10K Minutes of Health and Wellness Education

I am often asked, how does one adopt a healthy lifestyle. How many times must I work out? What is the proper diet? How do I take better control of my health? These are question that we all have asked ourselves. Yet we continue to struggle and our health is declining from lack of knowledge. Consider this, we live 525,600 minutes a year, we spend less than 40 minutes a year (4 (10) minutes visit a year) with a primary physician and we expect our health to improve. There are 1,440 minutes in a twenty-four hour period. We sleep, eat, work and play within those 1,440 minutes. But we don't educate ourselves on being healthy.

We all accept the truth that education improves lives. We must also accept the truth that health and wellness education improves health. Health and wellness education is the foundation towards adopting a healthy lifestyle. Let me give you my personal example, ten years ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. What I knew about diabetes could fit in a single paragraph and what I knew about living healthy was a sentence. I knew that if I wanted to live long and free from complications I would need to educate myself on what "healthy living" really means. And over the past ten years I have continued to educate myself, becoming a health expert on Tim Anderson's health.

I am not an expert on health, but an expert on my own health. I understand how my body functions, I understand how food both heals and harms my body. I understand the benefits of exercise, the type, the duration and how my body's response creates an overall feeling of well being. I read about living healthy, I attend programs like cooking demonstrations, I read about diabetes involving medication, diet and exercise. I don't profess to have all the answers, but I do believe that educating myself has prevented me from experiencing serious complications from diabetes. This health and wellness education foundation has formed the basis for me adopting a health lifestyle.

I am urging you today to allocate 10k minutes per year for health and wellness education. It is less than two percent of your total minutes per year. And it will improve the quality of your total minutes of your life. Make that investment of 10k minutes per year, it breaks down to less than 1/2 each day.

Here's how you get started:

Read, Read, Read! Buy a book about eating healthy or exercise or disease management!
Attend health and wellness programs.
Attend health support groups or start one.
Read food labels when purchasing food.
If you take medication read the affects of the medication's pros and cons.
Have a list of questions for your doctor on your next appointment.
Investigate alternative medicine for health and wellness.
Track your 10k minutes

Should you begin these simple steps in educating yourself, you will be on your way improving your health. Health and wellness education in combination with physical activity and proper diet support the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.

Write back and tell me what you will do with your 10k health and wellness education minutes.

Casting Pebbles Upon Still Waters

Welcome to my first blog. I am not sure about the term "blog" but whatever the name blogging is here to stay and I will take advantage of it. But what a name for a format to express your thoughts and ideas. But here I am using this technology to convey to you my thoughts of the importance of making a difference in our community. No just a difference, but a positive with long-term meaningful impact in the lives of people who are most vulnerable. Working collectively the outcome will be that much more significant.

I define this effort of making a positive difference as, "casting pebbles upon still waters". I am not the first to use this term, but allow me to give you my interpretation. In neighborhoods, communities and cities across our country is an epidemic of despair, not brought on by the recent recession, but from long term neglect of the most vulnerable people and communities. The recession has shine a narrow light on this despair and hopelessness. Folks have given up and given in.  I see still waters reflective of hopelessness and despairs.

Casting pebbles is the positive action to cause ripples of change. The more pebbles tossed the stronger the ripples of positve change. All that is needed is to cast the first pebble towards improving education, jobs, housing, the environment, health and wellness.  

I believe in the power of hope. Where one person's actions to address despair and hopelessness can begin the process of postive change. Casting a pebble upon still waters is the metaphor for the action in promoting hope to people, neighborhoods and communities that believe there is no hope. The longer we ignore the still waters, the greater the hopelessness and despair become entrenched and the challenge becomes even greater. We cannot afford to ignore any longer but must engage ourselves to be of service, thereby instilling upon those of us a great sense of hope; cast your peebles upon still waters to begin the rippling of change. If we cast our pebbles singlarly we produce change and if we do it collectively the ripples become a force that reaches all areas and the depth of still waters.

Cast your pebbles, cause a ripple, promote hope. I invite you to respond how your pebbles are promoting hope.