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It can be difficult to understand every nuance of the PHTI. Looking at the prime components of health makes it easier.
Learn how this simple way of categorizing mini-habits can help you feel better today.
Simply put, what matters right now to your health is what you are doing right now to protect and cultivate your health. This is the mindset required for proactive health. It is also the most cost- and time-efficient by far because it prevents the need for missed work, medications, and hospitalizations – not to mention a wide spectrum of illness, injury, suffering, and generally feeling ill at ease.
Health metrics like those you receive in a doctor’s office lag behind the prime components of health that matter in the PHTI. Some health metrics, like body weight, lag behind the prime components by months to years; while the subjective sense of wellness and high energy, like the ability to concentrate, sometimes lag behind only hours. For example, the food you eat (your dietary pattern) is a prime component directly correlated to the health metric of body weight. If you have poor eating habits, you may not see weight gain associated with your poor eating for months to years. Meanwhile, if you eat a large, high-fat meal for lunch, you might feel sluggish and unable to concentrate immediately afterwards. This bad feeling and low energy state is a lagging indicator of your poor diet, albeit one that you might not recognize and are unlikely to track.
For the purposes of the PHTI and the reports generated here, the prime components of health are mini habits that you can accurately recall over the last two weeks related to the following eight categories:
Your body is on your side. It does much of its natural healing while you are asleep at night. Blood pressure, blood sugar, and body weight are just three health metrics impacted by poor quality sleep. Obtaining restorative sleep is so important, the PHTI considers sleep habits first when assessing your capacity for healing.
We live in a noisy, busy world that undervalues down time and playfulness. Within the PHTI, rest is defined as the absence of productivity. Recovery is defined as the time needed to consolidate the benefits of sleep combined with rest. The PHTI pinpoints missing factors in your life that disable proper rest and recovery.
Feeling energized is not just about diet. It’s also about how we choose to fuel ourselves by being around people we enjoy. The PHTI considers food high quality nutrition in appropriate quantity and frequency to support physical and mental effort. Fuel is the emotional, spiritual, and creative energy that promotes the experience of connection.
Science shows that people who feel well-loved and cared for live longer than those who don’t. The PHTI assesses for whether you have intentionally cultivated a circle of trustworthy people and tests for whether you rely on them when you should. This is one of the most important aspects for emotional well-being and reinforcement of healthy behaviors.
Walking, running, cycling and swimming are all forms of aerobic exercise proven to prevent heart attacks, stroke, and excess weight gain. The PHTI performs a 360 review of this aspect of your life including your mindset toward exercise, post-workout recovery habits, and of course whether you are obtaining adequate amounts of exercise.
Chances are you sit down for the vast majority of your day. Driving, using a computer, and watching television are examples of how we can be unaware of how we spend large chunks of time sitting down. Being still for long stretches of uninterrupted time is especially bad for health. The PHTI looks for certain aspects of your life that may lead to unhealthy habits in this area.
Strength training is the gift we give to our future selves. Strength training is part of aging well, maintaining good bone health and injury prevention. Many kinds of activities qualify as strength training within the PHTI. When you answer these questions, consider your involvement in yoga, martial arts, pilates, bodyweight exercises, lifting dumbbells, or using resistance bands among other activities.
Understanding how habits interrelate often translates into a proactive approach to protecting and cultivating well-being. For the purposes of the PHTI, having health goals and working toward them is one reflection of resiliency.