Where's the Good News?
In a recent conversation with my mom, after I had rehearsed all the bad news and negativity that we’re all living through, I explained that one reason I stopped posting on social media was because talking about fitness seems so irrelevant when there are so many enormous problems going on. This year, I’ve spent more time searching for nuggets of truth in politics and media in our world than I have ever before. It’s time consuming and exhausting, even if you do find something, it feels short-lived and fleeting. It also makes me lose my focus to write about fitness. What good can come from explaining benefits of nutrition or movement in this day?
After our conversation, my wise and thoughtful mom called me back to say I was wrong. I’ve been wrong to feel like encouraging self governance with our food and movement is less vital. In fact, we could probably argue that it’s more important than ever, given that building our immune systems is a rarely discussed topic if you just scan headlines and social media.
So, here’s the GOOD NEWS: building and strengthening our immune systems will always be our own responsibility because no one else lives in our own bodies. We get sole proprietorship. We don’t earn them or buy them. Our bodies belong to us and therefore it is up to us to keep them functioning. And even more relevant, we can do this without anyone else’s permission. The only decision then is to take control of our fitness and immunity as if the rest if our livelihood and freedom depends on it.
Even without an advanced degree in immunology, we can all understand our need for a strong, functioning defense against sicknesses. This resistance is the result of exposures, nutrition, exercise, sunlight, sleep, hydration and good family histories. Thankfully, nothing has changed. All the same immune-boosting tools are still available to us today; exercise and nutrition are two of the most important since we can most easily manipulate them.
For most of my career, I’ve assumed that when you exercised regularly and ate the full spectrum of real foods, your body would thank you with lean muscles, low fat mass, energy and immunity. And that is true, unless there are extenuating circumstances within your specific system. The easiest way to know if you have something of an anomaly is whether or not you’re seeing results. If you can honestly say that you’re eating well and exercising almost daily to the best of your ability, and you’re not living fit, then something else is going on.
However, most often, the reality is that we WANT to be doing the right things, but instead, we choose otherwise very consistently. Here’s an example:
you want to exercise most days a week but in reality get 2 or 3 sessions
you don’t eat desserts very often but you do eat and drink added sugars and fats all day and every day
you try to get good amounts of sleep but something always wakes or keeps you up
you know processed and fast foods aren’t nutritious, but you’re busy and can’t make the time to cook at home
you don’t like veggies or sweating, so you do very little of both, even when you know they are good for you
your enjoyment of social alcohol consumption happens nearly every night, even in moderate amounts
you’re only on a few prescription medications that include a family history, so it’s not really in your control to stop
you’re mostly happy but your personal and professional lives create a lot of stress that keep you from relaxing
your personal health history has never been stellar so weight control is harder for you than most people
This is a sassy list. It may feel offensive and harsh, and probably a bit rude. But the truth behind each of those statements is leading all of us down an unhealthy road. Even if it’s just one…these are the issues we each have control over and they each impact our immunity and fitness in monumental ways.
A typical coaching strategy is to either tackle the easiest thing to change first (make it so easy you cannot fail) or tackle the hardest thing (and get it dealt with sooner). But here’s one last hard truth: when your life depends on doing everything within your power to be healthy, you WILL DO IT ALL. Suddenly, nothing else is as important as being healthy when you’re looking disease straight in the eyes. Unfortunately, we wait until that time before trying to change, and for many, that’s too late.
To give ourselves the best chance of surviving and thriving, isn’t it time to get extremely serious about being healthy? Aren’t there more than enough things outside of us that are without resolution that we can finally take a hard look at ourselves and choose to be better than we’ve been? Here’s the challenge before all of us.
How many health compromises will we stop doing in order to gain immunity, lean mass, bodies that heal themselves, strength, mobility and a long, healthy life? Since disease usually grows slowly and unannounced, we convince ourselves that just a few compromises won’t hurt us. But instead, it becomes harder to be disciplined. The slope is slippery, wide and full of temptations to become less than our best. Much less.
It is past time to be soberly minded and extremely dedicated to keeping ourselves fit. Age, history, ability, motivation or time are nothing compared to a firm commitment that we will do all that is necessary for our health. The good news is that we have the strength to make those decisions but sadly we have convinced ourselves it’s unnecessary to be that serious about it. That’s a lie. It’s time to fight for our lives like nothing else matters because the healthier we are, the better everything else in our world will be.
