The institution with which I am affiliated just sent me a Pebble® with which to track my daily steps, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Attached unobtrusively to an elastic band or strap, it ventures forth with me every day as I plot my path, set my course, walk my steps and take my hike.

Now I happen to be the sort of person, with clothing for every sort of weather, who is not usually bothered much by rain or snow or heat or cold. In fact, I especially love to walk in the falling snow. In the summer I sometimes walk at sunrise or late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. There’s also an elliptical in the basement just in case it’s absolutely pouring, but to me there’s no substitute for fresh air. So my Pebble® and I are planning to get out pretty much every day no matter what.

Yesterday I was thinking about how to manage the Arctic temperatures forecast in the coming days, and so I experimented with marching in place while I look out the large windows in the dining room. My regular pedometer registered steps, so I’m going to assume the Pebble® did, too, although I cannot be certain. For it doesn’t show actual numbers. It tracks my progress with lights, like a circular runway, so I get only a vague notion of how I’m progressing. The further I walk, the more lights I see at the end of the day. Now that might bother some people, but it doesn’t bother me. Cause I’m not in this for the numbers. I’m in it for the game. And the name of the game is feeling good and strong and healthy and well, which happens to be derived from the word for “whole.” In a word, that’s wellness.

What do I say to patients who come for counsel and advice? Wellness consists of three interrelated and equally important pillars. These are relaxation patterns, eating patterns, and activity patterns. Notice I didn’t call the last two diet and exercise. That’s because they’re not. First, we know that diets don’t work. You can find plenty of information on that throughout this blog and elsewhere. For starters, ask anyone who’s heavy and doesn’t want to be. In my mind, the first goal is to shift your foods in the direction of more fruits, vegetables and beans, and less fast food, corn syrup and partially-hydrogenated oil. If you’re not yet doing that, that’s where to start.

There’s no need to take an exercise class, or train for the Olympics, or do calisthenics, whatever those are. We need simply to find more opportunities to move. Like standing on one foot while brushing your teeth, stretching out your lower back after a shower, walking while on the phone, taking the stairs instead of the escalator, parking at the edge of the lot, or using the printer that’s farther down the hall. If you want, you can get a pedometer to find out what your baseline is, or get a Pebble®. But you don’t have to. Just start to move around more.

Relaxation may be the most difficult of the three. Most Americans don’t get enough sleep. How much do you need? Well, if you fell asleep at 10 p.m. without setting an alarm, what time would you wake up? There’s your answer. It’s not just a nighttime problem, however.

We’re all on information overload, taking in more in a single day than most people who lived in the 18th century took in over an entire lifetime. So give yourself permission to rest. Whether you quiet your mind with yoga, meditation, massage, gardening, knitting, singing, walking or basketball, it’s good for your heart, mind, body and soul. It’s good for our children as well, and not just little ones. I foresee that school curricula will one day begin to incorporate meditation or yoga, and that rates of so-called attention deficit disorder will begin to fall when we do. And yes, I believe that taking away recess was a very short-sighted strategy.

Each of these pillars — eating, moving, and relaxing — strongly affects the other two. Think about how much hungrier you get when you’re tired, how much better you sleep after a long walk, how good you feel (and heal) when you are active, and how good your appetite is after a swim to get a sense of how everything is connected. That’s wellness.