Getting In the Game

"Health is not a spectator sport."  Is your first instinct to nod in agreement, or are you thinking, "rats!!" :-)  It's true . . . if we want to be optimally healthy, being as active and vibrant as we can possibly be for as long as possible, we have to get in the game.

This quote is from "Dr. A's Habits of Health," a book written by Take Shape for Life co-founder and Medifast's Medical Director, Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen.  My husband and I have worked our way through this book a couple of times, and I do mean worked our way.  It's a fabulous book and the companion guide, "Living a Longer, Healthier Life" is designed to not only expand on his "Habits of Health" book, but also is a workbook so that the reader can apply the Habits of Health principles to his/her own life.  I highly recommend both books!

I'm really good at studying and learning.  I'm an avid reader and enjoy the whole learning process, and I believe in being a lifelong learner.   However, reading, studying and learning in and of itself, as good as those things are, won't do a thing to get me healthy or keep me healthy.  

Prior to starting on Take Shape for Life, I had done a lot of reading and studying.  I had a good grasp of nutrition and understood the health risks of obesity.  I had an entire shelf of books on different diets (you name it, if somebody published a book about it, the book was probably on my shelf). I would often pull one of the books down to read, hoping a chapter or two would somehow spark enough motivation to get me moving down the scale again.  Unfortunately, I did a lot of my reading while eating cookies or chips . . . I kid you not.  I used to say that my obesity (my all-time high weight was 268 on my 5'5" frame) wasn't due to not knowing what to do or a failure to grasp the health risks.  

Knowing and doing are two entirely different things.  If we want to reach a healthy weight, if we want to be as healthy as we can possibly be, we have to stop being a spectator and get in the game.  It simply won't happen by osmosis.  I'm certainly not advocating that anyone stop reading about health - in fact, I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Andersen's book to anyone who wants to create long-term health in their lives.  I just know that reading alone, even Dr. A's book, won't do it for us.  We can know all of the ins and outs of why it's important to eat every 3 hours and we can have the low-glycemic list memorized, but if we aren't doing it, the information is useless.

Once we're in the game (and since you're reading this, I'm guessing that you're in the game!), the next challenge is to stay in the game.  I've never seen a team decide half-way or 3/4 of the way through a game that, since they're ahead and doing well, that they can quit early.  Even when a team has a comfortable margin and their win is a foregone conclusion, they stay in the game until it's over.  We have to do the same!  For us, the game isn't over when we reach our goal . . . it's never really over as long as we're on this earth.  Every day between now and goal is a day where you have to make choices to move forward.  That doesn't change when you reach your goal - some of the options will change, but you will still have choices to make and those choices will either move you forward or take you back.  The game continues!

If you're inclined to sit on the bleachers, it's time to get off.  If you're currently in the game, keep going!  You'll do that with the choices you'll make today.  Choose wisely :-)