Reasons Why You Should Give a Damn About Your Health
The purpose of this blog is to educate people on how to live a more optimal, healthy, and enjoyable life. I want to help people get off their medications, improve the quality of their life and get more from it. However, I first need to convince you why you should want that.
An optimal life is one where we aren’t constrained by our physical or mental health. We all deserve the ability to do the things we want at every stage in our lives. Taking care of your health will enable you to live the most optimal life you can, for as long as you are fortunate to live.
I’ve been interested in optimizing my health since high school. My autoimmune diseases have acted as a constant reminder to so do. My conditions respond directly to my level of health. Many people (especially younger) don’t have constant reminders like this to be healthy. It isn’t until you get older that you realize your health directly affects the quality of your life.
People are often surprised to find out the how much I exercise, prioritize my sleep, or how healthy I eat. That confuses me… Why wouldn’t you want to be healthier? It makes life more enjoyable. I think the problem is that a lot of people don’t understand the incredible benefits there are to gain from prioritizing your health. Here are just a few of the reasons I think you should put more effort into optimizing your health.
A quick note on your existence…
The odds that you exist are about 1 in 10^2,685,000… That is a very very large number. The odds are basically zero. But here you are! So it goes without saying that you would take every action possible towards keeping the miracle of a life you have lasting, right? Not only lasting, but lasting in the best possible way.
You’ll look better
The most obvious benefits of being healthier are the physical ones. Once you start to exercise and eat better you begin to lose weight, gain muscle, and develop better skin. This gives you confidence and makes you feel better about yourself. You’ll likely attract more people and start to enjoy life more!
Mental Improvement
Beyond looking good, one of the main things that got me first interested in working out was the mental improvement. There are tons of mental benefits to gain from living healthier, in both your mood and cognitive function. The body and mind are connected in complex ways. Living a healthy lifestyle boosts emotional wellbeing dramatically. Both exercise and balanced nutrition are effective ways of relieving symptoms of depression and increasing hormones related to happiness.
Additionally, working out increases our ability to deal with stress, which is a constant in our lives. Being in good shape is one less thing to stress about, and will enable you to face other stresses you come across. When you know you are in poor health, it weighs on you. We want to liberate ourselves from that stress to have more mental capacity to focus on living the life we want to live.
Become a Kick-ass 80 year-old
I think one of the coolest things about exercising a lot and eating good early in life is the benefit you get later. Living healthier throughout your entire life will enable you to live your optimal life for longer. It’s easier for young people to get away with being in bad shape, eating like crap and getting awful sleep. They aren’t as impacted by poor health as older folks. They are naturally stronger, more mobile and have better brain function. But it’s important to realize this doesn’t last. We start to deteriorate very quickly, both physically and mentally.
Envision the life you want to have in your 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s. Does it involve playing with your grandkids, traveling the world, swimming, playing your favorite sport or even walking? And if not, why? These things, along with tons of other activities get extremely difficult as we age. Obviously the healthier we are, the longer we live. But I don’t think that is necessarily the goal. The goal is to live the most optimal life we can, for as long as we live. Exercising and eating good now, will ensure your future is one you can physically and mentally enjoy.
It’s in your control, so why not control it?
Many things in our lives our out of our control. This tends to drive people crazy. One thing that we have very much control over is our physical health. Knowing we can influence something so important and successfully doing it gives us a great feeling of accomplishment. Controlling one of the only things you can will make the world seem a little less hectic.
As crazy as this might sound, disease is not inevitable, even if it runs in your family. Many people believe because their parents or grandparents died of a horrific disease that they must too. This is not the case. We know most diseases are somewhat preventable. That’s not to say you can’t get horribly unlucky and die from some un-anticipated cause, but the slow killers can be avoided.
You will motivate others
When you strive to live the healthiest and most optimal life you can, those around will notice. Not only will they notice, but they will be encouraged to do the same. There’s no better feeling than the one you get when you influence the people you care about to better their life. I think adopting this lifestyle is especially important if you have kids. Habits get passed down to children just as genes do. It’s important to teach your kids healthy habits.
Clearly there are tons of great reasons to being healthier. You only have one shot at this miracle of a life, and it goes by very fast. I encourage you to be more mindful of the way you treat your body. In this blog I’m attempting to create a “How to” guide for optimizing your health and life. Please continue to read my posts and share with people you care about! Everyone deserves to be healthy and feel good. And everyone certainly deserves to live their most optimal life.