What Irony!

Wow, do I ever have a bit of irony to share today! Ready?

The headline in our local newspaper yesterday morning read "We're No. 1!" and the story reported that "according to the 2009 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, this area 'led the nation in providing basic necessities - such as safe places to exercise and easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables - to its residents.'" (Honolulu was #9 on this survey!) Our town was also ranked first in the "Access to a safe place to exercise" category.

Here's the irony: in a community listed as #1 in a Gallup poll for our access to a safe place to exercise (which means that people feel safe to walk the streets after dark) and a place with easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables (thanks to the many local farms and our wonderful farmers' market), do you know where we ranked when compared to other communities in the survey when it comes to healthy behavior? Of the 187 communities listed in the survey, we ranked 63rd.

How on earth can a community that is recognized #1 for easy access to exercise and fresh fruits and vegetables rank so dismally when it comes to healthy behavior? What this article screams (at least to me) is that having all of the things needed for a healthy lifestyle doesn't mean a lot unless they are actually used.

I remember watching Oprah a few years ago after she'd lost a lot of weight (don't remember which time this was!). In the segment I watched, her personal trainer woke her up at 5 AM for a workout and her personal chef prepared only the food she could eat (and published a cookbook full of Oprah's favorite healthy recipes, which I purchased). As I watched the segment, I remember thinking, "I could lose weight, too, if I had a personal trainer that woke me up and worked out with me every morning and if I had a chef who cooked all of my food for me." Sadly, as we all know now, even having all of those advantages didn't help Oprah to keep her weight off and she continues to struggle to this day. At some point she simply stopped making the choices she needed to make.

Whether it's easy access to exercise and healthy food options, or access to personal trainer and chefs, the advantages are meaningless if we don't choose to use them. The good news is that with Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, we have the tools we need to reach our goal. The question is, are we going to use them? The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)