I want to continue with a New Years theme for this month. I
talked about discipline last week, and got a lot of feedback on that one.
This week, let’s look at commitment. We’re in the new year
now, and, as predicted, gym memberships are up.
But as I wrote about last week, too often those gym memberships do not
seem to translate to longevity.
I’m a big fan of gyms—all gyms. I don’t care for the push
for long term gym memberships. My
opinion has always been that if you don’t want to be there, if you aren’t going
to use that gym membership, then you should be allowed to move on. Back when I
owned a gym, that’s the way we did it.
Still, I understand that a prepaid membership can be
incentive to make use of that membership. I get that. But that just doesn’t
seem to be the case. I guess once that
membership is paid, it’s easier to ignore.
But there is one irrefutable truth: If you want to pursue good health, you must
be COMMITTED to that pursuit.
The discipline thing that I wrote about last week is a
necessary ingredient. I mentioned getting up at 4:30 in the morning to hit the
gym or get some exercise. It takes DISCIPLINE to do that. Week after week. Month after month. Year
after year.
I’ve told this story before—but it’s been a while. My dad
had his first heart attack when I was 5 years old. What that means is that my
family lived the life of a heart patient family from as far back as I can
remember.
My dad took Coumadin until the day he died and did
everything his doctor told him. The
science is much better now (SO much better) but it was what we knew. Some of it
still works. No fried foods. Lean meats. Low sodium.
What we know now that we didn’t know then is that there are
good fats and bad fats, and that we need those good fats. We thought eggs were completely off limits.
We now know that eggs in moderation are a good thing. We thought all red meat
was bad. We now know that lean red meet can be important.
Because of science and cardiac research, we know so much
more. There just wasn’t much science behind it back then. I used to be on the
Board of Directors for the American Heart Association and the sermon we
preached back then is what we thought was good medicine. Unfortunately, a lot
of what we knew has proven to be wrong. High carb intake is bad. We didn’t know
that.
The biggest change in cardiac science is that we now
understand how profound exercise is to cardiac health. Some have argued that it
is more important than the nutritional aspect.
Let me repeat that—exercise is absolutely essential to good
cardiac health. You might live to be a hundred but if you don’t exercise, you
are the exception.
I don’t care what you do. Just move! Sure, for bone health
you need weightbearing activities. And to stay active, you need to do some
strength training.
What you don’t want to do is to follow the latest
trends—don’t let anybody tell you that they have the “secret” to good health.
They don’t. If you just move, you will be healthier.
If you think I’m self-righteous about all that, I assure you
I’m not. Living with a heart patient (my dad), made me scared to death of heart
disease. I have never allowed myself to be out of shape or to eat a lot of
junk, not because I’m smarter or more dedicated than anybody else, but because
of fear.
Do you want to be active and healthy when you’re old? Then
do today what you need to do to be THAT person one day. It starts today,
regardless of how old you are. Active children become active and healthy
adults.
Are you truly committed to being healthy? Then I’ll see you
out there.
