Your body is your temple. I don’t mean this in the Biblical sense. However, you can go with the Biblical meaning, if you’d like. Its one of the few things in the Bible that isn’t debatable. After all, you only get one.  Yes, science has allowed us to order replacement parts. It has also allowed us to cure many of the things that used to kill us. But the fact remains you only get one body.  It is for this reason that we must take care of the one we’ve got.

I try to exercise at least two days a week.  Sometimes I exceed this, most times, I don’t. Sometimes I fail, miserably, and don’t burn a single calorie through exercise. I don’t workout because I enjoy it.  In fact, I actually HATE working out.  I hate it with a passion! There are a couple of reasons why I workout. One reason is that I like to eat and I want to do so without weighing 5,000 lbs. All the old Discovery Health Channel shows on obesity fascinate me. I’ve joked that those shows were my diet plan. Just watching them will make you want to NEVER be in that position.  How humiliating it must be to have a wall removed from your home and have a crane or forklift come to your home to hoist you out of the hole in the house? I also workout because I know I should. Research tells us that watching what we eat and getting out to exercise, even if its just walking helps us to lead longer, healthier lives. Also, I’ve inherited the traits for some pretty ugly diseases that are linked to, or exacerbated by, obesity. Therefore, I’m trying to outrun heredity for as long as I can.

A few weeks ago, I met a woman who seemed to be young and healthy. After talking to her for a while, I discovered that she had recently been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Her diagnosis came about as a result of trip to the emergency room when she wasn’t feeling well. A check of her blood sugar levels revealed that her diet, and perhaps lack of exercise, had resulted in an extreme spike in her blood sugar levels that left her hospitalized for days. She’s the third young person I know to have had this sort of scare.

Most times, our bodies will tell us when it’s time for us to make changes. We get headaches, joint aches, we become nauseous, we have trouble breathing or we just don’t feel well. Other times, we don’t get any warnings at all.  I know plenty of people who either ignore their symptoms or excuse their poor diet and exercise habits by saying, “I don’t need to be skinny.”  It’s not about being skinny.  It’s about being healthy. I’ve had others say to me, “All of my vitals are good. I don’t have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. So I’m fine.” They’re right.  They are fine . . . right now.

When you’re carrying excess weight, when you’re eating any and everything that crosses your path, when you’re leading a sedentary lifestyle, you’re a ticking time bomb. It might not be today, or tomorrow or even next month, but the lifestyle will eventually catch up to you. If you’re lucky, it will catch up to you in the form of symptoms rather than sudden death. It’s happened.  I’ve seen it. Do me a favor and try not to be next.