Four Reasons to Prioritize Your Health
Why should we truly care about our health? Perhaps, like me, you've found yourself neglecting your physical well-being and landed in the middle of a health crisis. Or maybe you're in that "I kinda care but could do better" zone. You might even be giving it your all and just need a little pep talk. Wherever you stand, let's dive into why prioritizing your physical health matters, no matter your situation.
Without Good Health, Life Becomes Harder
This point is obvious, right? Yet, despite its apparent agreeableness, too few people act on it. Look out into society, and you’ll soon notice that this point is not well known. The average U.S. male is either overweight or obese. It’s a huge struggle to fight against technology that has been designed for us to consume all day. Processed food has been weaponized so we get addicted to it and we can't stop eating it. But the reality is these are the easy choices to make. We opt for the easy choice of watching TV and eating processed food, but ironically this will make our daily lives a lot harder. You will have less energy, a foggy mind, extra weight, etc. The problems will start to pop up over time.
Physical health is the foundation of everything in life. If you don’t have your physical health, you have nothing. When you're sick, you become sidelined. It makes it so much harder to love, work, learn, or even carry out basic functions like walking. On the opposite end of the spectrum, prioritizing physical health shields us from diseases and issues that could impede our progress, enabling us to show up fully for life’s demands.
Consider this personal anecdote: as someone who once struggled with reading and writing, I barely managed to read a few pages at a stretch before my mind wandered off. However, as I began valuing my health and eating better, I noticed a surge in energy and focus. This clarity sparked a new love for reading and learning, which shapes much of the content on this blog. Had my physical health been worse, reading and coming up with ideas would be far more challenging. Imagine areas in your own life where you could excel with increased energy and focus, simply by prioritizing your health!
Having great physical health won’t solve all your problems, but it will make them easier to solve. It places the ball in your court. A well-balanced diet alone can aid weight loss, boost energy levels, enhance mental health, fight off diseases, and make life more bearable.
Your Influence Strengthens
How you feel influences everyone around you. When you feel tired, low energy, sick, and grumpy due to your poor health habits, that is just not about you, but everyone you come in contact with. So working on your health is the most loving thing you can do for other people, as your demeanor impacts those you encounter daily.
Additionally, people reflect your behavior on you. Being healthy can positively impact your mood, cognitive function, and overall well-being. The more you are your best self around others, the more others want to be their best selves around you. Being a little bit nicer in each interaction can result in a network of broad and strong connections over time.
Hack: Surround yourself with individuals who share your commitment to health. If that is not immediately achievable, surround yourself with books, podcasts, and other media that do.
If you can’t change the people around you, then lead by example. Watch as others gravitate towards healthier choices, driven by the improvements they witness in your life.
Your Future Trajectory
Your health choices and habits today are shaping whether life down the road will be a breeze or a struggle. No matter your age, there is no excuse to not start caring about your physical health. For example, Alzheimer’s disease could start in the brain years, even decades, before the first symptoms emerge. If you’re making the tough choices right now - like opting for whole foods over processed foods and committing to regular exercise, your life will become easier long term. You’ll steer clear of illness, and maintain and improve your well-being. But if you take the easy route today of eating junk and not exercising, your future could become a lot harder, before you even know it.
So when making decisions that could impact your physical health, always keep the interests of your future self in mind. How will this decision make me feel in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 Years? There’s no better time than right now to start thinking about your health with your choices because once it goes, it goes.
The Bar Is Already Set So Low
It's surprising how just getting the basics right can place you ahead of most people in this country. However, when everyone is sick, we no longer consider it a problem, making it easy to overlook the issue of poor physical health. Many people don’t think twice about the impact their choices have on their well-being. But by making a few habit changes in favor of your health, you will start to get ahead. Let’s say you exercise 3-4 times a week, prioritize eating whole foods, and make an effort to take part in a few mental health exercises a week such as journaling and meditating. These adjustments to your daily habits could make a huge difference, placing you in the upper echelon of people in this country!
Here are a few sobering facts as a reminder of how low the bar has been set:
12% of the US population is metabolically healthy
90% of the US has a poor diet
50% of Americans report exercising for at least 30 minutes 3 times per week
So whether you’re on a quest for better health due to illness or seeking more reasons to prioritize your well-being, I hope these insights inspire positive changes. Just caring about your health could be a crucial change that would make your life’s difficulties more manageable, strengthen your influence on others, set you up for a brighter future, and place you above the bar that has been set for you by society.
Stay tuned for simple strategies for optimizing your health and other methods I have implemented into my own life to feel great. Also feel free to check out some of my past posts, which have some tips to get you started!
