HEALTH: Daily Choices

HEALTH: THOSE DAILY CHOICES

I was watching a televised interview with a medical doctor this morning. He has authored several books on health and nutrition. He made the remark that between 90 and 95% of the cells in our bodies are renewed each year, his point being that it is never too late to start an improvement program, and that huge payoffs can be had within a year’s time. The food we eat helps to determine the quality of the renewed cells.

The choices we make on a daily basis do indeed determine our future to a very large degree. Eating bad for one day will not have much effect, but make bad eating the norm and not the exception and problems can result.

The doctor also commented that many people get their emotional comfort from the foods they eat. They use it to make up for feelings of loneliness, depression, anxiety, or to combat stress. But the foods we eat for comfort may in fact be killing us.

As a Christian doctor, he said that he often prays with patients who have come to him with some physical ailment that he sees has been caused by their lifestyle choices. He asks them to pray and repent of the bad choices they have made and determine to move ahead making better choices. He said that many people are surprised by his approach to their problems.

I have had weight problems for most of my adult life. Over the years I have participated in most of the diet crazes and have lost hundreds of pounds in doing so. Yet the basic problem still remains.

Years ago I was addicted to nicotine. Quitting smoking was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I struggled with the addiction constantly. Nothing worked for me except quitting cold turkey. I had heard that the physical addiction was done within a few days and after that, it was just a psychological addiction. But that psychological addiction had a real hold on me. I quit one time for three years but went back to smoking; another time it was eight months.

Finally, one day I had enough and quit for good. It was quite a struggle and I was not a pleasant person to be around for several weeks. One time, on a day when I was being particularly irritating, my wife suggested that I go out and get a pack of cigarettes. But I didn’t. The cravings, which for I while I thought would never go away, became less frequent, and now it has been many years since my last cigarette.

I said all that to say this. Maintaining my weight at a correct level is harder than quitting smoking. The reason for that is that you can quit smoking. It may be difficult, but you can live without smoking. But you have to eat, and therein is the rub.

That brings us back to choices, living in the moment and making better choices on a daily basis. When I struggled with smoking, there was no way that I could quit smoking forever. But I could quit for one day. And then I could not smoke the next day. By taking those days one at a time, not smoking eventually became the habit.

It is the same way with eating. I am an emotional eater. Sometimes when I am emotional it seems that I cannot get filled up, and my sweet tooth is particularly empowered during those times.

I know that within myself I cannot sit here and say that I will not eat badly any more. But I also know that I can make the proper choices today.

If I made the decision, and followed through on it each day, to become the person that I want to be physically, eventually I would be that person. For instance, if I wanted to weigh 160 pounds and be in shape, there is no diet program needed. Just eat like a 160 pound man and exercise regularly, and eventually that is what I would be. It is the little daily choices that do not seem to make much if any visible difference that have a tremendous cumulative effect over the years. Eat 200 extra calories today, and so what? But eat 200 extra calories every day and at the end of a year you have added 20 pounds.