Short Cuts to Health?

Have you noticed the decrease in national attention span? Maybe it’s been on a steady decline for decades, but the decrease seems to have accelerated in the last 10 years.  The way we communicate via cell phones, emails, and text is instant.  We binge watch years of a television show on Netflix in a week or two.  Fast food, 8 minute abs, and instant downloads of music and movies are the norm.  We’re constantly plugged in, with information bombarding our senses at mindboggling rates.  We no longer wait for anything.

When this concept is applied to our health, it is remarkably problematic.  Expecting instant results in your physical health almost always leads to shortcuts.  These shortcuts generally, turn out to be quick fixes, with poor results.  So instead of stretching daily, we take an anti-inflammatory pill.  Rather than plan healthy meals ahead of time, we grab fast food.   We want to lose weight, so we take a pill or crash diet, instead of healthy diet modification and exercise. You see the issue?  Exchanging truly healthy habits for an easier path today, almost always leads to issues tomorrow.  So we over use the anti-inflammatories and maybe our stomach or liver doesn’t like it.  We always eat the quick junk food and our…well, everything doesn’t like it. We crash diet 30 pounds off and gain back 40 pounds.

I think most of us, as Americans, have these types of issues regarding our health.  We are one of the most, if not the most, unhealthy nation in the history of the world. We don’t die because of war or plague, we die by lifestyle choice.  But, why? We aren’t stupid, we know the better choices for our health.   It is my belief that as we became a busier, faster, more instant results oriented people, we lost ability to be patient with ourselves.  We gave up the skill of thinking long term.  We trade big picture results for the convenience of now.

The way back from this trend starts here:

Unplug.  Seriously.  Much of our instant culture can be attached to our constant and immediate stream of electronic device usage. Unplugging from the  electronics, allows us to focus on ourselves, others, and the world around us in real time, instead of at warp speed.

 Plan ahead.  This one is big. By planning our time, meals, etc. beforehand, we can control our situations, to a greater extent. So by taking a little bit of time and perhaps pre cooking meals, we can avoid putting ourselves in the position to have to eat on the fly and thus choose lower quality foods. 

Create patience via awareness.  Learn how long stuff actually takes.  Then respect that time.  Think of your body. When we want to lose weight, we want it done yesterday.  If we allow these kind of thoughts drive us, then we will become frustrated when the weight comes off slowly, and this may lead to unhealthy shortcuts or quitting all together.  Or consider when you’re injured. A soft tissue problem could take weeks or even months to heal completely, depending on the case.  If you know this, maybe you can be patient. If you don’t know this, maybe you begin to push it too soon and get more injured.

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. My suggestion is to look at your quality of life. Are you healthy, rested, and not overly busy or stressed? If you are any of these things, then it may be time to consider how you can change. Perhaps by slowing down, un plugging, and patiently building a new you. The bottom line is this: in everything we do, we must stop trading tomorrow’s health for today’s convenience.  My hope for you, is that you live a long, healthy, and happy life. The road to that goal starts today.