The Next Year… or The Next Twenty?
Which is more important? HA! I know, ridiculous question, but sometimes we don’t think about it that way. If we were to consider how we typically approach a day though, it is pretty obvious that most of our decisions aren’t made by stopping and thinking, “what impact do my decisions today have on the next twenty years”.
However, every one of us would say that our future health (physical, mental, social, financial) is more important than the next twelve months. In other words, though the next twelve months is critical, there is really no amount of short term gain/pleasure, that is worth long term sacrifice. So with that knowledge, it would seem that decisions should come easy.
But if so, why is the world full of so much pain from poor choices? Heart disease and cancer are rampant, and both are considered highly preventable. We are a society of pleasure now, with little regard for pain later. Now I realize that I am telling you NOTHING new here, and that it is a bit obnoxious for me to think that this Sprout is really going to attract you in any way. However, there is something in the background here that we need to look at as well.
New found wisdom.
Haven’t some of us, perhaps most of us, learned these lessons in the hardest way? Finances for so many have been a lifetime of turmoil, followed by a pursuit of smart budgeting, debt reduction, and controlled spending. The problem is that we had to suffer first to get smart. Now here is the bigger problem, what if we need to suffer first with our health before we get smart?
You see our finances, though important, are still just our finances. They aren’t our health. They won’t scar you to the point of early death. It is simply money, who cares. So it is painful, it won’t take your family away, it won’t leave you sobbing over an early grave, it won’t leave you sedentary in front of re-runs of Oprah. I was in Nashville this weekend for a wedding. It was a great milestone for us to be part of this wedding, as a friend rebounded from an ugly divorce from a few years back. However, I got to know the bride’s mother a bit, and it was a sad story of lost health. She suffers from heart disease, she is sedentary, wants to lose weight but really doesn’t know how, and has found herself in the all too common conundrum of being scared to move. I know there is hope for her, she is an incredibly sweet woman whom I hope to help through continued education… but it requires inspiration too!
So what if? What if she had learned the wisdom of health before the heart disease hit, before the sciatica from the degenerated disc came on? What if she had seen a glimpse of her future when she was 30, I wonder if she would have done differently. See, one of our greatest areas of concern, is helping you to understand your future. The advanced diet plan is one of no grains, no root veges, no legumes, no fruit outside of berries every other day. Basically, freedom from any sugar and anything that readily turns to sugar. It isn’t a diet that needs to be a lifestyle, but it does need enough time to have an impact on your sugar/insulin/leptin receptors.
So the question I ask, is it that bad if the pursuit of it would change the next 20 years? Of course not, what is a few months of sacrifice to gain for years? Well, there are many who would say, “That can’t be healthy”, or “It isn’t necessary”. To which I would question how you know. What makes you so confident in your decision, other than your desire to oppose such a change? Chiropractic. I would argue that you will never be able to fully judge its effect on your life until you are five years into regular corrective focused care. I continue to reap new benefits from being adjusted, I am fifteen years into this lifestyle, and I still find improvement.
I hope you see my point. We will all agree that it is wise to sacrifice in the short term for the long term, and never wise to do the opposite. Yet we often don’t know what that really means until we have suffered great harm. I would encourage you to look to those who have suffered, examine their lives, their changes, and the fruits or lack of fruits from their changes, and act accordingly. We see that the cultural answer to health continues to get it wrong, so our direction is heavily opposed to that culture. Hope it makes sense!
Be well and blessed! – Dr. E