When most people think of retirement, they are essentially thinking of having enough money to maintain their lifestyle after signing off from their regular work. While this is important, it is definitely not the only thing that anyone planning for a peaceful and glorious retirement should be focusing on.
There are a lot of other things that you should be thinking about that will ensure that you enjoy every single day of your life after retirement ever before your family requires the services of a funeral undertaker.
Being in superb health is one of them. And I want us to take a closer look at this important subject in this piece.
Just like retirement itself, which many don’t consider as requiring attention until it suddenly dawns on them that they could no longer continue to work even if they wanted to, most people look at poor health as something you’ve to deal with when it becomes poor.
It never occur to most people that forming a healthy habit from even when you’re young, could guarantee a longer life, devoid of pains and heartache that sicknesses and diseases bring upon a body that is afflicted by them.
I should know. My own experience is a case study. I’ll be 60 at my next birthday. Looking back at my state of health today, I sometimes wish I could turn the hands of the clock backwards and change a few things about the way I had handled some aspects of my health.
Of course, that wish is like a beggar’s desire to ride a horse. There are some things that cannot be reversed. You can never compare a car that was put back in shape after an accident with a car that never got bashed slightly even once, the fact that the two cars were bought the same day notwithstanding.
All I can do about my health today is to adhere strictly to what will promote my well-being. I cannot afford the luxury of taking chances with any aspect of my health now. I don’t need anyone to tell me that. I drum it into my head myself.
I could never forget what the late nationalist and one of Nigeria’s most respected founding fathers and hero, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe [the great Zik] said when he was closing in on 90 or thereabout. He was quoted as saying life was sweet.
I want to keep on enjoying this sweet life myself till that ripe old age. So, I’ve been compelled to polish my act.
Now, what about you, my reader? How are you handling your health issue?
Whatever your answer is, know this one thing for sure: you are better off paying close attention to your health right now when trouble has not surfaced than to be sorry later when it will become an issue.
And if you’ll permit me to tell you the truth, it almost always does!
If I’ve gotten your attention with that statement, then what should you be doing about maintaing your good health, assuming it’s great right now?
The first thing I’ll point out to you is that you should watch what you eat. It has been discovered that most of our health problems arise from poor eating habit. Most of us treat our stomach like a garbage can. Anything goes, good or bad.
A wise man once said we should eat to live and not live to eat. Eating to live means just taking enough of the right diet to keep you going. And living to eat is to be stuffing your stomach with food, any food, whether you’re hungry or not.
In other words, eating just about anything, irrespective of what impact it could have on your body, is not only foolhardy, it’s extremely dangerous to your health.
The problem majority of people have is lack of adequate knowledge on this matter. That condition perfectly underlines the importance of what the Word of GOD said in Hosea 4:6 where He said “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge….”
Until very recently, I wouldn’t have known that I had been taking poison without knowing it. And you’re probably still taking it gladly yourself.
“Poison?” I can see the vehement objection to my claim on your face. “No, I’ve never taken poison. Why would I? Am I crazy?”
But let me ask you, have you ever added salt to your food, eat white flour bread and all the other stuff made with white flour and, maybe, sweeten them with refined sugar?
You have? Oh well, you’ve been taking poison without knowing it. Are you kidding me? You ask. No, I kid you not.
Until I read a Brian Tracy’s article titled “Eat for Health and High Energy” recently, I would never have classified these three potential killers that we take as food as veritable poisons.
Hear Tracy: “To be really healthy, and live a long happy life, you need to eliminate what I call the three white poisons as well. These three white poisons are salt, sugar and white flour products. Each of them is bad for you and none of them is necessary for optimal health.”
My jaw dropped when I read that paragraph in the article. I’d known all along that those three items should never be consumed in large quantities.
But no one ever went as far as calling them poisons before now. That word poison really got my attention. And it changed my attitude towards these items forever.
You are probably wondering what maintaining good health has got to do with retiring peacefully and living gloriously afterwards. Quite a lot, friend.
Let’s start from what happens to you if your health breaks down. Depending on your state of finances when it happens, loss of good health automatically knocks you out of the race of living normally.
Your main focus, from the moment your health fails, is how to get well. That means all your resources, and the resources of those who care about you, will be diverted to getting you back on your feet.
If you are not well-to-do when this happens, your fate will be in the hands of other people who have the means to look after you and are disposed to doing so. Otherwise, it’ll be good night, sooner than later.
Unfortunately, even if you have the means, your money will not be enough to insulate you from the excruciating pains that some diseases bring upon your body. Worst still, you could exhaust all your money and still die in the end.
Just imagine for a moment. Is that the sort of experience you’d like to have in your retirement, transiting from one hospital to another and from one specialist doctor to another, having hospital attendants poking their hands through all parts of your body?
May GOD forbid it, you say. And I join you in rejecting it.
But a surer and more intelligent way to reject it is to start cultivating a healthy eating habit from right now after reading this article. You can do it. And I encourage you to go for it.
Next week: What Is Healthy Eating Habit?
Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!
nice post. thanks.