Check your health’s bottom line If you don’t, you can skip the investment portfolio BY COLIN PEDEN
PHOTO BY NATIONAL CAPITAL COMMISSION
LONG-TERM PLANNING CAN mean both time flexibility and financial freedom for yourself and your family. The general goal is to be able to enjoy the fruits of your hard work by taking vacations, playing golf, and hitting the slopes. Yet a significant part of the planning puzzle has been noticeably overlooked in the investment world, and that is your health. No matter how well you plan your financial future, you will not be able to enjoy it if your health holds you back. Too many “successful” people find that their health, not finances, limits them as they get older. They spent all their time building a business and working long hours, letting their health slip to Number 6 on their “To do list” of five items.
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Fortunately, it’s never too late to start improving your health. Many positive changes can be accomplished with just a few small adjustments to your lifestyle. Proper exercise and healthy choices mean more energy, sharper mental acuity, fewer aches and pains, and better sleep. If these promises were guaranteed by someone selling a stock or an investment, it would be crazy not to buy. Where to begin? What to do? When to do it? Unfortunately, when it comes to getting started, it’s much easier to come up with excuses than to push forward and get into those healthy choices. If you think of it in a business sense, you wouldn’t make a financial investment without doing a little background work, so do the same when it comes to health. Every week new fad diets are launched and quick fix pills appear, all as short-lived and disappointing as the ones before. Here’s your best bet: stick to five basics – eat breakfast, reduce time between meals, exercise, enjoy things in moderation, and get enough sleep. These ideas are simple, yet may be overlooked in the quest to get instant results in a fast-paced society. Why breakfast? It offers a jump-start for metabolism, while also providing fuel to get the day started, which allows you to function more effectively. If you skip breakfast, your body will store more of your next meal as fat to ensure that an energy reserve is available – something to avoid. Why reduce the time between meals? The longer you wait between meals, the more energy your body needs to store in order to replenish your fuel supplies. As mentioned above, our bodies store some fuel as excess fat, so if you eat smaller meals more often, your body will use
only what it needs and discard the rest. Exercise helps people keep lean by burning calories and replacing excess fat with lean and toned muscle tissue. Muscle burns calories; fat stores them. Exercise regularly. It can be as simple as walking or gardening, or as complex and demanding as rock climbing or whitewater canoeing. Here’s the key: include some form of exercise every day. Why should we enjoy treats – think sweets, alcohol, salt and fats – only in moderation? Humans overindulge either because we can, or because it is what we are used to doing. The items above are comfort foods and help keep us happy; you just need to go easy with them. Sleep is important. Our bodies are damaged and worn down during the course of a day. Sleep is our method of replenishing lost energy, while also repairing body systems for the next day. Adequate, quality sleep is absolutely essential for healthy living, no matter what other demands press in on your time. Never sacrifice it.
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