Add Years To Your Life

Add years to your life & life to your years

Owner’s manual at the ready

These days we are bombarded with different and sometimes mixed messages about protecting our health, eating better and participating in the latest exercise craze. Even for the most health conscious of people this can at times get very confusing and dare I say it, sometimes patronizing.

A week does not go by without a new initiative or announcement from the government or some pressure group advising on us on how we should live our life differently. Whilst the intensions are pardon the pun ‘for the good of our health’, it sometimes seems like just another thing to worry about and you can end up thinking ‘I am ok the way I am’…. but before you get all smug and put this article down…. stop and think about it for a minute and imagine two futures

1. eating what you want and not taking part in much activity or
2. looking after your body in the way you would look after a car which will have to last you the rest of your life.

Many of us choose to go with option 1 especially in today’s consumer society where we are led to believe ‘I want it, so I will have it’. But it is no longer the 80’s and we now know ‘greed is not good’. Living for the moment may be fun at the time, but you are in your body for a long, long time and baby, it’s the only one you get.

Whilst option 2 may feel like the boring, or something that we will do when we are older/richer/in poorer health/have more time, remember the other old saying ‘tomorrow never comes’, so in other words start loving your body now.

Let’s take the one car for life analogy further and consider if up for sale, would the advert say ‘one careful owner’, or would it be classed as unroad worthy? Firstly, lets think fuel. Would you fill your car with the wrong type of fuel that would do more damage than good? Would you put more fuel in than fitted the tank? Or on the other hand would you let it run on empty to the point of doing damage to the engine? Hopefully you answered no to all of those questions, but why then do we eat foods that may have little nutritional value, but clog up our arteries causing heart disease, high cholesterol etc. Or why do we eat more than we actually require? Tests have shown that eating larger portions does not lead more to feeling more satisfied at the end of the meal, plus do we really like the thought of spending money to make us fat? Or on the other extreme think of the harm running on empty all the time can do to the engine, well the body is the most sophisticated engine of all, but like it’s inferior metal cousins it too objects to being made to run without nourishment; to the point of major organs shutting down and creating problems with fertility. Most people in civilized society are against torture of others, but forget that notion towards themselves when trying to compete with the size 0 images shown in the media.

Next up – what happens when a car is left in the drive for months and is not run? Answer, it goes rusty and is not easy to start. The reason for this, a car is made for moving… well so is the human body. If you don’t use it, you lose it. What is the point of being full of fuel and not burning it off? 70% of people in Great Britain are not active enough. A sedentary lifestyle carries the same health risk as smoking a packet of cigarettes a day or being 20% overweight. The government recommends..

Finally, what would happen if the car was never serviced or taken in for it’s mot? In most cases it would not last as long, scary as this is what a lot of the bodies out there are like. Lack of care can lead to diabetes type ii, high blood pressure and other conditions that can effect our longevity – why risk it, when simple tlc can become part of our daily routine.

Without too much effort it is possible to add years too your life and equally importantly life to your years, because after all who wants to keep breaking down?

5 –Step Owners handbook:

• 2-3 litres of water a day (more if exercising) – fact in the UK tap water is more closely regulated than bottled water
• Eat a wide range of fresh, wholesome food that nourishes and fuels the body, providing vitality and energy.
• Keep moving - Pedometers are simple and inexpensive devices to count steps, attaching your belt, and most phones will also count steps for you. Modern research says that taking 10,000 steps indicates an active lifestyle. If you are walking to improve your fitness around 4mph is about right.
• Add weight – weight bearing activities such as free weights, help ward off bone disease, tone muscles and help raise metabolism.
• Avoid toxins, such as cigarettes, hydrogenated fat and excessive alcohol

FINALLY REMEMBER TO CHANGE YOUR BODY, YOU MUST FIRST CHANGE YOUR MIND!