March is National Nutrition Month. What’s the big deal? Why would there be a month dedicated to this? Nutrition equals health. We all want to be healthy, and we all want quality of life. Truckers obviously don’t have the most active job because we just sit down all day, going from place to place.
In my early years, I never knew that there was a way to eat right. I thought any “food” was, well, food. Then, as a young adult, I learned about “healthy” food and back then it was all about “fat free.” I thought that I was eating right. I made homemade meals and didn’t eat out every day. I made sure that I ate a good breakfast at home before work. So, in my early twenties, why did I have four different health problems and carry extra weight? I was young and supposed to be in the prime of life. Health, education and life has happened to me since then, and it has been a very eye-opening journey that has taught me what nutrition is all about.
Your body is designed to run on fuel just as your vehicle is. Think about your truck and the way it was designed. You know that it takes one certain kind of fuel to make it run efficiently or to run at all. If you don’t give it that certain fuel, it is not going anywhere and it might even become damaged. We work the same way, just a lot more complicated. Your body needs certain natural nutrients to run on. The more of these nutrients you have, the better your body will run. When you don’t receive these essential nutrients, your body can’t function as it was designed to.
Unless you are in a health crisis, your nutrition should be coming from your food. There are some cases in which supplements are necessary, and I am grateful for them. These nutrients that are essential to our health and well being appear in all natural foods. Every natural food has some kind of benefit and some much more than others. Here is a tip: Do an Internet search and check out the ANDI scores (aggregate nutrient density index) of the food you buy in the produce section of the store. This might give you insight into which foods have more nutrients than others. For example, kale is at the top of the chart at 1000 and carrots are 458. Processed foods, on the other hand, have been stripped of nutrients and are usually full of synthetic and harmful additives.
I encourage you to educate yourself and really know what you are eating. Eat for health. Quality of life is worth it. You are worth it! Blessings on your journey to health.
Article by contributing author, Carolyn Obyrne.
Carolyn O’Byrne, CHT, author of Gut Instinct, is a colon hydro-therapist, life coach and wife of a truck driver. In the heart of the trucking industry, she directs her passion and knowledge towards drivers and their families by life coaching. https://www.lifecoachservice.net/home.html