Health: Prevent or "Oh No!"

Have you ever though of food as medicine?

Have you ever thought that healthy choices can prevent you from taking medication for the rest of your life or even preventing illness, injury, or death?

Very scary to think about right? Or maybe you are thinking I am young, I have years to worry about that or maybe it's not going to happen to me!

The fact of the matter is that habits can compound positively or negatively over time. Habits that may seem harmless or insignificant can play a large role in determining our overall health in the future.

For example, Woman A 30 years old eats whatever she wants exclaiming "Thank God for a great metabolism - I can eat whatever I want and maintain my figure." You see that she can! She eats donuts, chocolate, fast food, etc with minimal exercise and still looks great. Woman B thinks to herself - "Man, I wish I had that metabolism - I have to watch everything!"

Woman B 30 years old watches what she eats, limits fast food, doesn't drink sodas, doesn't smoke, uses alcohol sparingly, exercises regularly, and eats a balanced diet. Woman A thinks she needs to live a little and get over it! While Woman B may splurge here and there for important events - she always gets back on track with healthy habits.

Now they've reached 35 and Woman A has high blood pressure and high cholesterol - the doctor tells her before trying medication let's look at healthy lifestyle changes such as stress management, healthy-balanced diet, limit sugars and fats. Woman A says I look great and tries it for a week but decides it's not for her. She continues on with a adding a few work outs here and there, but continues everything else. Meanwhile, Woman B has a perfect check up. Woman A is now thinking... hmmm....

At age 45, Woman A has a massive heart attack requiring 3 stents and medication that she will have to be on for the rest of her life while Woman B continues to have healthy check-ups.

While this is an example and other factors such as genetics play a role as well - the point is that healthy choices compound over time. Just because we look and feel great doesn't mean that on the inside we look and feel great. Many injuries, illnesses, or health concerns that occur can be preventable through regular check-ups and choosing several small, insignificant daily choices over time.

Hence, our health is a result of the compounding of several daily "insignificant" choices.

So the choice is really yours. Do you opt to change and create a positive change in your life through making several small, but healthier choices in your life to positively impact your health or do you choose to NOT change where you will see NO change?

Sometimes it can be much more fun to create change because we want to rather than "Oh no! We have to!"

What are some ways you can create small change everyday to impact your life? Comment below to give other ideas that have worked for you....

Some of my favorites include hiking, walking, taking the stairs, meal prepping to avoid fast food, becoming knowledgeable regarding healthy food choices while avoiding processed/high-fat/high-sugar choices, exercising, going for bike rides with the kids, incorporating activity and health into our lifestyle to set the example for our kiddos.