The Dangers of Not Getting Healthy

You just can't ignore your health for very long and not have some bad things arise. Being inactive and not making the effort to eat good foods will catch up with you eventually. Forget the stories you hear about the great-great uncle in the family who smoked a cigar every day and didn't eat a single piece of fruit a day in his life yet still lived to be a hundred and ten years old. These stories are told in hushed tones because they are either false or because they are the exception to the rule. Yes, some people have great genetic makeup that helps them to live long lives despite the damage they do to themselves. Chances are, however, that you're not one of those people. You're just going to have to work toward better health like everyone else.

CHRONIC DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH INACTIVITY

You can't be inactive and not expect some repercussions. Doctors don't advise their patients to live an active lifestyle just because the doctors like to be mean or bossy. There are real benefits to living an active lifestyle. Our bodies are designed to be in motion for a good portion of the day. You may have a job where you spend a good deal of your day seated in front of a computer and you feel like you don't have the opportunity to be as active as you should be.

You'll be amazed at what a simple five minute stretch every hour or so while you are working will do. Add to this a regular exercise routine during the week and you'll feel so much better and be a more productive person in both work-related issues and other issues pertaining to the rest of your life. If you set the positives of a physically active life aside and take a look at the repercussions associated with inactivity then you may find an even more urgent reason for getting healthy. How do you feel when you spend a great deal of time hunched over a computer or lounging on a sofa in front of the television? You certainly don't feel invigorated. Your body does need occasional rest, but it just isn't designed to stay static all the time.

Instead of shrugging your responsibilities to your body and health by not putting forth any effort to be active, you need to figure out a way to motivate yourself to get active. Know this: your health will suffer if you don't take the time to move around once in a while. Do you want to live a life riddled with various health problems resulting from your propensity toward inactivity? Or would you rather take the time to add just a little activity to your daily routine and avoid major health problems?

Even if you are inactive now, getting active will do you wonders. If you have been inactive for quite some time then you are in a unique position to see quick results once you start attempting to live a healthier life. Our bodies crave exercise and good, nutritious foods, so when you finally start giving your body what it needs you'll start to feel better very quickly. If you spend the vast majority of your time lounging in front of the computer or television and then you suddenly start getting up once in a while for a nice stretch, or possibly a short walk, you're bound to feel positive residual effects from just that.

You don't have to leap right into a rigid exercise program or a restrictive diet in order to start to feel healthier. You can start to gain benefits from a healthier lifestyle almost immediately. Even if you feel a little awkward with your new activities - a walk around the block can seem like a strange activity if you've been sitting on your butt for the last few years - you should know that soon enough it won't feel so strange after all. You'll feel better and your health will improve with even the smallest changes. There is also a good chance that the small improvements you notice will catapult into other changes and then more changes until suddenly you find yourself thinking, "I can't believe I used to sit on my butt all day!"

There is a daunting list of health problems associated with inactivity. If you think that inactivity isn't a very big problem then you're kidding yourself. Our bodies are designed to be active, so it is contrary to our nature to sit around all day and not get any type of exercise or physical activity. Check out what medical professionals have to say about inactivity:

•  Inactive people have a much higher risk of developing hypertension.
•  Thousands of deaths annually are attributed to complications from inactivity.
•  Inactivity can lead to heart disease and stroke.
•  Inactivity is considered on par with cigarette smoking as a risk factor when it comes to developing heart disease.

You should also know that your risk factors increase dramatically when you couple inactivity with a family history of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and other ailments. If you know that your family history includes these types of problems yet you still persist in being inactive you really should stop and wonder why in the world you are allowing yourself to become a ticking time bomb with regard to your health. Don't you value your life enough to get up off the couch and take a walk around the block? Doesn't the thought of contracting some disease or illness dissuade you from remaining inactive? Does the thought of a premature death motivate you to get moving? If not, then you need to examine why you aren't moved by these revelations…and then you need to do something about it.

HEALTH PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH A BAD DIET

You are what you eat. It's easy to get carried away with the things you eat. After all, a good amount of foods that are yummy just also happen to be detrimental to your health if you eat them in excess. Whether or not you want to acknowledge it, every single thing you ingest into your body is going to have some type of effect on it. Think of all the routes your ingested food travels throughout your body. You just can't expect to fill yourself up with a bunch of junk food and not have it change the way you feel. When you load up on healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, et cetera) then your body can function at its best. Your body is getting the nutrients it needs to function optimally.

If instead, you choose to load up on junk food (candy, fatty foods, et cetera) you're filling up on empty calories and you aren't hungry to eat the food that your body can really use. So even if a candy bar makes you feel full, you're filled up with the wrong type of stuff to help your body. Add to that the fact that your body now has to deal with all the sugar and other ingredients that are now working their way through your body, and you can see how junk food is not really the best option.

Sure, there is a time and place for yummy, decadent foods. You need to eat them in moderation, and the good foods you eat should far outweigh the amount of junk food you allow into your body. Think of it this way: if you truly are what you eat, then what are you? Are you a powerhouse of healthy foods or are you a sluggish glop of goo? Try to keep this in mind when you are trying to motivate yourself to steer clear of junky foods and to put more healthy foods into your body.

A poor diet can make other health conditions worse. If you have underlying health conditions that you may be aware or unaware of there are some foods that can make these conditions progress faster or at the least can make it to where you feel the effects of your ailment more because of what you are eating. How much does your food matter to you? Is it enough to lose your life over? Your doctor may tell you to steer clear of foods high in sodium if you have hypertension issues.

If you just love potato chips so much that you can't stand to follow those directions so you indulge in salty chips on a constant basis, you're setting yourself up for trouble. Doctors do not restrict diets to be mean. They restrict diets to try to keep their patients alive and to lessen the effects of certain ailments. The problem with some poor diets is that oftentimes the person may not even realize that there is a health condition at all.

Consider someone who has developed Type II Diabetes, but has not realized it yet because there has been no diagnosis from a doctor. Indulging in sugary, fattening foods on a regular basis is going to make the condition worse in several ways, including the fact that the condition will probably progress faster than it would have if the person's diet was not so bad.

So if you have absolutely no motivation to improve your diet - perhaps you are one of the few people who can eat whatever you want and not gain weight so there is no outward problem - you should consider what may be going on inside your body. What you eat can have a profound effect on your physical health, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. If you are going to insist on having a poor diet then you should go ahead and schedule an ongoing appointment with your doctor to get screened periodically for the many ailments you are opening yourself up to.

Convenience can lure you in. It is ridiculously easy to get a full meal in less than a minute with the endless fast food drive-thru restaurants peppered throughout the country. If you are a busy person then the lure of a quick meal that you don't even have to cook yourself is quite strong. An occasional meal like this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as your "occasional" fast food meal doesn't mean every other day. Even the menu items offered through these restaurants that are marketed as being healthy are not necessarily the best idea. The salads are sometimes laced with sugar and the salad dressings are dripping with fat. If you insist upon eating at fast food establishments - whether due to the convenience factor or because you just like these places a lot - you should try your best to pick the healthier options.

A quick Internet search will reveal to you the calorie and fat counts of your favorite fast food items, and you will also be able to find healthier options offered by the restaurants. Sometimes a small change can make a big difference, especially if it's a change in something that you do repeatedly. When you are trying to get motivated to eat better at places like this, remember that it doesn't take huge leaps to get healthier.

• Buy the smallest size available. Allowing the employee working the register to talk you into a larger size is only expanding your waistline and taking more money out of your wallet. Try buying one of the meals designed for kids, because these are often quite satisfying even though they have less food than the adult meals.

• Drink water instead of a soda or some other sugary drink. Not only will you have less sugar intake, but it's cheaper and your body needs water.
  " Omit some of the more detrimental ingredients. For example, ask for no mayonnaise on your burger, or don't grab ranch dressing to dip your French fries in.

• Split your meal with someone else. Even some of the smallest fast food portions are too big, so if you can convince someone to eat a meal with you then it will help your body in addition to saving you a little bit of money.

• Forget dessert. If you insist on having dessert then find out what the best option is at the place at which you choose to eat. Some of these restaurants feature fat-free soft serve, which is a viable option if you absolutely need to have something sweet after your meal.

Realize that these small changes will help you regardless whether or not your plan to get healthy includes losing weight. Remember that you can be of an ideal weight yet still unhealthy, so eating right isn't just for people who need to lose weight. Even if you are in a situation where you are considered underweight you still need to take into consideration the fact that eating right isn't just for people who are considered overweight.

On the next page we will talk about Excuses: Why You Make Them and How You Can Stop.