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What Takes More Effort - Health and Fitness or Disease and Disability?

Does it take effort to learn about what promotes weight loss and weight control, health , and fitness?

Does it take effort to read the books, watch the videos, listen to the tapes and CDs, and scour the literature and journals that will help you learn which foods support your body, your health, and your life?

Does it take effort to learn the principles of health and fitness and apply these principles to your own daily life?

Does it take effort to make the changes in your own daily diet and eating plan that are absolutely critical to your health and the length of your life?

Does it take effort to distance yourself from the foods, with which you were raised and love, that are major contributors to weight gain and the loss of energy, sickness and premature death?

Does it take effort to figure out who to listen to with all of the conflicting voices out there?

Of course it takes effort, lots of effort. And you are to be commended for making that effort right now by reading this article.

Change takes effort in any arena, especially when it comes to changing a lifetime of eating and exercise habits.

However, it takes way more effort to be sick then it does to take the necessary steps to be healthy.

It takes way more effort to be slapped with the diagnosis of cancer and have to deal with that—the decisions, the fear, the pain, the chemotherapy, the radiation, the unknown, the disability, the confinement, the time it takes out of your life, and the fact that it literally consumes your life.

It takes way more effort to live with a crippling heart attack, or the loss of a leg due to diabetes, or the crippling pain of osteoarthritis.

It takes way more effort to get stricken by a paralyzing stoke, than it does to prevent the same stroke by simply eating fruits and vegetables.

Yes, it does take effort every day, day in and day out, to make those choices that will promote health and fitness, but sickness, disability, and premature death take way more effort.

Pretend that you know, without a doubt, that you are sick. In fact, you do not have to pretend. Almost every American adult and most children have some stage of atherosclerosis, or clogging up of arteries, which leads to most of the deaths in this country. What are you going to do today, not tomorrow or the next day but today, that will start the process of cleaning up those arteries and veins?

Are you and your life not worth all of your efforts?

Instead of focusing on the effort, the self-discipline, the sacrifice, and the change, focus on the grand reward.

Is there no better reward in life than the gift of health, fitness, vitality, high energy, radiant joy, and time—the precious extra time that you will have to live your life to its very fullest and to give to your children, your grandchildren, your loved ones, your friends, and to all those whose lives you touch?

The reward of health and life can be yours. Just go for it!

Tomorrow is the day that you are going to eat no, absolutely no processed foods, no refined foods, including white sugar and white flour, no pop, no junk, no chips, and maybe even no coffee.

You are gladly going to skip the meat and the cheese and the yogurt and the ice cream and the cookies and the doughnuts and the goodies.

You are going to fill your body with 10 different fruits and 2 large, green-leafy, vegetable salads with 10 different vegetables in each of them. You are going to enjoy eating these foods. Why? Because you love yourself and your body, and you and your glorious life are well worth your efforts.

Dr. Leslie Van Romer is a health motivational speaker, writer, and lifestyle coach. Visit http://www.DrLeslieVanRomer.com for more inspiration.