We All Want the Same Thing - A Healthy You

If you saw my piece a few weeks ago on this topic, you know how important I feel it is to take the reins on your own health care by connecting your team members with each other.

To further that effort, last week I hosted a luncheon in downtown Pleasanton for local preventive health practitioners. I spent hours online looking at Yelp reviews, websites, Facebook pages and Youtube videos to assemble the invitation list of Tri Valley area chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, body workers and a few other categories. The pros who attended demonstrated the characteristics I was hoping would fill the room – and the same qualities I would want in my own health care provider:

· Passion for the health and vitality of their patients

· Graciousness and openness to the perspectives of those on complementary sides of the wellness spectrum

· A commitment to contributing to elevating the quality of their chosen field

This event was so rewarding!

As a trainer, I consult from time to time with medical professionals involving a particular client. But my goal with the luncheon was to both broaden and deepen my familiarity with the resources we have right here within a 15-minute drive specifically for proactive wellness care, as opposed to those health care providers who already have a sick or hurt patient who becomes my client requiring exercise and eating modifications to manage a condition or injury. The room was charged with a common energy and enthusiasm about bettering the lives of those we serve, even for providers in practice for more than 20-years (which I’ll hit in 2018)! And I learned that there are many more specialties and approaches to chiropractic work than I was aware of before the event.

What I hoped to convey to the group, besides my interest in growing my knowledge and resource base, was that fitness training, when programmed to establish and preserve a balance of strength, stamina, healthful eating, core stability and full range-of-motion, is an integral part of the holistic healthcare model. Exercise and nutrition is, in fact, the best medicine.

Bridging the gaps between the various disciplines by learning about how and why these providers do what they do, what keeps their patients and clients coming back, and why they wouldn’t choose any other way to make a living is a longer-term effort I’m committed to pursuing and writing about more in the Patch as the year progresses.

I hope you’ll recognize, as I do, that those local health care pros who are equally committed to a fuller, more actively collaborative environment is good medicine for us all.

Dan Taylor, ACE, NASM-CPT, is owner and head trainer at Pleasanton-based Tri Valley Trainer. They offer personal training and small group fitness solutions and an innovative, medically endorsed web-based group healthy eating coaching program.