Choosing Health

What never ceases to fascinate me is my penchant for choosing things that are basically "unhealthy" for me. I was thinking about it again this weekend as I reflected on my past few week. We live in an age where information about how to extend and live a healthier life has never been easier to access. We know tons about nutrition, exercise, meaningful relationships, spiritual vitality, sleep, psychology, disease, finances, stress, addiction, etc . . . yet we still consistently choose things that are not healthy for us. At least I do.

So what makes us do this? Is it our sinful nature? Our lack of self-esteem? An unconscious death wish? Our dysfunctional relationships? The inability to truly understand the nature of delayed gratification? Or maybe it's just pure laziness?

I know what a healthy day should look like for me yet I consistently choose to do exactly the opposite. I waste the time I do have avoiding what I know is good for me! Ironic. I'm not beating myself up or anything, I'm simply stating reality. My goal for the rest of this month is going to be to:

1. Journal in my planner how many times every day I choose healthier vs unhealthier choices.
2. Increase my healthy choices by at least 25% and see if it makes much of a difference on my well-being.

I don't want to always choose health but I do want to choose health more. Of course balancing different healthy choices will be difficult as they may conflict occasionally. What should be really interesting (and perhaps the best part of this experiment) will be to hopefully be more aware of why and how I avoid choosing health. If I can find out what stops me, I can change those things and hopefully lead a healthier, wiser, more enjoyable life. Perhaps facing what holds me back will be tougher then actually choosing the better choices . . .