- Virgil, 50 B.C.
Your Greatest Wealth is Your Health
Americans are facing a pandemic. But not the one you’re thinking of, it is a pandemic of poor health resulting in exploding rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic diseases.
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A 2018 study found only 1 in 8 Americans are optimally healthy. This means a stunning 88% of Americans are at greater risk of developing chronic diseases as they age.
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We are all experts on our own body and lifestyle. My mission is to help people take charge of their own health. I start by finding out where a client is in terms of overall health and where they are headed if no changes are made.
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The next step is to identify a powerful why. As German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live for, can bear almost any how.” The goal, however, is to make healthy lifestyle changes, that are not only bearable but enjoyable and sustainable for a lifetime.
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MY MISSION
MY STORY
As a young boy I struggled with my weight. I shopped in the “husky” section of the boy’s department. Partly as a result, I have always had an interest in health, fitness, and nutrition.
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I gained weight in college. After college I was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in Army Intelligence. Despite an active Army lifestyle, I was still 50 pounds overweight. Toward the end of my 5-year Army stint I made a concerted effort and lost those 50 pounds in four months.
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Out of the Army, I became less active and slowly but steadily put weight on through my 30s and 40s. At age 50, I weighed 205 pounds and 4 of the 5 conditions of Metabolic Syndrome.
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In retrospect, what was scary was I didn’t consider this a huge health problem. Sure, I wanted to lose weight to look better, but I didn’t think I was unhealthy. I walked daily, rode in several 100-mile bike rides, and rarely got sick.
Then something great happened. I got fired. This gave me a chance to evaluate my lifestyle. While I was looking for a new job, I had more free time and decided to “get in shape”.
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I knew stress was not good for my health. So, I decided not to let being unemployed “stress me out.” Despite my dwindling bank account, I said to myself, the real tragedy of this situation is not that I might go broke but if I went broke and let it affect my health.
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This is called reframing. Anthony Robbins states the quality of your life is based on the questions you ask yourself. When hit with a bad situation he counsels, ask yourself what is good about this situation or what could be good about it.
In the next 6 months I lost 60 pounds and I had reduced my high blood pressure to normal. However, a medical checkup showed my good cholesterol (HDL) was low and my triglycerides were high. Putting me at an increased risk for heart attack. Especially concerning since my father had died of a heart attack at 64.
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During the next several years I refined my health regimen. Now 61, not only have I kept the weight off, but my health markers are excellent. My Mayo Clinic 10-year heart attack risk score went from 36% at 50 to less than 5% a decade later.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks. One of my favorites was on memory. In order, to increase my knowledge I began teaching a memory improvement course at Immaculata University’s Lifelong Learning Institute, I found my students were more interested in brain health than mnemonic techniques. Thus, I began an extensive study of brain health.
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During Covid I began to realize what is good for brain health is also good for your health. As a result, I decided to start health coaching and help people regain and maintain optimal health.