Health

I’ve been in medical practice in family medicine for over 26 years and hear all kinds of reasons why we don’t take care of ourselves. I include myself in that because every time I try to lose weight, I find lots of reasons why I am too busy and for some “unknown” reason, our health often takes a back seat to many other less important things in life. I’m in the process of trying to figure out why I am not in perfect shape and so I thought I could at least write about it and see if any of you are in “the same boat.”

Most of us do not have a job that keeps us active – in fact most of us do not even walk or ride bikes to work or school or even to the grocery store for one or two small items. Why not? It’s an easy answer: We are too busy – it takes time to make sure the tires have enough air and I can do three times more errands if I drive or it might rain. Okay, you get it and you’ve probably come up with similar excuses.

Our health is so valuable and not replaceable in many situations. Once we’ve had a stroke or heart attack or even gotten diabetes, we are often compromised for life. Maybe we procrastinate because Grandma lived into her late nineties and we expect to do the same, but I’ll bet Grandma walked more than you (or I) do. Families right now are on the go from dawn until long after dusk. Supper often includes fast food to just make sure we are fed and get to the next thing we have signed up to do.

I’ve heard most of the excuses in my practice, but some are new to this generation. There are more families where both parents work than ever before. Since I’m a working woman, I am not going to criticize the working woman, but I have seen that the two wage family tends to buy more – and then want more, often paralyzing the family if one can’t work for a while or a child needs attention for a few days or weeks. Many families recently have felt that pinch when one of the wage earners lost their job and they could no longer pay the mortgage. When a family is in crisis like this, going to the fitness club for one hour of exercise is not on the agenda.

The two wage family should have a significant advantage – to pay for a housecleaner or save more for the next crisis, but I don’t see that conservative decision making is always the case. That affects more than just the ability to find time to exercise. I see significantly more depression and marriage crises. Financial stress can break up a marriage or destroy a family more than any other issue that I know of. Financial pressures also lead to a lot more substance abuse – like alcohol and other illegal drugs. Even marital affairs become more prevalent in times of adversity. Suicide or physical abuse becomes a very real problem when a person or family is in crisis.

I want to recommend a book that has been in publication since 1992 and has several subsequent books written from it. It is called Margin and is written by a friend of mine – Dr. Richard Swenson, a family physician from a small town in Wisconsin. His premise in writing this book is that most of us are not living with any margin in our lives in some key areas. He talks about finding margin in our time, our finances, our emotions and our physical energy. He calls margin “the gap between ourselves and our limits.” He states that “people are exhausted, stressed and overloaded.” This compromises so many parts of our lives.

I’ve been burned out in my medical practice and I found that I was the last one to know it. Most of the things we do are good, but do we have to do it all – at the pace we do it? That is what compromises our health and happiness – and sometimes valuable relationships and personal contentment? Why do we get so busy? When does it happen? Maybe we think that only we can do the things we do. Maybe we think it’s just for a season. Maybe our egos get in the way. The busyness often creeps up on us, but many of us are paying too big a price for it – and often ignorantly until the price becomes too high.

As family physicians, we see the busyness manifest as headaches or weight gain, ulcers, alcoholism or depression. Even some cancers have taken root in times of stress when our immune systems are compromised. I’ve seen too many people die before their time and I feel bad because something could have prevented their deaths, but busyness and poor care of themselves cost them their lives.

This is really an epidemic and I am even seeing it in teenagers with all the activities they get involved in and they continue the lifestyle until, they too, are burned out. How many times have we been frustrated by a friend who stops over without advanced warning? I’ve changed jobs this past year and I can honestly say that I can now look forward to a friend’s unannounced visit and I’m not exhausted if we stay up too late to reflect on our past times together.

Finances are so tight with most of us, that we go to work sick and rarely take all of our vacation – hoping our employer will pay out the vacation if we don’t use it all. What if you went to bed and slept until you woke up on your own without an alarm? You might actually enjoy the day! There is some very good research out right now that shows that if people get 8 hours of sleep a night, they actually lose weight. I would agree with that. Eating late after work and then a “treat” before bed because you are exhausted – or even a donut to get a little energy if you need to stay up late – all of these things only let you gain weight and add to depression.

I challenge you to take a look at your lifestyle and then have the courage to take action – including downsizing a house or quitting a job to get back to physical and emotional health. Take this seriously and I will guarantee you your life will be the better for it!