As a competitive, older athlete, I've had my fair share of health and performance ups and downs over the years. And as a women's health coach, I learned early in my career that my struggles weren't all that unusual. A few years ago, I decided to research illness and injury rates among men and women. I wrote Get Back in the Game to share what I found: that women and men differ in ways that are rarely discussed.

That women have really been fighting an uphill battle in the realm of medical science for so long. For much of history, women's pain has been seen and accepted as a normal part of womanhood. The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, who is universally recognized as the father of medicine, popularized the idea of the wandering womb--a belief that many of the medical afflictions suffered by women were the fault of her uterus dislodging itself from her pelvic region and moving freely through her body. The Greek word for uterus, hyster, became the basis for the psychological diagnosis of hysteria. Until sometime in the early 20th century, medical practitioners were regularly misdiagnosing conditions that are now commonly recognized as endometriosis, epilepsy, anorexia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

First, avoid extremes.Who we are is literally a function of what we eat. So it's important to remember that our diets can't exist as an entity set apart from the rest of our lives. Ideally, our food and lifestyle choices should be not only harmonious, but health enhancing. Focus on the 'big picture' and strive to eliminate the inconsistencies that might be interfering with your personal health and performance goals.

As a competitive, older athlete, I've had my fair share of health and performance ups and downs over the years. And as a women's health coach, I learned early in my career that my struggles weren't all that unusual. A few years ago, I decided to research illness and injury rates among men and women. I wrote Get Back in the Game to share what I found: that women and men differ in ways that are rarely discussed.

That women have really been fighting an uphill battle in the realm of medical science for so long. For much of history, women's pain has been seen and accepted as a normal part of womanhood. The ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, who is universally recognized as the father of medicine, popularized the idea of the wandering womb--a belief that many of the medical afflictions suffered by women were the fault of her uterus dislodging itself from her pelvic region and moving freely through her body. The Greek word for uterus, hyster, became the basis for the psychological diagnosis of hysteria. Until sometime in the early 20th century, medical practitioners were regularly misdiagnosing conditions that are now commonly recognized as endometriosis, epilepsy, anorexia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

First, avoid extremes.Who we are is literally a function of what we eat. So it's important to remember that our diets can't exist as an entity set apart from the rest of our lives. Ideally, our food and lifestyle choices should be not only harmonious, but health enhancing. Focus on the 'big picture' and strive to eliminate the inconsistencies that might be interfering with your personal health and performance goals.