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Health & Fitness

The Value of Our Health and Vitality

Our choices contribute 50 percent to our health. Yet people invest in the maintenance of their possessions & fail to evaluate the value of their health and their body.

What factors influence our health? We hear about genetics (20 percent) and environment (20 percent) and access to healthcare (10 percent). However, according to a report of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Initiative (NPAI), Lots to Lose: How America’s Health and Obesity Crisis Threatens our Economic Future, 50 percent of what makes us healthy are our choices and our behaviors! Further, 88 percent of what we spend to be healthy is on medical services compared to four percent for health behaviors! You don’t have to be a genius to see that there is a very obvious problem with our thinking and maybe our value system!

I got to thinking, what is value? According to dictionary.com, value is

  • “relative worth, merit, or importance.
  • monetary or material worth, as in trade or commerce.
  • the worth of something in terms of the amount of other things for which it can be exchanged or in terms of some medium of exchange.
  • equivalent worth or return in money, material, services, etc.
  • estimated or assigned worth; valuation.”


When I ask clients and potential clients about value, early conversations revolve around financial or monetary value. Is the perceived value of my services, or yoga classes worth the price? This is no different than the decision process to join a weight loss program, a gym or purchase fresh foods or any other health promoting related cost. People sometimes agonize over the price of services that will provide them with health and vitality! They agonize paying to enhance or maintain their health. Later conversations with clients always revolve around the value of improved quality of life and the re-emerging full engagement in life.

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Do you agonize as much, or in the same manner, over the cost of an oil change as you do when you consider an investment in your health such as nutrition counseling, gym membership, yoga or meditation classes, or seasonal fruit? What about when you consider new tires for your car? Or painting your home? Or summer camp? Or sports, music, and other activities for your kids? Do you agonize over the cost of your deluxe coffee drink or drive through meal or vending excursion? Although people think about these costs, the immediate value or worth is determined high and purchases are made. After all, people need to get from place to place and our cars get us where we need to go. We need to have a roof over our heads and maintain our investment. We desire “the best” for our kids, and ourselves.

The question now becomes, what value do you place on your health? What is your body worth? This is a very unique question as current health often helps determine this answer. I’ve written in the past on my personal motivations, including very special people in my life who participated in very painful and exhausting treatments for cancer in hopes of the opportunity to keep their body running longer. I personally choose to move because I think of them and cannot come up with a valid excuse not to since I appreciate the ability and choice to move. When I think of food choices, I think of what foods feel good because when I choose healthy foods first and most, then the less healthy choices occur less frequently and in smaller amounts and with conscious choice. I choose to control what I can in regards to health, but that’s my choice and the value I put on my body. 

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When you think of maintaining your car or home, do you think about how much more “life” there is to determine the value of the service. Would the value to fix the air conditioning be the same at 75,000 miles vs. 175,000 miles? When you think of maintaining your body, how much life do you have left and how do you desire that life to unfold? I invite you to determine your value, the value of your body and determine the quality of life value of healthier choices. I invite you to visit a local farmers market and make an investment in your body. I invite you to be as active as you can, regardless of the amount of time or distance you are able to move per session. And I invite you to honor your body and appreciate what health you do have.  

If you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live? 

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