Making Your Health a Priority…

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Written by Jimmie Burroughs Email this article to a friend

Yesterday I was at the post office and there was an unusually long line of a dozen or more ahead of me. I couldn’t help from noticing that almost everyone in the line except myself and a couple others were overweight and not just overweight but obese for the most part. Two thirds or more of Americans today or overweight.

Health is our greatest asset, greater than all of our other assets combined. Wealth without health is worthless; that being true; it is in-creditable how many destroy their greatest asset a little at a time.  It is just the everyday little choices that we make that determine the difference in being healthy or not being healthy, easy things to do but also easy not to do. Consider the following alarming statistics:

• The prevalence of obesity has more than doubled in the past 20 years. The rate of adolescent obesity has tripled from 5% to 17%.
• Obese individuals (BMI 30+) account for 1/3 of the population. And overweight individuals (BMI 25-29) account for another 1/3 of the population.
• Obesity can lead to coronary disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, breathing problems, and an increase in many other degenerative diseases.
• 70% of obese patients have had cardiovascular disease risks factor due to excess weight.
• Unhealthy weight gain due to poor diet and lack of exercise is responsible for 300.000 deaths each year.
• The annual cost to society for obesity is $100 billion. (from the slight edge)

It isn’t hard to figure out why there are so many overweight in this country. It actually comes down to three things. Too much food is consumed, the food is high in fat and there isn’t enough exercise.

There is a simple formula to keep you in the right weight category: weigh once a week and as soon as you reach two pounds above your desired weight, alter your food consumption and up your exercise until you are back to your normal weight. Losing two pounds is easy but not so if you are 50 or 60 pounds overweight.

Search for foods that you like which are low in fat and nutritious. Include fruit and nuts in your diet daily. Eliminate soft drinks which are high in sugar content and substitute tea or water. It takes a while to get used to the change but in time you will learn to like the switch.

Exercise is the secret to keeping a desirable weight; it does not mean a trip to the gym every day to get a sufficient amount of exercise. A brisk 30 minute walk will do wonders. Home exercises like crunches and pushups and perhaps some dumbbells for arm exercises is usually all you need to stay in pretty good shape and to keep you weight in line. If you are just starting exercise, it would be wise to consult your doctor before beginning.

Health is a matter of making the right decisions on a daily basis concerning what you eat and how much you exercise. It is very easy to eat wrong and it is also easy to eat right. It is easy to exercise and it is easy not to. It depends on you making the right choice consistently.

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Jimmie Burroughs is the author of JimmieBurroughs.com ; get more tips on personal development: www.JimmieBurroughs.com

JimmieBurroughs.com is founded and maintained by Jimmie Burroughs Nashville, Tennessee. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ © 2011 Jimmie Burroughs. All rights reserved