Good health is a choice, not a chance! The challenge is that there is no such thing as a quick fix to feeling great and reaching optimal health. It takes work. Just because high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol or even cancer runs in your family, it does not mean that you are doomed to have these conditions. You did not inherit bad genes or bad luck, you just inherited bad habits.
I love this quote from Lisa Jimenez from her book Conquer Fear:
Change your beliefs – and you change your behaviors.
Change your behaviors – and you change your results.
Change your results – and you change your life!
A recent study conducted by the American Medical Association shows the following statistics:
- 70% of meals eaten by North American are not nutritionally adequate
- 90% of health conditions that exist today are diet related
- 70% of all visits to Doctors are diet related
- 60% of North Americans are overweight, which translates to the following health effects: Arthritis, Gallbladder Disease, Birth Defects, Infertility, Breast Cancer, Obstetric & GYN Complications, Endometrial Cancer, Stress, Urinary Incontinence, Cardiovascular Disease, Stigma & Discrimination
What does this tell us?
It tells us that by the food choices WE make, we have the POWER to make ourselves sick, or healthy. Personally, I CHOOSE to be healthy! And so can you. It is not more complicated or expensive to eat healthy than it is to eat unhealthy. In fact, it is a lot cheaper to eat healthy foods that will bring your body the nutrients that you need to be healthy, than it is to eat fast foods. Why? The statistics above speak for themselves! By the time you miss work, go to the doctor’s office, pay for medications, etc… you would have been better off not getting sick in the first place! You also save an average of $1,764 on your health care expenses per year for a family of 4 when you are healthy!
In my 14 years in practice, I have seen one common factor that makes people change their lifestyle and behaviors when it comes to their health: a life event, usually a scary one (a.k.a. life threatening) that is the catalyst, the trigger to their shift in consciousness and making the decision to reverse the odds.
Great strides come one step at a time. Whenever we have a dream, a vision, or set goals, it is always a process, a journey, with its ups, and with its downs. But one thing that remains certain, and constant, is that if you believe in yourself, and you believe that it can be done, you will succeed, no matter the amount of setbacks.
The key is: commit to yourself and align your behaviors with your health goals.
I encourage you to make one simple, sustainable, behavior change a day (or a week) that will transform your health for the better, not just for that day, or that week, but for life! I call it the “1 degree of change”.