Hello Health Seekers.
I’m Beniamin Pope. Today we’re going to talk about our human body and how important it is to care for it. Our body is the single most important instrument that we get to use, to shape our livelihood. Simply put: our body is very important to us. Jim Rohn said it best and I quote:
” You only get one body. It’s the only place you get to live.”
A phrase that makes you pause and think. And you might even feel inspired to work out and watch what you eat, for a while, again. But there’s a lot more to this quote than that.
Let’s go into detail and analyze it for a bit. It really is true, we do only get one body, and you can’t go exchange it for another; if something breaks you have to get it fixed using the available medical procedures of today. But most of us don’t know enough about how to care for our body beyond the standard approach: “I’m gonna go to the doctor to see what’s wrong”.
Let’s create a comparable scenario that can maybe shine more light on how we actually react to other things we possess and how we care for them, versus how we care for our body. For this, I’m going to use an example I first heard from one of my friends and mentors: Alin Pasca. But I’m going to elaborate on his words to really get all the juice squeezed from the fruit ..so to say.
It goes like this. Parallel to the idea: You only get One Body, let’s say: You Only ever get One Car!
Imagine you are at the age you can start driving, and it’s that big day when you get to go buy a car! Your parents take you car shopping and you get to pick any car you want. Any car, under one condition: it is the only car you’ll ever get to have!
You can never replace it!
(Yes, this is unlikely to ever happen in our day and age, for various reasons, but it serves the purpose of our example… Now back to the story.)
So you’ve got the car of your choice, say a Ferrari, and you drive it home. You get to show it off to all your friends, and take it with you to school or work and everywhere else you go.
Soon you’re going to be somewhat protective of your car, you won’t let anyone borrow it or even lean against it. You’re going to be the most careful driver around. You would fill the gas tank with only the best fuel and put only the best oil in the engine. Same with tires, brakes, brake fluid and everything else. You would wash it, clean it and detail it all the time, and make sure no rust ever even comes close to it. You would likely never miss a scheduled maintenance or a performance check, so you can catch any potential problem as the car ages.
You do all this because you know it’s the right thing to do and because you care about this car. Not only because it’s a Ferrari, but because: it’s the only car you can ever have!
My question is: Do we do that for our human body? If we are willing to go through all these daily chores of making sure our dream car stays dreamy:
Why can’t we have the same attitude when we care for our own body?
The human body really is the only vehicle we get to drive around in this world with and be “ourselves” with. We can’t go exchange it with another one like we can do with cars. This is it! In this lifetime we are stuck with what we have and we have to care for it, every day.
Sure we’re not all the same. Some of us are maybe more fortunate than others and get to start our lives with a body that has better looks or better physical abilities than others; but beyond that, we are in control of keeping our bodies in the best possible shape. There’s more to it than just going to the doctor for regular checkups or when we feel something is wrong. We have to daily fuel our bodies with the right ingredients.
Do you always want to be in shape and attractive for your age? You have to work at it. Let’s say that you have been active until now, but you stop for a while. What happens? A few months from now you and everyone around will notice that you’re not in the shape you used to be.
Do you want to live a life free of various common illnesses? You have to feed your body with proper nutrition in order to possibly avoid getting sick in the future or be hospitalized, or worse. Just as a hint: the U.S. National Cancer Institute states that: “Approximately 38.4 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime”. That’s 1 out of 3 people! But you don’t have to be one of those people. There is an endless amount of information and guides available on the web that show you what to eat, in order to help reduce your risk of getting cancer. And that’s why I’m here too, to invite you to join me on a journey full of healthy decisions that will help us shape our life and our future, into one as healthy as it can possibly be.
In short:
Each and every one of us is in control of what our body becomes.
We decide each and every day, whether we will fuel our bodies with things that keep us running like a Ferrari:
- quality nutrition, food, and water,
- adequate exercise,
- and only healthy social interactions – these are interactions with people who help build up our character. So we can be encouraged and have a constant positive outlook on life.
Or, we do the opposite and risk becoming an old rusted junker:
- eating junk food or processed food
- not making time for exercise
- and hanging out with the wrong crowd or, people who are energy vampires.
What are Energy Vampires you ask?
In case you haven’t heard of them before: these are the people that don’t inspire you but instead drain you. They are negative, gossip constantly; and if you sit around them your day will be ruined because all your energy necessary to do something productive will vanish.
Don’t spend time with them! Instead, spend your time with people who build you up and encourage you towards productivity, people who give you advice for a better future and a healthier lifestyle. If you don’t have these positive people in your life yet, go find them. There’s a lot of positive influencers on social media: like I am, and I thank you for being here. But it is also important to have positive people around you, that you can meet face to face and talk to. We will talk more about this topic in a future post.
I know some of the things I said here may be hard to hear, but they are all true.
And as we kick off this series of blog posts and vlogs about Health and Wellness, I wanted to hit you hard with vital information that would get your brain thinking. Think about the things you do daily and how they will impact your health in the long run. Our body is our livelihood and our source of happiness which money can’t buy. We can only maintain ourselves in hopes of keeping our body healthy.
Start by consuming information about what it takes to have a healthy lifestyle. This lifestyle will, in turn, make your body (the only place you have to live): healthier.
In her book entitled Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food, Dr. Cate Shanahan, who also happens to be the Director of the Los Angeles Lakers PRO Nutrition Program, explains in detail how the human body is formed, how it works and what kind of nutrition it needs. She not only tells you what not to eat but also describes a healthy eating plan. The book is a must-read for everyone and it should be a good place to start for anyone who wants to understand how our body works and how to eat healthier.
So What will you do, starting today, to improve your health and to better care for your body?
Write it in the comments below.
Thank you.
