Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Health is Wealth

By Henry John

If you're healthy, then you are wealthy indeed. Health isn't something you can buy, but it's something you can influence, it's something you can nurture. But do we give our health much thought?

When we are young we don't give health a second thought. Looking after ourselves is something we don't worry about. We live life to the full. It's only when something goes wrong that we are brought up short and forced to think about the way we behave as far as our health is concerned.

Diet is somebody else's concern when we are young, we don't worry ourselves about it. All we are interested in is getting more of what we like - which is usually candy, cake and cookies washed down with copious quantities of cola.

When we become teenagers we begin to notice others and make comparisons. This is the first time we become aware of how we look. It's the first time it becomes an important issue in our lives.

Parents often have a difficult job convincing their children to eat green vegetables. At an early age, we are not the least interested in what is good for us. We rebel against what we don't like, and in far too many instances parents lose out to headstrong children. The resulting diet in those crucial years is often not as good as it should, or could be.

Arriving in early adulthood overweight is not helpful. To have so many ingrained bad habits as far as eating and exercise is concerned makes doing something about it difficult - although not impossible.

The most important thing is to break bad habits and that requires developing an awareness of what they are. Many of the bad habits will have been endorsed by upbringing. To go against this can be a challenge. What has been accepted as a family culture in terms of diet and exercise takes real resolve and determination to change.

To make change easier it is better not to confront what needs to be changed. It is far better to make that change by learning new habits - slim habits, if you like. This way it will seem like a new beginning, not wrestling with the past.

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