Your Path To Health

There was a book sitting a few inches from me the other evening called "Wheat Belly." It's by William Davis, MD and is subtitled "Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health." Funny, I was just talking to my niece about this. Not wheat. And certainly not my belly. I was talking about the path to health.

My niece tells me she was recently talking with an acquaintance who is a majordomo for all things cardiac. He made the statement that cardio exercise is key-- not just to good health, but good mental health.

I'm not in a position to argue. But I do know several crazy people who are way into running, exercise, and sports. I can't say I know any fat people who are into running, at least not serious 40 to 50 miles a week variety of runner. But I know lots of overweight people who do exercise with some regularity. Hell, I'm one.

In all of this I still say the focus is wrong. More than what you eat, how much you weigh, or how much and what kind of exercise you perform, it's how you live your life. It's how you love. It's your passion, your creativity, your connection to others, it's how you embrace life and the world of opportunity. It's not how long you live as much as it's how well you live.

Living to the ripe old age of 92, a lonely, bored man holds no appeal whatsoever-- even if I could still touch my toes and walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes. Living to any age fully engaged in exploring, creating, and sharing is where I'd like to end up. I'm not really sure as to the appeal of longevity. Humans are designed to die. Doing so sooner rather that later is certainly not any course I'd recommend pursuing. But then, sometimes I get the feeling people become obsessed with living simply because they haven't lived well enough to die.

Obviously, I need to give this some more thought. In the meantime, I'll take a sesame bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam. Make that lite cream cheese.