Taking Time for your Health

Many reasons come to mind when thinking about maintaining your health, keeping your weight in a healthy range and staying active.  We often hear those words, and then in the moment it becomes challenging when confronted with eating whatever is in front of us, getting out of bed in the morning to exercise or remembering that each day is a gift which we can use to do something healthy for ourselves or not.  Continual consistency is the challenge.

What is in front of us is concrete, and thinking about changing our habits for the future is abstract.  One of my good friends says “this life we are living today is not a dress rehearsal.”  Everything we do today affects our lives tomorrow and the next day.  Every choice we make about what to eat or not eat affects how we feel and live tomorrow, which becomes a building block for our future. We have been in a decade of fast thinking, faxing, instant emails, text messaging and eating quickly whatever comes our way.

Taking time to plan for healthy meals, making time to take a walk or go to the gym is not instantaneous and requires mindfulness and presence.  Several recent books have discussed living in the moment and being present with yourself and how that can dramatically affect your life.  I believe being mindful and present is one of the keys to maintaining your health and well-being.

Many times people do not change till it is too late or nearly too late.  By the time someone has been diagnosed with adult or type two diabetes, approximately 80% of their pancreatic function has been lost, and now they have to maintain the 20% they have left through lifestyle, food and medications.  A cardiologist in Santa Monica states that many of his patients do not have time for exercise till they had a heart attack or bypass surgery, and somehow after the event they then find the time.  Taking time for your health is an investment in future of your body.  Now is the time to start regardless of your situation.

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