A message to a friend....

Tonight, a friend asked how he should commemorate the third anniversary of his younger brother's death. I told him to make the choice to live a long and healthy life. My friend is overweight, and in poor health. I worry about him, because of it. In a later conversation, this is what I told him:

We are all driven by two prime motivating factors. Everything you and I do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure. You have to find a way to associate so much pain with your self defeating behaviors, that you absolutely have to change. Right now, your fear of change, and the pleasure you get from the way you have lived your life, is overriding the fear of being unhealthy.

You can change this, you can take control of your health. All it takes is a moment of decision, a single moment to decide you WILL NOT live this way ANYMORE! You will fall from the wagon, you will have setbacks, and moments of doubt, and perhaps even times when you temporarily give in to despair and feeling sorry for yourself. But, if you make the decision to change, you WILL do it.

Nobody can make you healthy. There is no magic road to weight loss, or to healthy living. It is long, and it is hard, and sometimes it sucks. But I tell you now, it is worth it. I am down 60 lbs from last year. I have erased 6 years of weight gain and unhealthy living. I have over a hundred more to lose, to be healthy by medical standards. But I can tell you, the difference it has made in my life is incredible.

Decide you WILL change, that you deserve a good life, that you deserve to be healthy, and change will happen. Start now. Pick one unhealthy habit, and decide to stop. Cut out soda, or cookies, or pizza. Just one thing, something you won't miss too much. After you've gotten used to not having it, pick another. Meanwhile, ten minutes of exercise a day. Ten minutes. Crunches or situps. Hell, curl a barbell for ten minutes while you watch tv.

The fear of making the change is far worse than the reality, I can tell you. And the rewards are astronomical. Monday, I got up, walked out my door, and walked two miles in 45 minutes without stopping. Last year at this time, I couldn't make it upstairs without my knee feeling like it was going to snap in two.

Stop thinking about it, DECIDE NOW to make a change. Live your life like a Viking.

I thought it needed to be posted.