Simple September: Getting back to basics.

I love being healthy, and I love being the bearer of healthy goodness. But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. In this case, I am feeling some negative information overload!

Do this workout! 

Eat this superfood!

No, eat THIS superfood! It's way better!

Combat poor body image! Love yourself as you are!

But you could have flatter abs - get your butt moving, slacker!

Sometimes it feels like a competition to see who can be healthier:

"I make everything from scratch, no artificial ingredients in my kitchen!"

"I grow my own food! My family dines each night on my culinary masterpieces and my breakfast smoothie cures cancer."

"I did 100 burpees before dawn and then ran 10 miles in the snow!"

And then we have to fight corporate America, too: petitioning against GMOs, calling out companies with misleading labels, investigating the moral high ground of the local farms that raise the livestock that we eat, and lobbying for government policies to keep junk food and soda out of schools.

To be honest, even as a healthy do-gooder, it can get kind of annoying. When it starts to feel like the bossiness of Facebook and Pinterest and Twitter, all shouting commands at us to be this or feel that start to get on my nerves, I scale it back.

Get back to basics.

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Image by winnond.

Remember that sometimes the healthiest thing you can do is to tune out.

Living a healthy life doesn't have to be - and shouldn't be - a contest. It doesn't have to be anything other than getting some exercise and eating simple foods. It doesn't have to be a cute, trendy workout you found on Pinterest or a meal comprised of super foods you learned about on Facebook. A healthy life is just one in which you are well-rested, happy, physically active, and fueled with nutritious food.

It's been getting pretty loud in my world lately, so I've turned down the volume. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of food labeling, the absence of an interest by our government in a healthy population, junk food in schools, and the dangers of childhood obesity, I am going to spend the next month seeking the positive in simple health. I hope you'll join me as we rediscover how enjoyable wellness can be when we turn down the volume and just live healthy lives.

Welcome to September! A new season. Get out there and get healthy today, all by yourself.