What Does Being Healthy Mean?

This is a "FUN" post.  I was reading the News the other day and stumbled on an article by James Fell titled "What It Means To Be Healthy - Hint: It Doesn't Mean Looking Like A Fitness-Mag Model".  In the article Mr. Fell outlines some points of what it means to him to be Healthy, here is his list:

-It means finding my own personal “good enough.” I don’t pay attention to what the media says about the way I should look, get jealous of fitness models with rippling abs or bemoan the fact that I never won an Olympic medal. The only person I’m competing with is myself.

-It means harmonious instead of obsessive passion. I run because I love doing it, not because I have some number-crunching minimum of calories to burn.

-It’s about having a life that I enjoy. My diet doesn’t feel deprived, and I don’t feel like my time is eaten up by exercise. When I want pizza and (root) beer, I have pizza and (root) beer. When I don’t want to lift weights, I don’t lift weights. Conversely, when I’m in the mood to exercise, I relish going hard.

-It’s about finding out what I’m physically capable of.

-It’s about having kids who say things like, “Daddy, you’re really strong.”

-It’s about having a loving wife who thinks I look hot.

-It’s about not wanting to settle for living in a mediocre shell. My body is my most prized possession, and I’m stuck with it until the end of my days here on earth, so I want to make sure it’s as finely tuned as I can reasonably and rationally keep it so that I feel like a BMW on the Autobahn rather than a rusty clunker that might need a tow to the mechanic.

-It’s about actually wanting to eat healthy, because it feels like putting premium, high-octane fuel in my gas tank.

-It’s about not craving junk food because I know it sits like an unsettled glob in my stomach and makes me feel like crap.

-It’s about fighting a valiant battle against turning into a decrepit old man.

-It’s about falling asleep quickly every night, sleeping like a rock and waking up refreshed and ready to eat nails for breakfast. Well, I actually prefer three eggs and whole-wheat/whole-grain toast with butter, but you know what I mean.

-To me, being healthy isn’t just for my body, but my mind as well. It’s about not sweating unimportant things, focusing on finding solutions rather than dwelling on problems, being happy, having fun with my wife and kids, and creating a good work-life balance.

-Finally, being healthy is about embracing getting older, because it’s better than the alternative. I like the idea of being a fit old guy far more than an unfit young one.

This is what it means to me. What does it mean to you? Go figure it out and then start living it.

So I decided to take a crack at what it means to me, and at what I'd add to, or alter on his list.  Here is my list of: What it means to me to be Healthy:



-    Being healthy to me is to be able to run, hike, bike, swim, backpack, camp and play with my family and have the energy I need to make it fun and enjoyable. 

-    It’s going on a 50-miler expedition with the Boy Scouts and outpacing some of the boys.

-    It’s being able to help my neighbor move his piano without throwing out my back. (just me on one end and three guys on the other…yeah baby!!!)

-    It’s being able to tell my daughter that she can’t marry any boy who won’t wrestle me, and being able to back that up.

-    It’s being an example of fitness to my family and others around me and inspiring them to get out and move.

-    It’s about being able to be active with my wife for decades to come.  Fitness is essential to your love life.

-    It’s about maintaining the most pristine “temple” (body) for my spirit that I can…it’s treating my body as if it were the ‘celestial room’ for my spirit.

-    It’s about pushing the limits of my BODY and my SPIRIT and seeing where they can go together…especially when going doesn’t make sense…and showing that lazy guy inside me who is boss.

-    It’s about stretching my brain to do things that challenge me mentally and never maintaining  the status-quo. It’s about reading constantly, devouring good books and filling my brain with that knowledge.

-    It’s about being the grandpa who can play with his grand kids and not the one who sits in a chair and watches the world go by.

-    It’s about leaping out of bed in the morning excited for the day, getting on my knees and thanking God for the chance I have to tackle problems that day and then manfully stepping up to the plate.

-    It’s eating right, because it makes me feel good…not some weird kind of diet but getting that ‘high-octane-rocket-fuel’ that powers me through life.  Junk food makes me feel like junk.

-    It’s about smiling and being positive and optimistic about life and the world about me, focusing on what I CAN DO, not on what I can’t.

-    It’s being excited about the Gospel and itching to teach and share the truths of it with anybody that I encounter.  Ask me to teach or speak and I’ll spring at the chance and throw myself into it 100%!!!

So what about you? What does it mean to you to be Healthy?

NO FEAR - NO WHINING - NO REGRETS