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Your Body the Machine. Changing Perspectives.

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January 11, 2010
	Dr. Tim McCrossen : Head Fitness Ego

With the New Year upon us I thought I should throw my hat in the ring and chime in on weight loss as a New Year’s resolution. I personally don’t like the term or mindset of ‘weight loss.’ I prefer to think of it as one comprehensive plan of ‘maximum wellness.’ A strategy for peak performance for one of the greatest machines ever created (your body) with which weight loss is just one of many happy outcomes. After all for the great majority of us, if you do it right, you can’t achieve peak levels of health without weight loss. (Note the “do it right” part.)

For some reason this is one of the hardest things for people to achieve. It surprises me that we, as a society, focus on short term gratifications while all the while largely taking our bodies for granted. We put them through so much abuse. We don’t usually rest it enough, we put ‘garbage fuel’ into our ‘machine’ and curse it for not working or looking impeccable. 

News flash…we only get one of these beautiful machines to work with for our entire lifetime. Your body is no mid-size luxury car that you can trade in after the 4-year lease is up and get a new one.

Sure we can get a few replacement parts (knees, hips, etc.) that will last ten years or so or we can get our tubes cleaned out and widened (heart stents) so things flow a little better for a time, but all and all your body is your body. We need to strive to keep our original manufacturer’s parts in tip-top shape.

I was in Florida over New Year’s…during the coldest spell on record. (Thermals and sweatpants on the beach aren’t my favorite look!) At any rate, we got to talking with the couple we stayed with about health.

Our male host is an ultra successful businessman who happens to be in great shape. As we chatted he mentioned he does business with many highly successful people and he’s started to notice more and more of a trend.

He told me his colleagues are some of the smartest people you will ever meet; really “dialed in” on how to make and generate money for companies and themselves. Unfortunately, the majority of these folks have the worst health habits he has ever seen. 

While once associated with the less affluent, more and more of the high rollers are rolling themselves right into obesity. They eat horrible food, drink alcohol like there is no tomorrow and the majority have one or more major health issues. He called them “ticking time bombs.” 

You would think that with these terrific minds and an increased focus on the topic of health and wellness, these folks would be on the cutting edge of health strategies. For some reason it DOESN’T compute.  My point is this challenge is one we all face. None of us are alone in this struggle. No amount of resources can alter the basic mechanics of how our bodies work. You got virtually the same make and model as the millionaire down the road. 

You are indeed the greatest machine ever created. Unfortunately you don’t get an unlimited warranty. A focus of weight loss alone is likely to do your body a great disservice.

What kind of fuel do use to run your machine? What kind of maintenance schedule do you keep? Do you purr like a finely-tuned sports car or sputter at every stop light?

In upcoming articles we plan to share a lot of tips to help with the maintenance, improvement and rebuilding of this machine of yours. Get your maintenance log ready, it’s tune-up time!