Always Your Choice

Your Daily Challenge:

It’s always your choice … and mine.

By Bernadette Kathryn, LMT, IHLC

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself.

Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

~ Wayne Dyer

How do I want to invest my time, energy and money?

Sometimes I don’t think we all stop and reflect on these questions as they pertain to our physical being. I was recently working with a teenage girl that is in the process of trying to figure things out. She is admittedly addicted to “any potato product, pasta, and bread.” She will eat an insufficient selection of vegetables, does not like condiments of any kind, will not eat a salad or salad dressing, does not like meatloaf, meatballs, hamburger ~ any ground meat. Will not eat a sauce or gravy and loves eggs and cheese.  She will eat “plain grilled chicken, some fish, eggs and any junk food known to man.”

OK, I can sort of understand those thoughts and feelings, they need to be respected, and we need to work with the things she is willing to try, little by little exposing her to new tastes and food ideas. She will eventually find some new things that she will like and be willing to work into her daily diet. My teenage diet was a nightmare so I can relate to this challenge. Then she told me her doctor said during her recent annual physical that she had ‘high cholesterol’ and needed to revamp her food plan, not a surprise. While the cholesterol issue is a controversial one with a lot of conflicting information, I will not get into that debate here.

My question to her —

Are you ready for a lifetime of prescriptions or would you like to alter your eating habits now and see if you can change the course of your destiny with natures medicine, Living Fit Food List?

It’s an excellent question because she is young, she has the power to choose, change and reap the benefits while she is still young. And, those changes would make a truly profound impact on the rest of her life.

Examining my readiness to change was one of the many questions that altered my life when I was a little older than she is now. I looked around and saw people overusing prescription drugs, taking recreational drugs, drinking too much alcohol and severely overeating to the point of misery. I was bewildered, I didn’t understand …

• I asked myself if these mood-altering methods helped to make people happier?
• Did I want to follow those patterns and have a life full of unhealthy choices?
• Did they have a better life as a result of these choices?
• What do we know about healthy living, health care, and disease prevention?

It did not look to me like any of those choices added value or happiness to their lives; I was assuming that …. since it wasn’t me, I couldn’t say for sure. I ultimately made a judgment call and decided that these indulgences were not adding value to anyone’s life. There must be a better way to add pleasure, enjoyment, and vibrancy to life and I wanted to find it!

I decided that having good health was a tangible asset that I wanted to enjoy and having a Living Fit Lifestyle full of Living Fit Food List, exercise, restorative sleep, rewarding relationships and enjoying the pleasure of the little things would be more beneficial to me personally and that became my quest. I don’t have all the answers; I don’t believe that anyone does. I do think that we are learning more every day about how to prevent disease, rehab injuries and take better care of our bodies which will provide value to our lives in the area of “Quality of Life” and that’s what I want.