaps, you can alter the course of your health and prevent many chronic illnesses including heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.

Nine years into this journey, I’m still in awe of the power of this.

In a similar way to positive psychology, which seeks to define and pursue what it means to be mentally healthy (as opposed to only looking at mental health through the lens of pathology), functional medicine practitioners have sought to define and lay out the determinants of good health. Dr. Mark Hyman has a fantastic podcast that’s a great resource on ways to improve health, as is Dr. Bruce Hoffman on Instagram.

The means for creating health will vary for each person, but most functional practitioners agree it typically involves a combination of getting enough sleep, sunlight, water, time with friends, loved ones and relaxation, limiting processed foods, optimizing your diet based on your own bio-individual needs, limiting exposure to toxins, reducing or abstaining from alcohol and smoking, living out your purpose, deepening your spirituality, spending time in nature, and sometimes taking supplements or medications when needed.

The vast majority of these practices don’t involve a doctor’s prescription, which I find so empowering!

Here is a quick list of health-building habits that have served me well:

Habit #1: Eat as Many Whole, Unprocessed Foods as You Can.

I had what felt like a gun to my head with Lyme Disease, so I overhauled my food choices overnight. I wasn’t much of a cook pre-Lyme, but became one once I realized how much sugar, flour and other inflammatory compounds hide in processed foods, take-out, and prepared foods. Eating this way significantly reduced my inflammation, and my experience of Lyme symptoms by at least a third.

Habit #2: Exercise, and Lift Weights if You Can.

Having more muscle creates an upward spiral that protects bones, improves metabolic health, helps your mitochondria, and stabilizes hormones, including insulin. You also have the advantage of improved posture and looking and feeling great!

Habit #3: Build Social Connections.

We are hard-wired to be social and crave social connection. At the height of my illness, when I spent time with my friends, my anxiety dropped and my energy levels would lift. It’s a big part of the reason why people in close-knit communities tend live longer and have longer health spans.

Habit #4: Mental Fitness and Mindset Training.

I rewired my brain through visualization and wiped out my neurological inflammation as measured by an EEG from highly inflamed red across the board, to nearly zero, just by changing my thoughts. These days I use it to set specific goals, either for the day, week, or longer term, and visualize myself achieving them. It helps motivate me, as do Ryan Holiday’s videos on Stoicism and Maya Raichoora’s inspiring Instagram.

Habit #5: Have a Spiritual Practice – Even If It’s Just Sipping Coffee.

This one is totally underrated. Having the ability to sit with your thoughts – whether through meditation, visualization, prayer, or just sitting quietly -- before the busyness of the day starts is a great way to reconnect with yourself and remember your purpose, helping you show up each day with intent.

So many of the determinants of health are within our control and don’t cost a thing. With food as the foundation, anyone with a microfridge and a hot plate can take back control over their health and significantly reduce their likelihood of developing many chronic diseases.

I’m still in awe over how powerful that is!