If you think improving your health is time consuming and difficult, consider the productivity loss and inconvenience of being sick.
Making healthy decisions requires the same amount of time as making unhealthy ones. It is only a matter of where you put your focus. Everyone is allotted the same 24 hours. It is the focus of those 24 hours that leads in the direction of either better health or more sickness. The perception that it takes more time to be healthy may just be an excuse for something you don’t really want to do.
Time is viewed as one of the most precious commodities next to money. Time is free, abundant, and available to all. The awesome thing about time is that you get to choose how you spend it. You can either spend time creating a healthy life now, while you feel good, or try to create it after you become sick.
If you wait, you may be spending your time on remedies, doctors’ visits, and tests. You won’t feel like being productive at home or on the job. You won’t have the energy to cultivate relationships with your friends and family. You will spend your time trying to regain your health. Why not invest the time in creating health today instead of spending time trying to regain it later?
“Those who think they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”
– modified from Edward Stanley (1826-1893) from the Conduct of Life
Fresh Ideas to Extend Your Expiration Date
How you spend your time is a great reflection of what you value. If you value health, you will choose to spend time making healthy decisions. If you value a clutter-free, simple home environment, you will spend time creating that. It is all about what you choose to create.
Choose to create a healthy environment—one where there are good strategies for coping with life stressors, good strategies to implement healthy food, and good strategies to encompass healthy movement patterns. The time you invest in making quality health decisions will pay off with an improved quality of life both now and in the future.
Starting today is key. Health is an investment, and with all investments, the sooner you begin, the more it compounds, and the less you have to catch up. As a wise proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Learn More
A couple of books on how to implement healthy changes easily: Better Each Day: 365 Expert Tips for a Healthier, Happier You, by Jessica Cassity, includes 365 daily tips to make you healthier.
If you want a weekly style of easily manageable changes, choose 52 Small Changes: One Year to a Happier, Healthier You by Brett Blumenthal. Both authors present easy, healthy changes that you can continually make.
“American’s fear only one thing…inconvenience.”
– George Naylor in Fresh: New Thinking about What We’re Eating, a documentary
