This is a bit of a motivational post. This post is a mind exercise, not a muscle exercise.
More Gyms. More Health Products, Yet Less Healthy
It is truly amazing that America has the highest obesity rates in the world, yet more gyms and health clubs than any other country. We spend more on health care than any other country, yet rank 37th in the world for effectiveness (Without getting in a health care reform debate, our poor health care has a lot to do with treating disease after it has happened, and little on preventing the problems in the first place.)
Fast-food chains spend billions of dollars on advertising each year to get us to eat at their places of business. Does this huge amount of money influence you? Maybe, maybe not, but it does influence many people around you.
Are we to blame the systems around us for the obesity problem? We can, but the problem is truly within each and every one of us. If you are overweight or obese, the blame is on you and you alone. If you want to change your life, it starts in your head.
The Point of No Return
Why does it take a catastrophic event to change our lives for the better?
You end up in the hospital and find out you are diagnosed with diabetes.
You play a flag football game at a company picnic for the first time in a decade and collapse on your ass.
You take your shirt off at a public event, someone makes a snide remark, and you can’t get it out of your head for days and weeks and months.
The event can be mental or physical.
When you hear amazing stories of people getting healthy quickly, they do it for a reason, not because they “felt like it.”
So why wait like something for this happen? Why not prevent it in the first place. Predict your “catastrophic event” or realize your “great discovery” so you can change today.
You can motivate yourself with fear of a heart attack. Or the fear of losing your kids or grand kids because you’ll kick the bucket early at the rate you are going. Or you can motivate yourself because you are just sick and tired of not being healthy.
Despite all of marketing thrown at us, as a citizen of a developed country, you have amazing opportunities. There are gyms and health clubs all around you, plenty of free fitness information you can access on the web, public parks, YMCA, and more.
You have no excuse to not be healthy because you do not have the resources. What’s stopping you is within your mind.
You Only Get One Chance. Appreciate What You Have
Take some time to yourself to think. It’s a simple exercise, but many people don’t stop to think about their lives. Sure, we all have quiet time, but do we set any time aside to actually think about where we are going in life?
Goal setting is something many people do not do, yet it is a fairly powerful tool. The reason it is so powerful is because it gives your subconscious some direction. Whether you’re aware of it or not at the time, your mind tends to work towards a goal. Obviously, you have to do the work towards your goals – they will not magically happen.
If you have no goal, how do you know what to do to get where you want?
Think about where you were 10 years ago. Did you feel great about yourself, or did you feel as miserable as you do today?
This is the important question: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now at the rate you are going? Don’t bullshit yourself here. Follow the trend line of your life.
If your last 5 years have consisted of no exercise and a diet of “Value Meals,” chances are your health has deteriorated over those years. Do you see a heart attack? Diabetes? Death?
Spend time thinking. Think about every year carefully as it passes. How is a poor lifestyle going to affect your life each and every year?
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now if you changed?
Now imagine where you will be if you decide to change your life today. What do you want to have? How do you want to feel? How will others see you? Remember, you’re not “wishing.” You’re imagining.
Imagining yourself in a better place is generally enough motivation to set goals for anything. Whether its money, health, social, whatever. Picturing yourself better off is a powerful motivation. Change starts in your head.
You only get one body and one life to live. There is no reset button. Learn to appreciate what you have and you will begin to take better care of yourself. When you start to appreciate what little time you have on this earth, change comes easier.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
ANOTHER REASON WHY I DO NOT HAVE A SIX PACK IS BECAUSE I KEEP EATING JUNK.