Diet, Exercise and Sleep
Your body is a fascinating machine. Your brain is more powerful than all of the super computers of the world put together. The body can actually heal itself after it becomes injured, not only the body but the mind also. There are three components necessary to operating a healthy body at its optimum efficiency and performance. They are: diet, exercise and sleep.
In today’s world all of the yummy, good tasting food seems to be very bad for our health. It is either high in sodium content or high in sugar or high in fat or high in cholesterol. I guess all of these things make it taste so good. Young people have never been big fans of eating salad. We like to eat hamburgers and French fries and fried chicken and pizza. While these things may not be the healthiest option they are often easily accessible and readily available. In order to be fit and healthy well into our senior years we can treat ourselves to some of these foods once in a while , maybe a treat on the weekend, but we can’t eat these things every day. Trust me, I would love to but then my clothes would not fit properly and my body would become unhealthy. A clever way that I have found to introduce more vegetables into my diet is to drink vegetable juice. For some reason I have become particularly food of carrot juice. Read the labels and watch out for the sugar content. Who knows I might try broccoli juice next.
The body has a sewage system called the lymph system. I was never good at Biology so I cannot really tell you how it works but I know that it is there. In many of the articles I read about health the writers tout the benefit of exercise as being very good for our health. My favourite form of exercise is walking. I was never good at sports and running isn’t my thing. Hong Kong reminds me so much of San Francisco with its steep hills. Just walking to and from lunch can be a workout if there is a steep hill involved. Some people prefer to go to the gym or to lift weights or ride a bike. Whatever you enjoy the most it is important to remember to simply keep moving. Your body will thank you for it. Did you know that if a shark stops moving it will die? Be a shark – keep moving.
Finally, sleep is so very important. It breaks my heart to see so many people falling asleep on the buses either coming to work or coming to school in the morning. I will never forget the pained look and the tears streaming down the face of a little boy on his way to primary school early one morning. He just didn’t have enough sleep the night before and his mom was marching him off to his school for the day. The body needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Your brain needs it to be able to dump all the junk files from the day before and make space for the new day ahead. Think of your cell phone or computer when the memory space is running out. The device gets slow and apps stop working. The same happens to our brains. We make simple mistakes on tests, we can’t concentrate in class and completely misunderstand a new concept. I know you have to study for exams and quizzes but life is all about balance, maybe if you got enough sleep your grades would be better? Why not give it a try and see what happens.
Jesus loved to eat. I am sure he ate healthy too. There wasn’t any McDonalds in his day. He walked everywhere he went and he was always encouraging his disciples to take a rest. There is even a story of him falling asleep in a boat in the midst of a storm. If he could do it then why not you?