About Me (James) and the Healthy Ronin Mission

Where to start? It was confusing. Perhaps it was a blessing. I would have said a curse in the past. They were in pain, and so was I. Many still are…

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Hello everyone, and welcome! To this, the Healthy Ronin website. I’m so glad you’re here with me today. Allow me to introduce myself…

My name is James, and I am the Founder of Healthy Ronin. Helping you is my mission in life. Don’t we all want to unlock the secrets of finding individual health? Don’t you?

For me, this journey started in my secondary school years (or high school for my non-UK folks – hello!). The catalyst? Well, it was that “half blessing, half curse” I mentioned above. More about that in a bit…

You’re likely here because you’ve read an article or seen a post about healthy eating, ethnic cuisines, traditional living, or the likes. Which means you’re likely seeking a solution to the problem we face in modern life: Unhealthy choices, a lack of connection and education regarding natural and traditional living, and the chronic and acute health problems that result. For some, that means “general weight gain”. For others, obesity, diabetes, inflammation, IBS / IBD, anxiety, depression, brain fog, lack of energy… It goes on.

Heck, it’s why I’m here! A lot of studying, hard work, and continuous learning – including downfalls (over and over), have helped me overcome these problems and manifest a healthier, happier, and more sustainable lifestyle.

So I put in the time to learn what I wasn’t taught growing up. And acted on it.

It all starts with reversing the damage of the modern diet and lifestyle, discovering your true self (unapologetically), and re-connecting to a natural, ancestral, and fulfilling way of life. I have a passion for nature and health, and realise just how much they overlap! I try to always maintain a healthy lifestyle, and I am here to fulfil my duty and heartfully-driven mission to help you do the same…

• To be healthy.
• To find what makes YOU feel good, for good.
• To be happy and free from the bombardments and addictions of foods and environments that weigh you down and prevent you from becoming the best, healthiest you possible.
• To be educated, inspired, and awestruck by the ways of eating, moving, thinking, and socialising that traditional cultures around the world have (and still do) thrive on.

I’ve been passionate about health and nutrition for years and over time I have learnt a fair amount through personal research and my own experience about the paramount role that diet has to play in one’s well-being.

Currently, I’m a qualified Level 3 Personal Trainer in the UK, and am constantly self-educating whilst I seek my next steps to become a Functional Health Practitioner (basically a medical doctor that really treats the whole individual, holistically, and with specialised knowledge from both modern and traditional practices and studies).

Now whilst we don’t always stop in the supermarket to wonder “what if?” when we see those organic apples, or that pastured organic turkey, sometimes it really is the small decisions that make a big difference.

And the more we take care of our body and mind, the more they will take care of us.

That’s the message that I want to spread.

“The more we take care of our body and mind, the more they will take care of us.” ~@healthyroninblog Click to Tweet

So stick around as we explore the ways we can learn to take care of ourselves and steer our own destiny, and why we should…

My Adventure.

Honestly, I wasn’t always the healthiest kid in town growing up (so to speak). But by no means was I the unhealthiest, and in a way that’s one of my greatest tools.

You see, just like many other kids, I was no stranger to some of the worst products in the food industry today. And nor was I to binging my evenings away indoors hypnotised by the highly addictive technological terror we all know as video games. Okay, they’re not all bad on occasion…

However, being lucky enough to inherit some of my Father’s good genes (thanks Dad!), I do have some athleticism to guide me a little. You know, a little spring. No brawn though, which I’ll cover in another post (basically, I got diagnosed with secondary hypogonadism with severely low levels of specific hormones – it’s all sciencey stuff and unfortunately due to unknown causes, despite having – by the time of diagnosis – already “optimised” my lifestyle and health as much as I reasonably could have). Anyway, although I knew like most that such a lifestyle wasn’t good for me, I never truly realised how much so until I had learnt it the “not-so-easy way”…

We’ve all had our moments in life when we realise that it’s time for change. For me, one of the biggest of those moments occurred towards the end of 2017, when I started to see my own health decline – and that of some of the closest people around me. And although some newfound inconveniences were indeed hard to deal with at first, it was through them and my efforts to overcome the damage of my own mistakes that I found one of my greatest strengths: a determination and passion to become the healthiest and the best that I can be…

In case you’re wondering, my problems arose over time, manifesting as susceptibility to long-term injuries (like tendinopathy) and depression.

I got to work when I had no choice. My career choices had to be completely shifted from a young age (I couldn’t type or sit at a desk for long without my hands and wrists becoming painful, weak, and having to stop). And so I lost my vision, my hope, and my way. I argued with people who didn’t understand. I fought my battles, because I had to.

It started online, researching for many hours, reading academic studies, listening to experts (and admittedly false “gurus”), and buying multiple books that in turn would give me the knowledge and the skills that would turn my life around, and transform the way that I saw the world, the food industry, exercising, mental health, and myself.

And what about the intro to this little introduction? Who were in pain? Who still are? Well, pretty much most people I’ve known or see in daily life. Yep. My closest family members have suffered chronically. My friends have too. I failed time and time again to help them – I didn’t know how to show people. So I kept trying, have helped some, and continue to make it my life goal, as you’ll see if you read on.

The blessing was my encounters and realisations at a young age, and perhaps a God-given passion for nature and traditional living. The curse was being born into the age of chronic disease, in a society plagued by lack of appropriate education and encouragement to support healthy human living. The result is now my purpose – my dedication to provide the fix to the health problems of other people – of you, perhaps, – that I’ve learned about.

Realising The Truth.

So, it wasn’t long before I started to see just how hard things in the health and food industries really can be. And from there how hard modern life is in general! We have sooooooo much more healthcare, food choice, and “personal freedom” than EVER before. So much less acute disease. And yet an incredible amount more of chronic metabolic and mental illnesses, including the sky-high rate of depression.

Why? Do you think it makes sense? At face value, it certainly does not. But do some digging, and it does.

We’re more disconnected as people, dependant on ultra-processed gene-damaging and health-negating foods, and subjected to jobs and environments that demand very little movement or exercise or even purposeful mental exertion.

Ask yourself: Do you work in the office? Do you get sunlight? Do you walk on a daily basis except in and out the door or to grab lunch? And what is your lunch? If you read the ingredients, can you even identify the long list?

Do you like the answers? Who do you want to be? How can take small, sustainable changes NOW to pay off for the rest of your life? Stick around here, and you’ll start to learn a little and have some fun with me along the way. 😉

There is a lot of misinformation out there – some of it thought to be “common knowledge”, and a lot of it either adding friction in your life from taking control of your health, or overwhelming you when you try!

Whilst the relationships between diet, lifestyle, and health isn’t always an immediate or noticeable one in daily life, on both a molecular (genetic) and far greater (medical and wellbeing) level, the daily “habits” and behaviours we have stack up. Like a double “Big Mac”, but multiplied by the amount of days you do them for!

This isn’t meant to scare you – far from it – instead, I hope to enlighten you. I haven’t all the answers, nor ever will I. But I have more knowledge and passion for this than most people care to peruse upon, and certainly more than the general population fed falsified (or utter lacking) information about health, medications, and natural living.

Modern health care is there to help. It is unfathomably brilliant what we can treat and overcome nowadays due to advancements in science, technology, and society. But we’ve clearly lost a few very, very important things along the way.

I want to help you see this, and start to make positive, noticeable, and permanent changes in your own life. Because I have seen the effects of a positive diet on negative health first-hand. I have changed my life, my mind set, my physical health, my knowledge and skills in the kitchen, and even my spiritual health.

I have created a sustainable, more natural, and evolving way of life. It all started with diet, and expanded into the entire approach I took to lifestyle. And you can start your own journey to health freedom today! Take small steps, see the benefits, and over time, you’ll be amazed. Healthy Ronin is my vessel for spreading this message to the world, so that we together can work to prevent sickness and promote well-being.

Wouldn’t that make the world just that little bit better?

Oh, and not only can a healthy diet benefit everyone’s health, but also the planet’s. That’s a whole other ball-game, but one we’re learning more and more about (such as how meat isn’t the planet’s downfall and can by regenerating).

Taking Action.

Healthy, nutritious, and delicious – that’s what a diet should be. The word diet literally comes form the Greek word diaita, originally “way of life, regimen, dwelling,” related to diaitasthai “lead one’s life” – meaning it needs to be sustainable! Diet is NOT temporary. Diet is the long-term, day-to-day eating and drinking habits we adhere to, by choice or not. The ‘Healthy Ronin’ is within each and every one of us, and it’s waiting! I’m still discovering mine now, and you can too! Join my – our – journey…

And don’t you think the same is true for exercise? Mental health? Socialising and relationships? Business and career success? ALL of these become what we make them. More negative input (sitting all day) and less positive input (walking, lifting, going to the gym, actively recovering) leads to negative outcomes (muscle imbalances, joint and back pain, injury risk, lack of energy and vitality, etc.).

Anyway, I think you get it. It’s intuitive. And that’s what health should be: Intuitive, not puzzling.

What on Earth Healthy Ronin Means and What You Can Do from Here…

Oh, and Healthy Ronin comes from the word healthy, meaning “healthy”, and Ronin, meaning “Ronin”… Just kidding, Ronin actually is a traditional Japanese word 浪人 for “wanderer”, which I resonated with because 1). I love Japan; 2). Japan has some amazing traditional healthy foods and practices, and 3). “Wandering” refers to my endless pursuit of knowledge from around the world and desire to travel the world and experience healthful ways of life some are blessed to maintain.

If you’re a Healthy Ronin, you stay true to pursuing knowledge, both “wondering” and “wandering” by looking to traditional worldwide lifestyles and modern advances alike, and acting upon what you learn.

So it’s a little whimsical, but profound nonetheless, and practicable even by you!

Now then, my actions towards making the world a healthier place – even if just a little – begin here with my blog Healthy Ronin.

Here, challenge detrimental practices and ideas, re-wiring the modern mind, and learning how to eat, move, and live in harmony with health and nature come first. That we too may contribute to the growing number of people making great changes every day to become healthier, happier, and planet-friendly on their way, please join me…

If any point of this post has resonated with you; if you feel like these words spoke to what you know to be true, then connect with me. Become a Healthy Ronin subscriber with free Healthy Ronin Scrolls (weekly email newsletter where we stay in touch about new content and I share practical health tips for subscribers)! You’ll receive a welcome scroll and a free recipe eBook gift with it.

Sign up above, get yer’ scroll, and respond and say hi! I would LOVE to know your name and hear where you’re reading from, and what your favourite ethnic foods are (one of mine is Indian Prawn Vindaloo)!

Be a better you. And we can be a better us.

Come help me, and until next time, stay healthy,

James, Founder of Healthy Ronin, and Your Sincere Health-nut Fan