Sometimes besting yourself is not the best thing

Only the best doctor will do when one is feeling unwell. Our loved ones insist on it for our sake when we are incapacitated, we are willing to impoverish ourselves looking to get well even when there is seemingly no hope. It is human nature, we desire to live, we desire to thrive.

It is also in our nature to look for the best deal possible. To come out on top when dealing with another, to get the best out of everything, especially when it means gaining an advantage over someone else. We always want to pay less to get more, to save some to have more...it is in our nature too. We do not want to give too much of what we have to get what we don't have. We want it all.

This same human nature will reason its way into a double portion of food, because it is cheat day and I have worked so hard during the week. I deserve this.

It will move your lips, and the sound will come out, the sound that is definitely not your own, and it will say, I will do ten push ups, instead of fifteen, that will be enough. After all, doing even one makes me a hero...who are you bargaining with? Who do you best?

We forget that we cannot best ourselves by giving ourselves a bad deal. We do not realise what that bad deal is because the results are not immediate. The "here and now" gratification sounds much better than a delayed prize that is not for sure anyway.....sound familiar? Personal finance works the same way. Too much here and now, and the future might not be so bright.

So, quit the daily bargaining, run the full 10 K if that's what you set out to do, if you can do it. It's worth the future gratification. Lift and lift heavy, huff and puff away, look stupid while doing it. You won't look so stupid in your six pack on the beach this summer.

Go and dance. Fall over yourself. Fall over others. Laugh about it. Get up, and dance again. Nobody's going to be laughing when you are a knock out at the high school reunion.

This week on BBC I heard a scary statistic. In the next 10 years, 60 percent of adults will be over weight or obese.

Think about it.

What you do today will put you in the enviable 40 percent 10 years to come.


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