Halloween Candy Quiz

Halloween Candy Quiz

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Free to Be Healthy

I was watching TV on a Sunday morning when I ran across a show that caught my attention. This show was a news show on a network channel and has been on the air for a number of years. The show rotates topics of national interest and this particular show was right up my alley.

They were discussing the obesity epidemic in America. Much like we discuss each week, they covered many aspects of the problem and even tried to offer solutions. As I watched it was easy to see not only the significance of our current situation, but also how we have gotten into it in the first place.

That is where I started to become alarmed. It is one thing to be an individual that has struggled to reach goals. I deal with that every day. As a health coach, I deal with people trying to lose weight, quit smoking and every goal you can think of that falls within those categories.

What I have realized over the years is that I’m not just dealing with each person. I am dealing with a national problem. Sure, I’m only working with one person at a time or a small group of people at most, but we all live in a society that has continued to create our own epidemic.

Health has become more elusive as a healthy lifestyle has been supported less over the years. It is cheaper and easier to eat the food that has the least amount of nutritional value. It is easy to be inactive and will only get easier as we continue to find new ways to make things more automated. We have gotten to the point where the leading causes of death are things that we are causing ourselves.

The show wasn’t simply painting a negative picture of our culture. It was actually explaining how we developed the economy with needs that lead us down this path. There were some very interesting aspects of our situation that really made me think. The most interesting part is that we are both the cause and the effect of the changes that have taken place.

Technology has played a big role. With more automation, we are able to get more done by doing less work. As that has become the expectation, we began to demand more work from each person to keep up with this high-output expectation. Industries that were more service oriented began to do the same with hours, demanding more time from each employee. As time became scarce, a new way of eating became the norm- fast food.

Now that we have less time, food comes to us much more quickly and we are able to stay on track with the busy schedule. Marketing and Advertising took this to another level. We were shown hundreds of options and how they would make our lives easier and more pleasurable. It became nearly impossible to avoid the messages of all these products.

Our waistlines and medical check-ups began to show this quickly. As we all know, the quickest, most impulse-driven choices aren’t always the best for us. This has been clear for some time and we are really seeing the consequences.

There were a few figures discussed on the show that really jumped out at me. One of them is the fact that smoking and obesity are now the top two causes of preventable death. That means that cigarettes and French-fries are killing more people each year than guns and car accidents. It is not surprising when you think about the fact that heart disease is now the leading cause of death in both men and women.

Those are medical figures that may or may not hit home for you. I must admit, they don’t always hit home for me either. I can appreciate the significance of the numbers, but when I look in the mirror, I’m not thinking about my risk for heart disease. Even when I am working out, I’m not “lowering my morbidity”. I’m thinking about feeling good. I’m simply living healthy.

Feeling good and living healthy are easier said than done, however. As I have discovered by talking to thousands of people about their health and how they could improve it, I have learned that knowing something and doing it are completely different things. There is even a difference between wanting to do something and doing it. That is where the most shocking figure came from as I watched this show.
A recent poll revealed that 60% of people want to lose weight. This number seems high until I thought about the obesity rate in our country. Over 60% of all Americans are overweight, so it makes sense that they would want to lose weight. So what are they doing about it? There lies the biggest issue. Of those 60% of people who want to lose weight, only 30% of them is actually trying.

That number just shocks me. Every time I see it, say it, write it or even think it, I can’t believe that there are so many people that want to do something but are not doing it. What is stopping them? What is keeping them from doing what they want to do? Are we not in America? Is this not the land of Freedom?

I still think it is. I think we are living free. There are still problems with this freedom. As the show illustrated the economic changes resulting from the changes and in turn causing more changes, we are being shown many options. The problem is that the options that we are choosing are not always the best for us. That is old news. I don’t need to tell you what is good or bad, healthy or unhealthy.

I just want us to start asking ourselves the question: who is making choices for me? Are you making choices for yourself or is the advertising world making them for you. We have an amazing gift in our freedom. The problem is we are not using it to help ourselves. How else, would we be able to assert the fact that we want to do something, but still not do it.

What is even more interesting is the fact that a whole new industry came out of this shift. The health and fitness industry is huge and continues to grow. Despite our declining health, we spend billions every year on weight loss products. Does that make sense? We are paying to be less healthy.

I’m glad the industry became a reality, or I wouldn’t have a platform to run my business. It is important that we have products and services to help people live healthy lives. I think the problem still lies in our choices. It’s not just how much we are spending, it is what we are spending it on. What is valuable and what is not?

Every day in America we put forth a great deal of effort to not put forth an effort. The new tricks and schemes that promise to bring us results just leave us in a worse position than we started from. When you try something and it doesn’t work, that is very discouraging. It now becomes even more difficult to try something else. Eventually most Americans just stop altogether and become one of the 30% that wants to lose weight but “can’t”.

What do we need to do? We need to start using our freedom to help ourselves. The choices we make have to be for us and not for the sake of time or convenience. If you want to be sick, tired and die a miserable death at a young age, by all means, do that. But I don’t think that any of us want that. We want to be healthy. We want to enjoy life. What is more enjoyable, the above circumstance or getting up 20 minutes earlier and exercising?

Change may seem difficult. It may even be difficult for you to get started. I get that. I’m not saying it should be automatic. What I am saying is: use the freedom you have to choose what you want. Not just short-term things like: I’m tired this minute so I want to eat chips on the couch. I’m talking long-term like: I want to feel good each day, so I am going to do things that help me feel good each day.

When it’s in writing it sounds much more black and white. That is why I wrote this article. After watching a show that illustrated so many of our issues and how we got into them, I really felt that I needed to put these thoughts on paper. Now that I read them myself, it makes it much clearer that my clients are dealing with their own issues, but they are also dealing with our cultural issues. That culture starts at the national level and trickles all the way down through every structured group along the way, such as communities, workplaces, schools and families.

I realize now that we need to start building healthy environments, not just by providing healthy options. We need to take it a step further and help people understand what they want. What choices they have and how they can make it work for them. After all, we all want to be healthy, right? So what is stopping us from being healthy? The environment may provide choices that are not ideal for us, but we are all making those choices every day. Let’s start thinking about them a little more carefully and we will all be better off.

True Reform

There are three areas that need clarification: Healthcare, Health Insurance and Health. These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they are very different from one another. Despite the recent conversations around all of these areas, the focus has been quite uneven. We all know what these terms mean. I just thought it was time for a refresher:

Health: our state of being in good condition, what we all want and need to live the
lives we want

Healthcare: the service that takes care of us and keeps us in this condition or
brings us back to the condition of health

Health insurance: the coverage that insures us access to such care

The reason these three areas keep coming up in conversation is the fact that they are all sources of great pain. In the US today, we are spending a lot of resources trying to fix a broken system. We have seen problems and have started to work on solutions. This is a good thing, but I think we should spend a little more time in one of the categories before we think we have a fix for the other two.

Don’t get me wrong. I agree that there are some system issues that can be improved. I’m glad we are working on solutions, but I have one major problem with the current conversation: none of the proposed solutions address health as a way to fix healthcare or health insurance.

So which category is being neglected? The same category that has led us down our current path: Health. There is a reason the word health is in the title of the other two categories. Health is the root of the problems we are dealing with.

What is the problem exactly? Well, for starters, going back to the definitions above: healthcare is there to provide us with medical tools and service to maintain our health. Health insurance is simply in place to provide coverage so that we can pay for such service when we need it.

Why do we need healthcare or the coverage to pay for it? Because our health is not what is should be. Clearly, we only use healthcare and health insurance to improve our health. When there is a problem with health, we use healthcare. Health insurance helps us pay for that care. The end goal is to bring back or keep health. That is why we see the doctor. The hospitals, clinics, specialists and all healthcare professionals are in place to keep us healthy or to care for us when we are not.

We can talk about the system and how care costs too much. We can conclude that with rising cost of care, insurance will also be high. This makes perfect sense. However, we fail to mention that health is at the root of it all.

Why should health be included in the solution to healthcare or health insurance? Because, we have more control over our own health than we have over a complex system like healthcare or health insurance. Our health (or lack of care for it) is what
broke our system in the first place.

Now, this isn’t all bad. In fact it can be a good thing if you can look it from my perspective.
Think about this as a reform plan:

- Everyone takes care of their health and proactively keeps themselves in good
condition

- We need less care for chronic conditions and other preventable diseases
while doctors can offer preventative options rather than reactive techniques
that act as band aids for wounds caused by lifestyle abuse.

- The system will not be overrun with procedures and medications

- Premiums that you and I pay for our insurance coverage is more than enough
to cover the amount of care we need. The money we pay for this for this
care becomes cheaper, causing the insurance rates to come down with them

The most beautiful thing of all is the fact that by improving our health, we are fixing the system. That is the only way healthcare reform will work. Health reform has to take place first. It has to become the responsibility and continue to be a priority for us all.

Any other solution involving care and insurance will break just like our current system if we don’t add health to the equation. No matter how efficient, low-cost or state-of-the-art a new system is, if we continue to overuse, abuse and depend on it to fix years of misuse and neglect (of the system and ourselves), it will fail. The system will break and it will fail.

I know that we all want to be healthy. I also know that we want to feel secure in the quality of care we receive and we want all of this at a reasonable cost. I believe that no one should be without access to care. I also believe that no one should lose their house because of medical bills. No matter what your ideal solution looks like, I think we can all agree that as a world power, we should be healthy and well-taken care of.

While many if these issues are being debated in the care or insurance setting. We must remember one thing: Our health is the biggest factor in this equation. Health is the root of it all. The worst part of this: we are the biggest factor in our own health, which means we are the reason that reform is needed. The best part about this: we are the biggest factor in our own health, which means we are the biggest factor in health reform. That’s right; you are the key to solving the national healthcare crisis. By solving (or hopefully simply avoiding) your own personal health crisis, you are preventing the nation’s health crisis.

I’ve heard from doctors who have stepped up as healthcare advocates. I’ve heard from and work with insurance brokers who continue to be insurance advocates. Both of these groups have come together in many ways across our great nation. The work they are doing is making a difference and will help us move forward.

We’ve got advocates for healthcare and for health insurance, but there is still something missing. Who is an advocate for health? I consider myself a health advocate. I fully accept my responsibility to not only care for my own health, but also to help others maintain a healthy lifestyle.

By doing this we are avoiding many costs and burdens on our system as we prevent chronic diseases. We are avoiding the expense and complications of surgeries and medications. We are even showing the next generation a new way to manage health, healthcare and health insurance.

I can’t do this alone. I will continue to give it everything I’ve got, but I need others to do the same. Each and every one of us has control. You have the solution to the healthcare crisis. The solution is solving the health crisis. That is not a solution that needs to come from Washington. It is not a solution that you’ll find at your doctor’s office or hospital.

The solution is you. By managing your own health, you will solve the problem. Health, healthcare and health insurance come up in the same conversation and are often even used interchangeably. The most important lesson for us all is that we they are not the same. While all three of the areas we’ve discussed are related and are key components to the system. We need remember the root of the system is health - Your health.

Excuses

There is no shortage of excuses in this world. For every task, there is an excuse for not being able to get it done. It is easy to find them and easy to use them in our everyday lives. Excuses are so easy, that for many, they become the first reaction.

We’ve all been in this situation:

You are in a meeting and someone says: “We are going to need each of you to put in X hours to complete project Y.” As you look around the room, you can see the looks on everyone’s face. You can even hear people start to react with words and gestures.
It almost becomes easier to go along with the doubters than it is to try and accomplish the task.

This was a group setting, so it is more obvious when there are others to share in the reaction. What many people don’t realize is that we do this in our own minds too.

Think about this situation:

You wake up in the morning and think about all of the things you would like to accomplish and before you even start planning, you find yourself running through the list of reasons you can’t do them. For example: “I would like to go for a run today…but, I have to go to work, pick up the kids, go to the store”…not to mention all the other things that seem to pop into your mind at this moment.”

Why do we do this? I think we do this because it’s easier than taking the steps to accomplish the goals. You saw how everyone in the room reacted. You also heard all of the thoughts that ran through your head when you decided you wanted to do something. Those voices and words are very loud.

It is easy to listen to them. Why don’t we listen to the voices that say “Yes, I can do that.” Or “This may take some effort, but I think that I can do it.” If we listen to those voices, we can accomplish the goals we set out to accomplish.

Imagine how much better our lives would be if we had that mindset. We would succeed at one thing after another and that would become the habit. When we form habits, things seem easy to us. That is why, mentally, we think it is easier to give up beforehand, but in reality, it’s only easier because we are in the habit of doing it. We don’t have to think about making excuses. It just comes naturally and therefore, we just continue to do it.

As I help people make changes in their lives, excuses become more and more obvious. It has helped me see the situation more clearly. This situation, that we are all dealing with, has caused some major problems in our lives. It has gotten to the point where many people actually spend more time and energy thinking of reasons why they can’t do something than we would spend just doing it.

The key to living a healthy, successful life is to do. If we don’t do, we don’t accomplish. If we don’t accomplish, we don’t succeed. Excused make it easy for us not to do. In our minds, they excuse us from the expectations. The only problem is that we only realize this excuse in the moment that we decide not to move forward. And every time we do this, it becomes more and more acceptable in our minds to keep doing it.

That is the excuse cycle. Health and everything else in life is easier when we are able to do what we want to do. When we let excuses get in the way, we disappoint ourselves and we lose. When we set goals and take action…you guessed it, we win!