Good morning, and happy Sunday. Today I am sharing a conversation I had with a patient once some years ago. She was someone I had never met before, and was, like many before her, completely flummoxed about what to try next. With a personal goal of weight loss, she had already done everything she could think of, and then some. I know you know this story. I myself have told it many times before. There is a good chance you may even have experienced it yourself. Maybe you have experimented with practically every diet, including the dreaded cabbage soup diet, denied yourself your favorite foods, carved out time you didn’t really have to get more exercise than was comfortable at the time. Of course none of this is sustainable. You can’t eat cabbage soup for breakfast forever. So what comes next? 

Next comes balance.

When I began writing this blog in 2009, it did not yet have a name. I knew that I wanted to talk about food and health, but that was as far as I’d gotten. I had posted one or two blogs, but I still did not have a name in mind. Then, on the same day my op-ed on doctoring was published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, my husband and I happened to attend a wedding and have the good fortune to be seated next to an elderly aunt of the bride, a Russian immigrant with a distinct accent and distinctive wit to match. I was in rare form that night, blabbing happily about the bride and groom, the newspaper piece, my new blog. She listened with interest, interrupting my proud gushing between bites of salad with the occasional question until finally she blurted out, “You know, there is a saying in my country: Your health is on your plate.” I stopped talking. She had really heard me. And I stopped talking, too, because the moment she said it, I knew I had just heard the name of my new blog. Your health is on your plate. It was perfect. 

Of course, good health is not just about our food. It’s also about movement, and about rest and relaxation. And most importantly, it’s about the synergy among the three: Go for a great walk and you sleep better; get a lousy night’s sleep and you circle the vending machine (or refrigerator) all day, eat too much and you don’t feel like moving. Everything is connected, which is why small improvements on all fronts can translate into major changes in health. In this country, we tend to put all our eggs in the “diet and exercise” buckets. But there can be no synergy unless you add in being kind to yourself. Rest is not optional. Relaxation is not optional. Self-respect is not up for grabs.

Where am I going with this? Well, I’ve learned something along the way. It turns out that while, sure, your health is on your plate, it’s not only on your plate. Your health is on your pillow. It’s on your yoga mat. It’s on your couch. It’s on massage tables. It’s on a hill at sunrise. It’s on a hike in the mountains. Your health is on a picnic blanket in the park, at a ball game with your friends, in your running shoes, in a soaking bath and under a waterfall. Your health is definitely in your garden. But it’s also everywhere else that brings you joy, comfort, inspiration, and peace. 

You can hear it in your words when you talk about nourishing yourself with gratitude. Nurture your soul with love, kindness, music, nature, and whatever else your heart desires. Your health will respond to it.

Just one more thing. Last month I passed the thousand-post-mark on this blog. Yes, you read that right. One at a time, I have shared over one thousand (1000!) posts with you. The conversation I had with the woman who named my blog happened more than a thousand posts ago. If you had told me then what the future held, I would never have believed you. But here it is. And I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for reading YHIOYP, for your kindness, for your encouraging words, and for continuing to take the time. It means a great deal to me.