R2 Thoughts for You What’s Most Important For Maintaining Good Health?
We WANT good health, but we NEED to maintain in order to have it.
Since I’m mortal, I most likely won’t always have good health. There’s an excellent chance that I’ll face some bad health before expiring. So what’s most important for maintaining good health, knowing there’s no way I’ll always have it?
Can I buy good health?
Before I go any further with this, please understand that I’m not a doctor, nor am I an expert on healthcare. Having stated that, I have lived over sixty years and most of them have been very healthy years. I also have studied my own health and how to maintain it. And, I have an open-mind for learning new and better ways to keep my health at its best and highest quality level.
I think most of us know, deep in our hearts and minds, what it takes to stay healthy. We know our bad health habits, but we don’t do what’s needed to break the habits. For example, if we don’t exercise enough to maintain our good health, then perhaps, we have a bad habit of being lazy and sedimentary. Or, maybe we have a bad habit of drinking too much soda pop, knowing that soda is very high in bone-dissolving phosphorus and can lead to diseases of the bones, such as osteoporosis. The point is that in today’s world, it’s very easy for us to know what, most likely, we should do in order to maintain good health.
I have never exercised, so why change now?
With the medical knowledge, technology and medicine we now have, people are living longer than ever before. As we live longer, we also have more chronic illnesses, like osteoporosis, to deal with. These chronic illnesses cause us pain and the inability to live a quality life. Fortunately, many of these illnesses are preventable. Most of us know what to do – eliminate bad habits, have a high-fiber and low-fat diet, exercise and stay mentally active – which results in a higher quality of life as we get older. We know, but we don’t do!
Why don’t we do what we should do in order to have a better quality of life as we get older? I think it’s like the joke about the farmer who doesn’t fix his roof. He says: “I can’t fix it when it’s raining because it’s too dangerous to get on the roof and when it’s not raining the roof doesn’t leak.” We don’t do what we should do for a better quality of life when we’re feeling bad, because it’s too late. We don’t do what we should do when we’re younger and feeling good, because nothing needs fixing.:-)
Maybe this old dog can teach us some tricks for maintaining good health. :-)
Isn’t how we handle change the main problem of not working toward maintaining good health? Do you embrace change? Do you try to change what you don’t think you will be able to change? Probably not! You see, often times, people will justify their bad habits by proclaiming they’ve always been that way and “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” In other words, they don’t think they can change – it’s just too difficult.
I think our ability to change our life is directly related to how strongly we believe we can. Self-efficacy, our belief in our own ability to perform in a certain manner in order to attain our goal(s), certainly plays a role here. If we think the change necessary to improve and/or maintain our health is too difficult, then perhaps, our problem centers around self-efficacy. If you are interested in learning more of my thoughts regarding self-efficacy, please check out one of my older posts entitled, “What Is Addictionial?” by clicking here. In that post, I wrote about self-efficacy and it’s role in overcoming addictions.
So, what’s most important for maintaining good health? Find out what you need to do, focus on your self-efficacy and, if change is needed, CHANGE!
If quality of life is important, then start with yourself and maintain/improve your health. Instead of good health, I wish you good health maintenance. :-)
R2 Thoughts for You 
Ron, you and I have talked about health.
One of the biggest things is having regular checkups with a good primary physician who can make great referrals if necessary.
Regular checkups were blood is drawn, blood pressure checked, height and weight noted, EKGs taken, etc, can go a long way towards catching things early.
Early detection is one of the keys to conquering whatever, if anything, is discovered.
Not knowing, ignoring, and denial are not good choices.
Thanks for the Post.
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Fred, excellent points.
Of course, each individual still has to take the initiative to see a primary physician and take the doctor’s advice.
Also, it’s important for each individual to deal with self-efficacy. A doctor, relative, friend, etc. can give good advice and/or direction, but the individual still may not believe s/he can do it.
Ultimately, we are each responsible for our own individual health.
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