Don’t Wait Until You’re Almost Dead To Start Taking Care Of Your Health
Reaching old age is like preparing for a trip you know will happen in the future.
People don’t like to be told to eat healthy.
People don’t even like to hear other people’s healthy habits.
Whenever I say “no” to more salt or meat, people follow-up with “why not?”. Then I explain I’m taking care of my health. And then they mocking me, saying it’s dumb to “not live a little”. “What if you die tomorrow?” is usually part of their argument.
Well, we don’t know when we’re going to die. But that doesn’t mean we should treat our bodies like crap.
If I end up living for a long time, my future self will thank me for putting in some effort.
And there are 3 main reasons I started to think this way.
Reaching old age is like preparing for a trip you know will happen in the future.
We’re all getting old.
That’s why this analogy is perfect. Imagine you’re going to the desert. What would you bring with you? Water? Sunscreen? Hat?
Other people will also be on this trip. And you can see they forgot to bring the essentials to survive. “How the f*ck can someone come to the desert without water?”, you ask yourself. And it’s not like people didn’t have time to pack. They had their whole lives to prepare. But it’s easy to miss a few things. It’s decades away.
And living in YOLO mode will make you forget about the future. The dopamine rush today is much nicer than having less pain in 30 years’ time.
That’s why I try my best to not screw my future self. I try to “pack water” by exercising regularly. Or eating loads of vegetables. Or regularly brushing my teeth.
So start “packing” now.
Investing in your health right now has a cost. And you’ll only reap the benefits much later in life.
To be better prepared for the “trip” we’re going to take in the future, we have to get ready right now. Not when we’re about to board the plane.
This means investing time and money while you still can, so there’s less pain in the future. This means saying “No” to a lot of things, like:
Choosing healthier ingredients rather than industrialized junk
Choosing to go to the gym instead of watching Netflix
Cooking healthy meals instead of ordering junk food
Saving money for retirement instead of going on fancy trips.
And there's no way around it.
At some point, we start to decay. For some, it comes earlier. For others, later in life. But the bill comes for everyone.
Whenever I mention to my friends that I'm doing something for my health, they mock me. They usually say something like "Jesus, just live a little". Or "it will never happen to me". They're stuck in YOLO mode.
And this is something I see in older people as well. They think that dropping dead from a heart attack will never happen to them. Or getting a sudden cancer diagnosis. So they refuse to eat more veggies. They also mock people with healthier habits. But when shit hits the fan, and they go to the ICU, they wish they had more time. More time with their family, to travel, to enjoy life.
And sometimes they don’t even have time left to wish anything. Their time is up. So there's nothing wrong with investing a little of your time today to avoid crappy health in the future.
Your future self will thank you.
When you reach old age without preparing, you’re probably going to face years (or decades) of pain.
We all know that people are living longer today.
But it doesn’t mean their quality of life is great when they get older. When people get older, it means there’s a higher chance of developing diseases, like hypertension and diabetes.
And if people are living longer, it means the chances of developing these diseases are even higher. This study, for example, found that people in their 20’s in 2006 were likely to live another 56 years. The problem? 13 of those years would be with diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, etc.
And the worst part is these numbers deteriorated when compared to 1998.In the 1990’s, people in their 20’s lived another 55 years, with 10 years of crappy health.
If you don’t want to live your last years in a hospital bed, change your habits.
You probably have time to change your lifestyle.
It’s easy to get caught up in perfectionland (a.k.a. Instagram).
But you don’t need to complete an Ironman to start making good decisions. You can start with the first step:
Throw away all the crappy food in your house. Then go to the supermarket and choose unprocessed stuff. Anything with too many ingredients you can’t pronounce is probably not that good for you.
Put on your sneakers and go for a walk around the block. You don’t need to run a marathon to get out of the house. Just open the door and leave. Once you’re on the street, just walk for another 20 minutes. The goal is to get you out of the house, and moving.
Start cooking a single healthy meal. You don’t need to have a full 30-day meal plan. Just cook a single healthy meal. Start building knowledge. One meal at a time.
Think of how you want your old self to be like. And start rewarding him.