Health Help for Those who Hide Behind Heredity

outlook on healthy habits

Is This Really Your Best Choice?

My thanks to guest contributor Sarah Scrafford. Sarah regularly writes on the topic of Radiology Technician Classes. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.

If there’s one thing that frustrates me in my marriage, it’s that I’m a health freak and my husband is exactly the opposite. I’m not sure if there’s a word to describe such a person – even the term couch potato seems too tame. If there was ever a person who hated exercise in any form more than my spouse, I’ve yet to meet them. I’ve heard the wildest and most inane of excuses being used to get out of a morning walk or a visit to the gym.

His favorite one (and the one that brings on my most incredulous look) is that he’ll end up putting on more weight when he suddenly has to stop exercising for some reason or the other. I want to respond with “why talk of stopping when you haven’t even started?” but I know I’m wasting my breath, so I say nothing.

When people ask about his almost rotund shape (invariably by comparing it to my tall and shapely body), he coolly dismisses them by attributing it to his genes – his dad and mom are on the heavier side, and therefore, so is he. But he seems to be forgetting the fact that he was not always like this. In fact, there was a time when he used to be a regular at the pool and on the tennis court. And this reminds me that he’s forgetting to mention another gene that he certainly didn’t inherit – the one called laziness.

I’ve seen this kind of attitude in other people too, the ones who claim that exercise does not benefit them in any way because their genes are biased against them in the first place. I know they’re just finding a reason that sounds convincing enough to hide the fact that they’re just plain lazy.

Little do they realize that they’re not fooling anyone but themselves. Health is a fickle companion – it stays with you when you’re young, but as you grow older, it leaves you slowly and steadily, unless you take the necessary precautions to make it stay with you. And so you have to bribe it, with the right kind of food and a sensible exercise routine. If you don’t, you’re likely to spend most of your time at healthcare facilities with some complaint or the other.

Remember, your genes may have made you a certain way, but it’s your will that decides how you turn out. So stop blaming heredity for your ills and do yourself a big favor by helping yourself to become healthy today.

To learn seven ways in which exercise benefits your life, see this from the Mayo Clinic. To find ideas on a healthy and natural diet, see this from The World’s Healthiest Foods.