Buy Now Pay Later

When I'm at work I often find myself metaphorically talking to patients about the "buy-now-pay-later program".

"I don't see any moles now and I want to tan.  It looks healthier and sexier and makes me look thinner".

"I feel better when my sugar is running higher.  Why should I change what I'm doing?"

"I don't have to watch my diet because I'm on Lipitor for my cholesterol".

"I know I should lose weight but I love to eat.  I've always been like this and I always will".

"It doesn't hurt me to do that exercise now, in that way.  Why should I stop?"

"It's better to burn out then fade away.  I don't want to take that medicine or make any lifestyle changes.  I'll just have a heart attack and die and then I won't have to worry about it".

These are a few of the things I hear, not just at work, but from my own friends and family.

Why should you care?

Why should you change what you're doing now?

Because this is the buy-now-pay-later program.

What you do today, even when you feel fine, doesn't mean you'll feel fine tomorrow or ten years down the road.

And, yes, you may have a heart attack and die but what if instead you have a stroke and live?

What if you're then paralyzed on one side of your body and dependent on others for your basic needs?

Granted, there are people who do everything right and things like this still happen but wouldn't you like to decrease your chances of it?

I know I would.

That's a BIG "why?" for me.

My health is so precious to me and the older I get the less I take it for granted.

I strained my low back just before Christmas which side lined my training.

Yesterday I went with my husband and son to the mall and by the end of all the walking my right heel was throbbing.

I'm 42 years old and as I age I am finding there are things I can no longer do and there are aches and pains that I didn't used to have.

I remember the Glory Days of my twenties, just like everyone else, when I could do anything and my skin was taught and I was strong and pain free.

It's a hard thing to come to grips with aging and all of the changes our bodies go through.

But the thing you have to consider is the alternative.

If you just give up you're resigning yourself to being at greater risks for disabling heart attacks and strokes.

If you stop moving you'll lose muscle and you'll be less likely to be able to move at all as you age.

That's not okay with me.

And, even though the aging thing still really bums me out at times, I'm choosing to move forward and do what I can do right where I am, right now.

Just like with my diet I have a choice to make.

I can choose to focus on what I can't have(though with WW nothing is really off limits) or I can focus on what I can have.

I can focus on all my aches and pains and what I'm no longer able to do or I can figure out what I can do and get moving and stay moving long term.

And you know what?

At 42 years of age my fasting blood work is stellar!

In fact it's better than it's ever been all of my adult life.

My fasting glucose and cholesterol had begun to creep up slightly and, although for some this can be genetic, I knew that mine had previously run lower with improved lifestyle.

I knew what I needed to do.

My doctor wasn't responsible for the unhelpful choices I was making.  I wouldn't blame her.

That would be giving my power away and I still have the power in each moment to make choices that support my goals and my health.

I also have more core body strength than I've ever had as an adult.

I'm blessed that my health system offers the employees a free personal trainer.

I thought I knew how to do a squat or dead-lift, and many other things, before I started this program but I've learned that I only thought I knew.

I've learned so much from the trainers that work with me and that alone makes me feel younger.

It's a funny experience.  When I started they would tell me to contract certain muscles while I was doing an exercise or to engage certain parts of my core but I didn't know how to do it because I couldn't feel it.

It was like I'd never really worked those muscles before but now that I have for six months I do feel it and it's new and exciting to me.

It's also well worth the time and sweat.

So is eating right.  I'm continually amazed at how different I feel when I eat junk in comparison to when I eat good-for-you-foods.

In my youth I treated my body like it was disposable and maybe even indestructible.

I'd blame and shame it for looking and moving the way it did when it was only responding to the way I was treating it.

Now I'm learning to respect and love this body and give it what it needs to sustain health.

And the great thing is, it's never too late.

Just as George Eliot said "It's never too late to be what you might have been".

Let's do something today our future selves will thank us for.  :)