Staying Fit Is A Challenge That Can't Be Ignored

Like George Burns, the world's most famous centenarian who passed away two months after he turned 100 years old, I'll also say the same.

"Had I known that I'd live up to this age, I should have taken better care of myself".  

But who can really say how long one will live in this valley of tears?  Both my parents passed in their early 60's so I thought that I'd  also live up to about the same age.  Logical, right? 

Though my parents gave us balanced meals, their love for cakes, pastries and other sweets greatly influenced my growing up years.  That explains my fondness for bread and sweets, two diet no-no's.  But I couldn't blame my parents, they gave us what they knew was good for us. 

The holiday season was not yet over, that was between Christmas and New Year,  but many of us felt guilty having indulged ourselves too much.  So we pledged to go back to our normal healthy diet and exercise routine immediately.  In spite the resolve and the proper mindset however, the parties, the get-togethers, reunions and family bonding elude us from doing so. 

For what is a get-together without food anyway?  We always concoct the best recipes that are festive, delicious and really too much of guilty-pleasure food.  The result: we overeat, we can't help it! 

But here's a remedy that may help, Jim read that whenever we eat sinful food, we can balance it by eating an equal quantity or more of raw veggies to neutralize it.  Effective? Who knows, but there's no harm in trying. 

The good news is, health and fitness has become a world-wide obsession.  There are endless ways to eat right and stay fit.  Even governments are initiating ways to encourage citizens to embrace proper nutrition.  In the Philippines alone, they recently passed the sugar-sweetened beverage tax (SSB), a way  to discourage everyone from buying them if they cost so much more. 

We are all aiming for a healthy lifestyle, we all have our own kind of healthy juice or smoothie, we eat the best veggie that combats whatever ails us, we bring a healthy lunch to work.  Besides those, we are determined to do the most rigorous exercise that we can master. 

It may  interest you to know that the numbers, meaning vital statistics of weight and waistline is not the only determining factor of good health.  In fact, a medical research found that a good percentage of obese individuals doesn't necessarily  have the health issues like diabetes, hyper tension and other serious illnesses.  

It doesn't mean however that they can be complacent with their eating habits, after all studies show that about 85 percent or so of our health condition is due to our food intake. That is why they say that staying fit and healthy is a lifestyle, not a series of diet and exercise that we ditch after we reach our goal. 

Maintaining good health is a battle against our own selves.  If only to know is as easy as to do.  I say that we do not lack the knowledge to stay heathy.  Our physician and social media bring in almost every info we need.  We can always Google which foods are good or bad for us. 

Staying fit and healthy is the greatest challenge of every generation; it needs a strong will-power and determination, a challenge that we should never ignore.