Lifestyle is a choice – a continuation of our message in January.  Nila* (*not her real name to protect privacy) had battled with weight throughout her life. She told me her job was very sedentary. She sat in a chair answering phone calls and ate highly processed foods and did not have time to fix daily meals. She loved drinking soda pop because she didn’t like drinking water. Her weight reached to approximately 425 pounds. She took multiple medications for her diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, depression and knees pain. She had a heart attack twice and had two coronary stents implanted. One day she said “I’ve got to do something about my weight, otherwise I would die young.” She was going to have to make real changes to her life.

Nila understoon lifestyle is a choice and there was hope for her only if she addressed the root cause by transitioning to a weight loss promoting diet which sometimes was very tricky. What, when, how much to food to eat and prepare matters. But Nila determined she would start making small choices, like drinking more water, that tied to bigger choices like making healthier food choices. She ate more fruits and vegetables and stayed away from highly processed foods. She also started exercising. Initially she could only walk 25 feet, butt eventually she was walking up to two miles a day.

She began a prayer journal, in which she listed the foods she ate each day. Nila said “The change I have chosen for my life was a gradual process, but it has been the best thing I have ever done. Eating the right food to fuel my body helps me feel great every day.” Nila never felt so encouraged and supported by her family and friends. She felt so happy and content. After three years, Nila had lost over 200 pounds and she was about 50 pounds away from her weight goal.

Nila’s story reminds us that lifestyle is a choice. That choice can dramatically improve one’s life. The latest research shows that excess body weight is a cause of many of the most deadly chronic disease like diabetes, cancer, depression and heart disease.

The food we eat has became the number one cause of premature death. Do you know that our top three killers are linked to overweight? Seventy-five percent of heart attacks are associated with overweight. Thirteen types of cancers are linked to overweight. We are up to sixty times more likely to get diabetes the heavier we get. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (KJV)

“A failure to care for the living machinery is an insult to the Creator. There are divinely appointed rules which if observed will keep human beings from disease and premature death.” EGW, Letter 120, 1901

We live to make choices; what time to get out of bed, to eat lots of processed food or to eat healthy food. In order to have the joy of good health, we have to choose a healthy lifestyle including the eight health principles. We are blessed that we don’t have to do it alone because Christ will help and strengthen us if we ask Him. When you have a healthy lifestyle,… you have a healthy mind. And with a healthy mind, you are able to hear God more and connect easier with Him. That’s the ultimate purpose of good health. May you have an abundance of joy and good health

Yin Schaff, Health Ministries Coordinator