STAYING WELL

In my experience and from everything I've read or learned by discussing it with friends, family and folks in the medical profession, staying well is far better and far less expensive than trying to GET well after you've become seriously ill. So give this some thought. For most of us, our contact with the medical folks is limited to those occasions when we have been injured or become ill, right? And unfortunately, most of us don't give a lot of thought to our general well-being at any other time. We get something to drink when we are thirsty. We get something to eat when we are hungry. We go to bed when we are sleepy. Individual variations on that theme are limitless, but for those who have access to food and drink and a place to sleep, that's about it.

For those of you who are NOT baby boomers, don't think this blog doesn't apply to you. In order to STAY well even after 50, you really need to consider the things you should be doing when you are 30 or 40 as well, because much of what you will face in your 50's, 60's and 70's and beyond can be set in motion decades earlier. This can bring either good or bad results. But let's say you are already approaching retirement. Your level of wellness today might be a direct result of what you did or failed to do many years ago.

In order to stay well you need a number of factors to come into play, and frankly, you just cannot control all of them. Genetics for example. You inherited genes that dictate certain things about you and you cannot do much about that. However, you do not need to surrender to that or use it as an excuse. If your whole family tends to be short and a littly heavy, there is a good chance that you too will be short, and unless you make a steady effort to combat it, a little heavy. But let's take this a little further. If your family had bad eating habits that were passed on to you from a very early age, you can do something about that. In fact, if you want to enjoy a high degree of wellness throughout your life, you BETTER do something about it. I once worked for a fellow who was quite large in every dimension. We'll call him Ron. He was about 6'5" and he was rather rotund. He said he was just "big boned", and during the period I knew him well, I seldom saw him without something handy to eat. Potato chips, Twinkies, candy, pretzels, cheeseburgers, milkshakes, you name it. He didn't actually stop to eat lunch. He just called that hour or so his lunch hour, and kept right on eating. I moved on to a different job and lost touch with him for about three years. One day in a shopping mall I heard a voice behind me saying "Jack, is that you?" I turned and looked at this fellow and had no idea who he could be. He introduced himself and though I remembered the name, I could not connect this fellow with that name in my mind.
Seeing my confusion he said "You probably don't recognize me. I've lost a little weight." He had actually lost nearly 200 pounds! We found a place to sit and visit for a few minutes and he told me his story. Briefly, a cardiologist told him that he would die before he made it to 50, just like his father and grandfather and one of his brothers. He asked, "Isn't there anything I can do?" The cardiologist told him that he would have to totally rethink his lifestyle, but he didn't seem to have much confidence that Ron would really do it. But after relating this news to his wife, Ron decided that he would do whatever was necessary to turn his life and his health around, and he enlisted his wife and three children in the plan. Growing up, he was accustomed to having ice cream for dessert just about every night. The family would open a half gallon carton and divide it amongst the three or four of them and eat it all. On special occasions, like Sunday supper, they would add some pie or cake to that. If it was a pie, they divided it, so that most often each one would get one fourth of a pie. They were all large people and had all been raised to empty their plate at every meal. "Waste not, want not." So Ron had these eating habits ingrained in him almost from birth.

In order to lose all that weight, Ron did two things at first. he took time every day, rain or shine, to go for a walk. Just ten or fifteen minutes at first, but eventually he worked up to about 45 minutes. At the same time, he just stopped eating dessert of any kind. Those two things resulted in such a dramatic weight loss that he really got enthused and started reducing portions of meat and substituting more vegetables, something he really didn't like to eat. But his successes gave him determination to go on.

When I saw this new Ron, he was still a big man. 6'5" and big boned, but not fat. He looked healthy and happy, and seemed to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and he certainly had improved his chances of survival well beyond 50. The point is that he took control of himself and his habits and made changes, not excuses. He has already outlived his father. You can do the same. If smoking is your personal struggle, you can do something about it. Something dramatic. We'll talk more about that another time. For now, let's just consider four things that you should keep in mind when you think about your own well-being. In order for the human body to function properly and heal itself from all the things that attack it from day to day, you must provide it with these four things: adequate nutrition, adequate hydration, adequate motion, and adequate rest. Eat properly, drink enough fluids, get some exercise on a regular basis, and get enough rest. If you will just do those four things, you will improve your current level of wellness and set yourself up for many more years of good health.