I love this question.

Health is subjective to each one of us. We are all so unique, with our own sets of beliefs, hopes, desires, unique body composition, and ideas for what and where we are going in life.

Health is like the goalpost that keeps on moving. We don’t wake up one day and say: “Sweet I’m HEALED. I’m DONE! My work here is DONE! Now lets go back to life before the start of my healing journey and just go back to all my old habits.”

Nah, healing isn’t like that.

I think the goal shouldn’t be “perfect” health. What even IS perfect health?

I think it depends on YOU!

But there are certain markers that are pretty consistent across the board that tell us if improvement is happening in our body.

How To Tell If Your Health is Improving

Consistent Appetite

When our body is utilizing energy from our food appropriately, we will naturally have more stable blood sugar levels, which will lower our body’s internal stressor responses. Mismanaged blood sugar IS an internal stressor. And its one of the most easily avoidable internal stressors. What to do?  Provide the body with regular meals, at regular intervals throughout the day -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, usually a snack or 2, and maybe even a snack before bed. When you find that you are actually HUNGRY for these meals, you will notice that subtle shift where you are ready for the next meal. This is hugely indicative of the fact that your body is utilizing the nutrition you're feeding it!

Waking Up Hungry

Waking up without an appetite tells us there has been an overnight cortisol spike. Cortisol is one of our stress hormones whose job is to mobilize glucose for our cells in times of famine. When we have inappropriate cortisol surges, the body is under stress, even if it is perceived stress (the body doesn’t know the difference). If we are having cortisol spikes during the night and we wake up in a stressed out state, we simply will not be hungry. Waking up without an appetite is not a flex! It's a sign your stress hormones are running the show.

Stable blood sugars throughout the day

Stable blood sugar feels like riding that gorgeous even keeled wave all day – no big swings up or down, feeling balanced in belly, mind, mood, all the things, and generally just feeling really GOOD. We don't get jittery. We don't get hangry. We don't get headachy and blehhh feeling. It sounds insanely simple, and it is! Its truly incredible how our body maintains stability during the day. When your blood sugars are balanced, it just plain feels good.

Digesting food well

When we are able to eat the foods that serve us, with few digestive complaints (ie: you can eat food without things like bloating, gurgling, belching, bathroom urgency, that stomach ick feeling, gas, skin reactions, general “blah” after a meal), this is a major indicator that you're healing. Our body should be able to break down food adequately, absorb and assimilate it into the mini little particles small enough to cross over from our gut into our blood stream, WITHOUT a bunch of uncomfortable GI symptoms.

Warm Extremities

This is a sign of robust metabolism! When the thyroid is nourished, it hums along beautifully and effortlessly, and a sign that it’s working well is warmth! Metabolism generates heat. Hands, feet, and the tip of your nose are distal extremities, so when they are warm to the touch, this means there’s enough warmth for your vital organs AND your less important body parts like extremities.)

Sleeping deeply throughout the night

Falling asleep easily, staying asleep throughout the night, and waking up refreshed and ready to go for the day are GREAT signs you’re on the right track health-wise. Sleep is when we repair, renew, generate, and detoxify, and it really should be considered a nutrient. When we fall asleep easily, this means our stress hormones are low and that our body feels safe enough to rest (sleep is a higher stress time, evolutionarily speaking, because a sleeping animal’s defenses are down and they are easy prey for lurking predators). Deep, restorative sleep is big sign that things are improving.

Daily bowel movements

Think about this – if your dog didn’t poop one day, you’d be a little worried right? What goes in must come out, and a digestive tract that is working efficiently ensures that waste is removed daily. Its taking out the proverbial trash, and it really does matter for overall health. Daily poops are a sign that waste is moving out and not hanging around creating congestion, sluggishness, and autointoxication of toxins and other gnarly stuff found in poop)

Feeling mostly happy and content most days

When we aren’t running on fumes, meaning we are eating enough calories, eating often enough during the day, maintaining stable blood sugar, when we are rested, when we are in a state of replenishment, when we are hydrated, and when our body has everything it needs to function like the well-oiled crazy amazing machine it is, our minds an spirits ALSO have what they need to feel balanced. The first things I think about when my toddler is losing his mind because I peeled the banana wrong (yes this is a somewhat regular occurrence in our home lol. Anyone else?) is: “Has he eaten lately? Does he need a nap? Is he thirsty? Is he eating healthy foods and not just a bunch of snack foods? Has he had minerals today? Have I connected with him in a meaningful way lately? Has he gotten fresh air recently?” Just like our toddlers, when they have everything they need to be their best selves – lots of good healthy food, ample rest, deep restorative sleep, daily sunshine, hydrating beverages, love and connection – they are HAPPY and they THRIVE. We aren’t any different.

Stable energy throughout the day

A healthy body has natural fluctuations of hormones throughout the day that provide us with stability, energy, and balance. We shouldn’t need stimulants like coffee and tea and energy drinks to get us through that afternoon hump (lots of people have energy issues around 2-4pm). When we are nourished, hydrated, and mineralized, our body has what it needs for maintaining these hormonal fluctuations that provide us with stable energy all day long.

Healthy Skin

Skin is a reflection of what’s going on on the inside. Its crazy how the world out there has made us think we need all these serums and potions and expensive products to give us glowing healthy radiant skin. But really and truly – when we nourish well, keep stress low, maintain stable blood sugar, rest well, mineralize, spend time outside – we literally GLOW. There is no product available out there that will do what a healthy diet and low-stress lifestyle will do for you. Yes, products may enhance your skin and appearance etc. But it comes from within. I’m amazed at how I can do literally nothing to my face these days, and yet it holds moisture, it remains plump, my pores are smaller than when I was in high school, and I don’t break out. This is all coming from a former nightly benzoyl peroxide, Proactiv, Accutane, clinical trial dermatology light treatment girl who’s lips used to crack if I smiled too quickly. Trust me!

Effortlessly maintaining a healthy weight for YOU

Your body will maintain a healthy weight without having to diet, intermittent fast, restrict certain foods, eliminate whole macronutrient groups, or counting calories or weeklies. This largely comes from feeling SAFE in your body and being to simply BE. Most people know by now that diets don’t work, that counting calories is a slog and a half and basically worthless, and that everything comes to a head eventually, and usually in a huge pile of Nutella, flanked by guilt, shame, and self-loathing. The body wants to feel safe. The body wants to know when its next meal is coming. The body wants BALANCE from protein / fats / and YES carbs (ahhh!!! Noooo not carbs!!! Sugar is literally the devillllll nooooo she’s the most uneducated nutritionist EVERRR lol). When we provide the body with balanced, regular meals, it breathes a sigh of relief and rewards YOU with a weight that is healthy and exactly what your body needs.

Strong Libido

One of my favorite comments I get from clients is when their libido returns in full force hehe. Many people don’t realize that absent or low libido is a sign from within that your body doesn’t have ever energy to devote to unnecessary things like … wanting to get it on with your boo. Libido is the body’s outward desire to get pregnant. Yep – even if you don’t want to get pregnant, the body just knows what the body knows – and that, from an evolutionary standpoint, is the reason for libido. When we are hungry for our man, that’s the body saying “wow I have all this extra energy and reserves to give to reproducing! Lets go reproduce!! When we libido comes back, when it is alive and well, that is a great sign that you are healing!

Increased resiliency to stress

There will always be stressors in life. There will always be something difficult that comes up, there will always be hard times, there will always be a lay off, a family member passing, a diagnosis, a car rear-ending, etc, a sudden expense. But when we can respond to life’s inevitable stressors without spiraling, without losing or gaining a bunch of weight, without becoming an anxious / strung out / squirrely / worried / distracted mess, this is huge. When we can come back down from acute stressors without them destroying us, this is HUGE. The ability to deal with stress in a graceful, tactful, stable way is a great barometer for healing and minerals sticking around.

Good recovery from your workouts

Meaningful movement is an important piece of any healthy lifestyle, and when we can work out, feel challenged, AND come back quickly from it, we know we’ve got enough nourishment to satisfy increased energy needs (such as required for a solid workout), AND the rebuilding of our muscles and tissues that are broken down in the process of getting swoll.)

Regular Ovulation

More signs from within that your body is healing!! A healthy woman ovulates regularly. A healthy women’s healthy body WANTS to be home to a new little baby. Ovulation is an incredibly energy intensive event, and if you’ve been starving yourself, restricting, dieting, calorie counting, undereating and living off stress hormones for any period of time, your body will divert those vital resources from less important things like procreation, and over to the things that keep you alive like a thinking mind, a beating heart, and muscles that can carry you away from a serial killer. One of the most common things I see with women struggling to conceive or regularly ovulate is they are undereating and simply not consuming enough calories each day. Regular ovulation is a sign of a healthy, healing body!

Regular periods that come with consistency

A woman will ALWAYS have a period about 14-16 days after she ovulates (unless of course she becomes pregnant). Another sign of a healthy woman is a healthy period. The period tells us sooo much about a woman’s overall health status, and periods that come regularly, predictably, and asymptomatically, are wonderful signs the body has what it needs to be fertile and to thrive.

Minimal to no PMS during the luteal phase of your cycle

We have all been told that PMS is simply a “normal” part of being a woman. This has been perpetuated for 50+ years, and has certainly become rhetoric among women, doctors and everyone else on the planet. But its simply not true. PMS is NOT simply a part of being a woman with a cycle. It’s a cry for health from your hormones that something is amiss. And it’s a great way to dismiss a woman and the big time feelings and symptoms she is having each month. PMS is “common”; but it is not normal. A sign you are healing is you have an easy breezy luteal phase (the 2 weeks following your ovulation) with no symptoms like breast tenderness, moodiness, short-temperedness, anxiety, angst, and spotting.

The 3 H’s: happy, hungry, horny

That last one is a little bit in jest and also I love alliteration! But truly – having a strong appetite, having stable moods and a generally positive outlook on life, and having a healthy libido – these are signals from within that you’re circulating that procreative, new-life energy (whether you want to procreate or not, it being strong tells me you have ENOUGH energy to go around to support this very human desire) – these are all great signs that you’re on the right track and really supporting your body, and in turn, your body is supporting YOU.

This is not a comprehensive list, but it’s a pretty good one! Our body’s outward expressions of health, vitality, beauty, balance, and contentedness are wonderful barometers for gauging where we are on our healing journey.

We KNOW if we are thriving.

We KNOW if our vibrancy and vitality are increasing.

We KNOW if things are humming along nicely.

We don’t always need a look at blood labs or hair or other metrics to give us empirical hard data. We can simply look in the mirror, place our hands over our heart, tune into our intuition, notice how we are feeling, and know whether what we are doing is working.

What else would you add to this list?

Yours In Abundant Health,

Xoxo

Emily 😊