Venice Beach, Los Angeles, CA... I am ready to return home after a truly awesome New Years on the west coast. Biked over 10 miles along the Venice/Santa Monica pier, trained at the legendary Gold's Gym in Venice, and had some of the best food I've had in all my travels, but the holidays are over, and now it's back to work.
Another year of training has passed, and another year of new beginnings is only 12 hours away on this coast in the United States. We've seen some horrible things as we reflect back on this year in healthcare, it seems as some Americans are almost entirely giving up all hope. We have reached the point where we are pushing our medical problems and risks to the absolute limit. Our obesity rate is rising, our dependence on prescription drugs is rising, our bad habit of looking the other way at problems or disguising them with fashion or excuses has continued more than ever, we have even reached the point where we can no longer even financially sustain our life-saving emergency rooms in hospitals in our most populated cities.
There is no doubt that 2013 has brought some of the worst history of health care in our nation's total history... And what has the government done to stop this? A socialized medicine plan that does not even work while we continue to subsidize the very same corporations that bring us horrible diets, and even worse lifestyles. We see prescription drugs marketed in seemingly endless streams of TV ads as the one cure to everything, instead of facing the easier answer, yet harder road, of a changing our lifestyles and our diets. We are bombarded in the mainstream media with the dangers and threats to society, terrorism, guns, global warming, foreign wars... But we seemingly ignore the main danger that kills over half a million American's every year, disease. Diseases, that are self inflicted and nearly completely preventable and controlled by changing lifestyles and changing the way we eat, train, and live. But a midst all of the b.s. TV ads, all the infomercials, and all of the solutions of fixing everything with a pill, or a drug, in 2013, we have seen hope.
There is no doubt that 2013 has brought some of the worst history of health care in our nation's total history... And what has the government done to stop this? A socialized medicine plan that does not even work while we continue to subsidize the very same corporations that bring us horrible diets, and even worse lifestyles. We see prescription drugs marketed in seemingly endless streams of TV ads as the one cure to everything, instead of facing the easier answer, yet harder road, of a changing our lifestyles and our diets. We are bombarded in the mainstream media with the dangers and threats to society, terrorism, guns, global warming, foreign wars... But we seemingly ignore the main danger that kills over half a million American's every year, disease. Diseases, that are self inflicted and nearly completely preventable and controlled by changing lifestyles and changing the way we eat, train, and live. But a midst all of the b.s. TV ads, all the infomercials, and all of the solutions of fixing everything with a pill, or a drug, in 2013, we have seen hope.
We have seen people like Maria Kang, the full time worker, and mother of 3 who should be a full-time fitness model. Scooby Werkstatt, the engineer/bodybuilder who has helped thousands of people with 100's of videos over his completely free YouTube channel. Diana Nyad, who in her 60's swam from Florida to Cuba. Rocco Dispirito, who defied death and medications at age 35, by changing everything 35 prior years had done to him. Bessie Cooper, who lived to 116 years old, and left us this year. These are the people, these are the strong voices in health & well being that did not tolerate the answers society gave them. They did not listen to someone when they said it can't be done. Nor did they rely on a quick and easy way out. They dug deep, and used their body's and minds that they were born with to get to where they are. They defied the odds as Americans of having little to no chance at being fit, being healthy, and achieving longevity. And they shared this with the world as an inspiration to all of us. And thankfully, while these people were in the spotlight in the health world, they were not the few. There were many in 2013 that followed this movement. There are changes happening in health care that shows that we are no longer going to accept where we are, and we realize that if we don't change the way we live our lives, we better damn well not be expecting a long life out of it.
We are finally realizing through the power of the internet, social media, and common sense, that starting a healthy and better life is not an impossible dream, and it's not something that's out of our reach. It's something that with small changes everyday, can become huge changes to our life and to the way we see ourselves, our bodies, and our minds. As we look on to 2014, instead of accepting that we have bad genetics, or we don't have enough time to train, or healthy eating is to hard. We can see that today, through these small changes, we can take this obesity epidemic, and this healthcare crisis, and we can make a tremendous change to our lives for a better, healthier lifestyle, and much greater tomorrow. From Venice Beach, Los Angeles, Happy New Years.
We are finally realizing through the power of the internet, social media, and common sense, that starting a healthy and better life is not an impossible dream, and it's not something that's out of our reach. It's something that with small changes everyday, can become huge changes to our life and to the way we see ourselves, our bodies, and our minds. As we look on to 2014, instead of accepting that we have bad genetics, or we don't have enough time to train, or healthy eating is to hard. We can see that today, through these small changes, we can take this obesity epidemic, and this healthcare crisis, and we can make a tremendous change to our lives for a better, healthier lifestyle, and much greater tomorrow. From Venice Beach, Los Angeles, Happy New Years.
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This article is solely opinion of the author and written for entertainment purposes only.
Consult a doctor or medical professional before beginning any fitness, diet, or weight training program.
This article is solely opinion of the author and written for entertainment purposes only.
Consult a doctor or medical professional before beginning any fitness, diet, or weight training program.
Happy new year!
ReplyDeleteSame to you my friend.
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