Why? What's the Point?

A lot of times the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle is retarded because we start asking the “why” questions. When we stop seeing the point to all of our hard work, it makes it easier to give in to our immediate satisfaction demands. Questions like “What’s the point?”, “Is it really going to make a difference?” and “Is it even working?” are good because they make us pause and re-evaluate what we’re doing. But if we don’t have the answers to those questions our resultant conclusion is “it’s not worth it” and we stop.

“Is it worth it?” is the one question we always need to have an answer to or our own motivation will suffer and decline into nonexistence. No one can successfully illicit a permanent lifestyle or behavioral change if they do not value the change or the end result. Everyone at times gets discouraged and experiences disappointment in their attempts to live healthier. It happens to everyone. Seriously, it wouldn’t be life if we didn’t fail every once in awhile.

But the key to success, however cliché it may be, is to get up and try again. The key is perseverance and endurance. My favorite motivational phrase I use when everything just seems like too much is “keep on keepin’ on”. Sometimes the only thing we can do is just keep on going no matter.

In our journey towards a permanent change, we have extra help. It’s called a purpose. When we truly believe that what we are doing will get us to our end goal and that our end goal is worthwhile we will be successful. And when times hit that make it hard to continue and we begin to forget the goal or forget how much that goal means to us, we give ourselves a reminder.

These reminders can be simple words or phrases posted in our rooms and on our mirrors that help us remember the “why” or they can be more powerful written anecdotes in which we realized we needed a change. Maybe a picture of us that showed us how unhealthy we really are. Or maybe a picture of the new dress we really wanted but are afraid to buy because of the way we would look in it. Maybe it’s a picture of our spouse, who we wish we could do more with. Or our kids, who we want to be able to see graduate, marry and have kids of their own. Maybe we just don’t want to live in fear of dying early.

No matter what our reminder is, it is personal and motivational to us. Here are a few common examples of benefits of a healthy lifestyle. They may mean nothing to you or one may mean a lot. I would like to issue you a challenge though. Try and find a potential benefit of living a healthy life that is specific and motivating for you. Then use that benefit as your reward for your achievement and a way to help you keep on keepin’ on.

• Increase positive thinking and improve mood
• Reduce the risk of developing chronic disease
• Get sick less often
• Reduce healing time when you do get sick
• Get better sleep
• Have a better sex life
• Save money in medical bills, health care and clothes.

Welcome to The Balance!

I started this blog as a way to provide information to my friends and family about healthy living. I have a passion for health and wellness and love to share my knowledge with others. I also love to see those who struggle with their health benefit from helpful information.

My personal philosophy is based off of the body's natural instinct to maintain a stable, consistent environment. This is called homeostasis and its what your body is trying to maintain on a cellular level. You can find this pattern of homeostasis all throughout nature and science. I believe that if we follow that pattern using the right tools, we achieve a healthier and happier life. This blog is called "The Balance" because maintaing homeostasis is a balancing act.

Health is more then just the weight on the scale and its much more then just the absence of an illness. Health is holistic and incorporates every factor of life. It is within and among these factors that a balance must be struck. It is the Emotional, Physical, Mental, and Spiritual aspects of ourselves that make up this balance.

Because of my philosophy, I do not believe in quick fixes, temporary solutions or short-term changes to obtain a short-term goal. I believe in lifestyle changes that provide a much more lasting satisfaction.

Unfortunately, a perfect balance is impossible because of our own fallibility. But even though the goal is lofty, its still worthwhile. As one well known saying goes: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

Hope you enjoy everything to come and that it helps you on your way.