Exploring Healthspan

Defining what healthy means to YOU

[updated 6/30/26]

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Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash

Health is so much more than a number on the scale, a test result from your doctor, or any other objective data point.

Only you can define what health means for you, now and into the future.

First, I encourage you to think about different types of health:

• Physical: How you feel and how well you take care of your body

• Functional: Your body’s ability to do what you want it to do

• Cognitive: Ease of thinking, focusing, and remembering

• Emotional: Being able to experience and manage a range of emotions

Evaluating and addressing each of these areas is the first step to better understand where you are in this moment and to take the steps to get where you want to be.

Finding the motivation for making sustained changes is so much more difficult if we don’t understand the “why” behind them.

I call this the “so what” factor.

Below is an exercise for you to evaluate where you stand right now on each area of health. There are no wrong answers — if you find that you aren’t where you want to be, great! This is the first step to taking charge of your health, no matter where you are starting:

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Now, think about what is important to you in the future.

While some health goals may be universal, others are individualized and are may be the most important and the most motivating.

Being able to do crosswords for the rest of my life, for example, is not on my longevity wish list. I don’t enjoy crosswords now, and I don’t have any desire to enjoy crosswords in the future.

But being able to play card games? That is definitely on my cognitive health wish list as it brings me joy, connection, and a dash of nostalgia.

Thanks for being here,

~Allison

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A quick reminder that you will hear me live on air Mondays at 7 pm on Sonoma Valley’s KSVY radio, 91.3, or stream anywhere from ksvy.org. Can’t tune in live? No problem! I post show notes and the recordings every Tuesday at insightintohealth.substack.com.

If you are interested in working with me as a private patient, you can email me at allison.mckeanyrd@gmail.com, and we’ll see if I’m the right fit for you and your health goals.