Healthy Habits
Is being healthy going to cost a lot of money? Do you need to pay someone to go on a diet? Do you need to pay a personal trainer? Do you need to pay someone to stop putting cigarettes in your mouth? Do you need to pay someone to go for a walk? Do you need to pay someone to block out advertisements on television? Healthy Habits are steps we all know and can easily fit into our lives. There is no one size fits all. Each person has to prioritize what to include in their routine based on its importance. Good health is a gift – don’t squander it. The chances are very good that you were born with everything you need for a long and healthy life. Things only start to go wrong when we ourselves are in charge of putting things in our mouths and not using the equipment we came with. Most people recognize if they are overweight or have shortness of breath, but having type II diabetes or high blood pressure is harder to detect. Ask your doctor to check your glucose level in blood tests and get the doctor to alert you if you are pre-diabetic. Many people are and do not have any idea of how dangerous that is AND how easy that is to reverse. Check your blood pressure every chance you get; with your own blood pressure cuff or at the pharmacy. Preventing these issues is easier and cheaper than a cure. Parents, television*, society* and our culture* all contribute to the deterioration of our health, but eventually it is up to each of us to use another piece of our basic equipment – our brain. We usually don’t pay attention to this until we are older, but we need to start living more healthfully at the latest by middle age. Get into a mindset of ignoring advertisements* for unhealthy food. Get into the habit of walking, exercising and interacting with people. Think of that wonderful gift you have – that fit and trim body that doesn’t need a variety of pills to keep it operating smoothly. Other people can’t walk up a flight of stairs – but you can and do at every opportunity as well as going for a brisque walk of about 2 miles every other day. Other people wheeze and get out of breath, but you do not because you never smoked cigarettes or have stopped spending money on that health hazard. Other people can’t fit into neat fashionable garments – but you can because you ate healthy unprocessed food, did not get fat and now can show off your youthful enviable physique.
Baggy track suits don’t get many compliments.
Rolly-polly stops being cute at 5 years old. Other people have to take pills to combat diabetes or high blood pressure, but you don’t because you recognized that you had to stop eating sugar, carbohydrates and processed foods. Being influenced by television, family and our peers is much more difficult and that is where our superior brain comes in. Use it to be sensible and healthy.