Health Is Wealth
How are you managing yours?
When you hear about wealth the first thing that comes to mind is money. The assets you think about are your home, your stocks or investments. Maybe your collection of art, wine, gold, coins or other tangible items.
Or when you think of wealth you may think of someone that has the intangible items. They’re wealthy in time. They’re able to get up each day and do whatever they want.
What if I said the most important form of wealth isn’t money or time.
It’s actually your health.
If you don’t have your health, it doesn’t matter how much money or time you have. They’re irrelevant. You can have all the money and success in the world, but if you don’t have your health, you have nothing.
Family, friends, money, success, time all goes away if you don’t have your health.
For many, it takes a bad health diagnosis or health scare to them or someone they know, to make them get their health in order.
For me, I saw a few friends’ health deteriorate and that woke me up. Thankfully it was at a young age.
If our health is so important, why do so many neglect it and fail to prioritize their health? For most it’s the, “it won’t happen to me,” “I’m invincible”, thought process. That holds true until it isn’t. Then it’s too late.
With my career, I knew that if I was going to see my kids grow old and see any grandkids, I needed to get my act in gear. It also helped that I married my wife who also helps keep me in line.
As a now 38 year old, I find myself in the best shape of my life. Here is what I’ve learned.
It isn’t only about exercise. For the longest time, I would exercise everyday for over an hour, but I wasn’t seeing results. It was very frustrating. It turns out that your weight and health is centered around what you eat. 80% of your results come from the food you eat, and only 20% of your results come from your workouts.
Organic food is worth the extra money. I rejected that there was a difference for a long time. Truth is, it does taste dramatically better. Not to mention all the health beneifits of it versus non-organic food. It’s worth the extra money.
Fast food for instance is cheap for a reason. It’s cheap and fast because it’s terrible for you. It’s made with low quality food and ingredients. Why are you trying to save a few dollars when you’re talking about the food that you’re constantly putting into your body. Just think about it.
Food that helps me. A protein shake to start my day for breakfast. Avocado toast has become one of my favorite things to eat. Many times I will have an egg on it. Salads of all different varieties, usually with chicken. It’s hard but I avoid bacon in them. I’ve grown to love almonds, pistachios, walnuts, wild salmon and shrimp. I’ve never liked many vegetables but do focus on eating the ones that I do like. The same goes for fruits.
Allow a cheat day. I practice the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I eat healthy. Strict diet where I limit sugar, sodium and any processed foods. The other 20% of the time I will eat what I want. You have to create a reward for yourself. For that, I give myself an entire cheat day on Saturdays to eat whatever I want.
Controlling stress is vital. I found that keeping my stress under control was so important that I wrote an entire post about it. You can read it here. Our Fight With Stress. This was one of my most overlooked issues. Solving this helped me greatly.
Doing something different each workout makes it fun. Each day I do a different workout. One day it’s yoga. Another it’s lifting weights. The next is a bike ride on my Peloton. Some days I will just go for a run outside or take a swim. Other days just a 30 minute walk is in order.
The power of walking. Other than yoga, I’ve found the best way to unwind and relax is by taking a 30 minute walk. No phone, AirPods or any other devices. I’m unreachable and disconnected. Just a walk without distractions alone or with my family. It’s where my thinking is done.
Start small. I started small by slowly waking up 5 minutes earlier each day. That trained my body to then wake up earlier each day to complete my entire workout. Then nothing could come up later in the day to prevent me from working out. Eliminate the possibility of excuses. Get your workout in first thing in the morning. A perfect win to start your day.
30 minutes is enough time. I first started working out for 10 minutes. Then 15 minutes. Then I proceeded to doing over hour long workouts. I then settled on 30 minutes. That has been my sweet spot for a long time.
Diets are fads. Every year there is a new popular diet. The problem with diets is people only do them for a certain amount of time. They don’t force you to change your eating habits or create a workout routine you can sustain for months and years. They’re temporary and when people stop they fall back into their bad habits and routines. Creating long-term healthy eating habits and implementing a consistent routine for working out regularly is the only “diet” that works.
Nobody is changing your health, diet, eating habits and workout routines other than yourself. It’s you, yourself and no one else. Your health is your wealth.
The Coffee Table ☕
In honor of the 9/11 anniversary this week, I’m making all the items on The Coffee Table about 9/11. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in my high school classroom watching what was transpiring on TV. Those images and thoughts never leave. If you have a few moments, please take the time to watch these two powerful documentaries.
9/11: The FDNY on 60 Minutes Can’t really say much about this 60 Minutes piece that aired last year. It really leaves you speechless.
My first memory of the nation uniting and everyone coming together after 9/11, was this night. Game 3 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. This video is the behind the scenes on what happened that magical night. I can still feel the goosebumps and my heart thumping when the chants were made, USA! USA! USA!
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