Do you love yourself enough?

Rant and Tip for September 28, 2012

Quote: "If people don't love themselves enough to cut down on their smoking, they may love someone else enough to do it." Unknown

As the month of October starts to approach I am always drawn back to thoughts of my mother. She was a wonderful woman full of life and had a love of animals and although was a stay at home mom, seemed to know a little bit about everything. Unfortunately the reason for her not being here has a lot to do with smoking. Some of you may remember me stating that my mother had an Alpha 1 Antitrispan deficiency. Even with this condition she could have lived a much longer life. She passed on October 28, 1981. I was 19 years old and smoking on top of her condition took her from us way to soon. My youngest brother was only 13. He grew up during his teen years without a mom and for my teen years she spent most of her time in the hospital. Beating smoking is not easy, but I truly believe if doctors knew then what they know now my mother would have made the choice to quit smoking once she had children.

Most people I speak to truly do not want to smoke any more. They are addicted to the habit and the nicotine. I know it is not easy to quit. However please take a moment and think about what you potentially could leave behind. You may not love yourself enough to quit, but think about your children. Do you have a young child you want to see go through their teen years without a parent? Or better yet, your grandchildren not get the opportunity to meet you. My children will never meet my mother their grandmother. Pretty sad. So hopefully you love someone in your life enough to do something about it.

Your weight loss, if it is causing health issues can be addressed the same way. Do you really want to die of a heart attack when your job as a parent is not done on this earth? If you find it very difficult to watch your diet for your own sake think about your family that needs you.

Physical exercise is so important in our lives and as we become more technically advanced we tend to sit more and more. This is not all that healthy for us. Our bodies were made for motion. We have fast twitch muscles for explosive power and slow twitch muscles for strength and endurance. One of the reasons for the obesity issues in America is the fact many of us sit at computers all day and do not get out to get any exercise in. Yeah we work around the house and get the some things done. However this is not enough to keep you fit and healthy. We all need to get out and get some physical activity in that gets the heart pumping.

Have a great workout!

Tip: When planning out your meals for the day make sure to eat throughout the day. Taking in your planned amount of calories in the early part of the day and then fasting for 13 hours will not give you the results you were looking for. Spread those calories out!