There are two currencies in life: Money and Time. Both can dwindle quickly when not treated with respect. This is my story about respecting time through good health habits.
When I was 34-years old, my doctor informed me my poor health habits had me on track to a fatal heart attack within 10-years. During my 20s my poor health habits became ingrained into everyday life through my own inattention and laziness. These habits had to change in order for me honor the commitments I made to my family and to myself. This led to my life goal to build a body that will keep me fully mobile through age 100.
Running and cycling are things that I enjoy, so I started my journey to good health with exercise. Gradually over time I lost 10 lbs and my cholesterol numbers dropped by 30%. Things were moving in the right direction, but my weight and energy levels still were not optimal. My health habits needed further improvement. In January 2016, I decided that it was time to take it to the next level and I hired professional nutritionist Robyn Webb to help me. http://www.robynwebb.com/
Robyn started off with a 60-minute interview of my health goals, my health habits and my eating patterns. In this interview, I told Robyn with some level of bravado the excellent body and high energy levels that I expected from our work together. Soon I was reminded that talking and doing are two very different things.
Robyn presented to me the nutrition plan that would make my goals reality and immediately my brain told me to hit the brakes. For the past 30-years I had lived in comfort by pretty much eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. The plan that Robyn was sharing with me now sounded UNcomfortable and my brain was now working overtime to stop this initiative and get me back to comfort.
Knowing the facts about what to eat wasn’t my problem. The problem was my habits were poor and working against me. The help that I really needed was habit help. Books about nutrition gave me knowledge and told me ABOUT nutrition. My nutrition coach taught me ABOUT and more importantly HOW to do nutrition. Like with anything, it’s the DOING that matters. After two-months of following the plan, I’m pleased to report my energy levels are higher and I’ve lost an additional 15 lbs. Transforming my habits is what ultimately got me the results that I wanted.
The parallels between Robyn’s work with me and the financial work that I do for my clients were striking to me. With health, bad habits keep us overweight and shorten our lives (loss of time). With money, bad habits keep us poor (loss of money, which leads to loss of choice). This experience helped me reconnect with what its like to be on the client side of a financial review meeting, which in turn I hope will help me become even better when serving clients.
Enjoying great health is not a one and done thing, but rather it is a lifelong initiative that requires a daily commitment. Occasionally I do fall off and have to regroup. It is nearly impossible to be perfect every minute of every day. I’m committed to continuous incremental improvements towards my desired result, which is to enjoy as many quality minutes of life as possible.
There are two currencies in life: Money and Time. Resolve today to get more out of your two currencies. If you feel that you have room to improve, take at least one decisive action TODAY towards making that improvement a reality. If you feel I can be helpful to you, please contact me and we’ll find a time to connect.
Thank you for your reading.