A Question for You

Happy Monday morning! After a great, but very busy weekend in Dallas, I'm happy to be home. By the time we walked through the door, I was pretty much ready to go to bed, so my Monday morning will include unpacking from the weekend.

I heard a lot over the weekend about the importance of moving from a diet mentality to viewing this as an ongoing journey towards optimal health, with reaching our goal one point on our journey, rather than the destination. We were challenged to ask ourselves what our health was worth to us.

That's a good question, so I'm going to ask it this morning - what is your health worth to you? When faced with the challenge of yet another day on Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. The reality is that our health is worth just about everything to us. If you've ever faced a serious illness, or if you know someone who has, then you know that just about everything else pales in comparison when your health is in jeopardy. Someone may have lots of things on their schedule, but if they get a diagnosis of cancer and are told they need immediate treatment, their schedule is immediately cleared of those other things because their health has suddenly become the priority in their lives.

Obesity places our lives in jeopardy. The jeopardy may not be as immediate as getting a diagnosis of cancer, but don't mistake the fact that our lives are in jeopardy. We all know that obesity is the leading cause of diabetes and heart disease, and it is also a contributing factor for many types of cancer. Those conditions happen over time, and while we may not be experiencing the long-term effects of obesity at the moment, our body and our internal organs are stressed and the obesity will eventually catch up with us. We may think we can play the odds, but the odds are clearly not in our favor if we choose to stay overweight.

The good news is that we can change the future of our health, beginning today! Years of unhealthy habits can begin to unravel today, IF we choose to make the change. Staying on 5&1 day in and day out isn't always what we WANT to do, but it is the tool that will get us to a healthy weight, putting us on the road to optimal health. This plan is about so much more than helping us look good in our swimsuits this summer, it's about so much more than helping us lose weight for our upcoming high school class reunion or our child's wedding. This plan is about helping us live longer, healthier lives, beginning today.

Blessings!
Cheryl