Contrary to what you may often see from health influencers on social media, health isn’t just about detoxing, “eating clean” or even getting all of your vitamins. Even doing all of the “best” exercises could actually not contribute to the healthiest version of you.

Obsessively doing these things may actually leave you feeling worse than someone who isn’t conscientiously implementing them.

Health is about being capable of enjoying life. What I’ve learned, after years of struggle, and being that perfectly healthy unhealthy person, is that health should account for humanity and that life is meant to be lived. Endless modification and optimization can wind up as a priority over enjoyment— and ultimately, health. It is truly holistic.

It involves supporting your mental and emotional health regardless of what that looks like. Health isn’t one size fits all and, in my experience, it’s often not actually what comes to mind when you think of a “health nut”. It can look different for every person, for various individuals, it might involve: spending time with animals, working for yourself, or traveling.

In fact, I don’t think it’s healthy to have a life primarily focused on health, especially not as society by and large defines it. Take me for example, I was so “healthy” and focused on health, that I didn’t travel. I didn’t feel safe going anywhere I wasn’t sure what the dietary availability would look like, because that could possibly mess up my health. Little did I know, my metabolism wasn’t healthy. I couldn’t tolerate foods because I under consumed calories for a long time. I deprived my body of the energy it needed to live first and foremost. It’s healthiest to eat less of course, I thought, so that’s what I did, and stuck to, because who doesn’t want to be “healthy”?

Health should enhance your ability to enjoy life. To me, that’s its ultimate definition and purpose– to make you more capable in general to live life. It’s not an endpoint in and of itself.

Now having the holistic context, these are the basic pillars of health I’ve discovered in helping clients improve their life:

All of these are related and intertwined, far from the compartmentalization we see in modern medicine. This is why it’s vital to maintain as integrated a picture of health as possible.