What does Good Health mean to you?

There is so much emphasis put on healthy eating these days, but is it somewhat missing the point? Most of us have heard the cliche that "It's 20% in the gym and 80% in the kitchen" but I think that over simplifies things a bit.

Most of us know we should be eating more veggies, less processed food, drinking more water and taking some form of daily exercise/physical activity. Simple - but if all know that why are so many of us overweight, underweight, prone to chronic decease and generally unhealthy?

We have to go back further, dig deeper, question ourselves. And the first question we need to ask ourselves is "what does it mean to ME to be healthy?". And I have the answer… but unfortunately it's only my answer, not yours!

We are all different and we all want different things out of life. For me, health means living to be 100+ years old and to be of sound mind and body to enjoy life right up until the time the lights go out. My version of 'enjoy life' will undoubtedly change as I get older, as it has done since I was younger and I'm OK with not partying the night away and still make work the next day as I did 20 years ago - and in another 20 years time I may not have the same passion for fast motorcycles. But my point is, I don't want to spend the last 10 or 20 years of life weak in mind and infirm in body, so NOW is the time to invest in that future.

We all consider investing financially for our twilight years but what about our minds and bodies to be able to enjoy a position of financial independence… If we're too overweight, or weak, or regularly ill and it's having an an effect on our 40/50 year old selves, imagine what it's going to be like as we get older! Things won't get easier unless we take ourselves seriously right now! (But that doesn't mean lose the sense of humour - quite the opposite in fact - a light hearted outlook to life is definitely a god thing!)

So we need to incorporate a 'gap analysis' into our lives. Simply put, we figure out what long term health means to us on an individual basis, we look at where we are now and where we want to be in the future. Then we just have to figure out how to get from point A to point B. If we don't eat healthily now - why not? It could be a lack of education, bad habits, something from our past or simply that we've never been too bothered about it all, until maybe, (hopefully) now! We need to know what's wrong before we know how to fix it.

So ignore the fad diets, the 30 day weight loss promises, the gym memberships that you have no interest in, the media driven image of what health should look like and talk to yourself, (it's not too crazy - trust me!) about what YOU and only YOU want from your life. Have you ever 'really' considered what a health coach could do for you? They say life is too short but it's also too long not to enjoy it...