Give Your Body a Tune-up

I used to work in health benefits. Part of my job was explaining the health benefit plan to new employees and educating all employees during the “annual change” period, when employees had the opportunity to change their health benefits for the new calendar year.

Health care is a hot issue these days. If you are fortunate enough to have health insurance coverage, have you taken the time to understand how it works? Do you know what is covered and what isn’t? Do you know your financial obligations in the event of a major health crisis? Do you have a primary care provider who has a chart on you? A big gold star to you if you answered yes. The average person spends about 1 hour deciding on their health plan choices, maybe less. See the table at the end of this blog for more information on hours spent researching purchases. Frankly, that we spend more time researching a new computer purchase than health insurance is mind boggling, but that is just my opinion. You decide what is important to you.

Just another one of my editorial comments, I encourage you to take some time to learn about your health coverage. It is so important.

Do you take your car/truck in for regular oil changes and tire rotation? Have the brakes checked periodically? Wash your vehicle, vacuum it, and keep it clean? It is likely your home away from home, we spend lots of time driving across this vast state, to and from work or chauffeuring kids to activities.

Stay with me here, I am getting to the point. What I am driving at (no pun intended) is this: most of us take better care of our vehicle than we do our bodies. Guess what, car parts can be replaced. Body parts, well, some parts are replaceable, but at a very high cost, physically and financially. But let’s face it, by the time you have a body part that needs replacing, it has been pretty well battered. Think about this, are you driving around on bald tires? Is your oil light on? Exactly. You are taking care of your vehicle. Why aren’t you taking as good care of yourself? A car can be replaced.

"If I knew I would live so long, I would have taken better care of myself." Mickey Mantle

· Manage your stress
· Get your Vitamin D (talk to your health care provider for more information)
· Get up off the couch and move
· Eat your fruits and veggies
· Drink water
· Laugh
· Take the dog for a walk
· If you smoke, get help to quit
· Schedule time to have some fun, with your family, friends or by yourself. Daily life keeps us so busy we forget what it’s like to have fun sometimes. Give yourself a treat and dedicate a day to enjoy life. It will refresh you and give you a new perspective.
· Get a good night’s sleep.
· Do something good for someone; you’d be amazed at how good you feel.
”Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think” Alice Meynell
· Write in your journal, reread your journal periodically.
· Feeling frustrated? Have pent up energy? Have a bad day? Get out and burn off some energy, take a bike ride, dance with wild abandon, take a brisk walk. You get the idea.
· Take time to eat and appreciate your food, I mean really think about the flavors, the textures, the colors.
· Take a personal account of all you have to be grateful for in your life. It has helped me through some difficult times. No matter how bad things are, you can still find good in your life.

If you are reading this, you are probably participating in the Lifestyle Balance program, working towards increasing time spent engaging in physical activity, healthy eating and lifestyle changes. Congratulations. While you are busy taking CARE OF YOU, think about how good you feel. Yes, it is work, aren’t you worth it? Generally, anything worthwhile, takes effort.

Next time you take your car through the car wash, take yourself for a nice walk (if you washed your car it probably isn’t raining or snowing, hmmm?)

Invest in yourself, your body and spirit, the same way you take care of your car. The rewards are many.

“Here are the facts, based on information gathered by http://www.reuters.com/ and covered in The Next Evolution of Marketing by Bob Gilbreath.
Average Amount of Time Spent Researching (in hours)

A new home 39 hours
Major home improvements 10 hours
Car 8 hours
Vacation 5 hours
Mortgage 5 hours
Computer 4 hours
Television 2 hours

http://whymomsrule.com/2010/01/18/marketing-to-moms-time-spent-researching-purchases/