After years of double digit healthcare cost increases and single digit inflation and cost of living increases, the burden of healthcare costs is simply too much for the majority of the working families in this country.  Those of us who are relying on our employers to handle the increases every year are getting short changed on our bonuses and salary increases.  Those of us who are waiting for the government to bail us out are living a life of denial.

At what point does the collective we take a position and announce “We are not going to take it anymore!”?  What should you be doing to get off the healthcare escalator before running out of track?

The first thing we all need to do is recognize the fact that we need to take ownership of the issue, and not rely on someone else to provide the solutions for us.  It’s not going to happen.  Until we recognize the fact that we are the only ones who are responsible for our health not much is going to change.  The rules are simple:  If you don’t change the direction you are going, you will end up exactly where you are heading.  For the majority of us, that direction is not going to lead us to a pretty place.

After all, what do you have if you do not have your health?  You will have more than your share of doctor, hospital and pharmacy bills.  And if they all get sufficiently high, you’ll end up with one less bill… your health insurance bill will go away too because your carrier will just drop you; further exasperating the doctor, hospital, and pharmacy bills.

Second on the list is to review our priorities.  How many times have you heard of someone acquiring a substantial nest egg during his working years only to get sick and die shortly after retirement?  In almost every case, the individual spent his entire working lifetime working, working and working.  Sure.  He amassed great wealth but at what price?  How much enjoyment will he derive from his wealth if he’s no longer around to share it with his family and friends… particularly the greatest gift anyone of us can ever give… our time.

How could that story have changed if that man spent a little more time working on his health and vitality instead of his 401(k) and stock options programs?  How might it have ended if he spent less time in stressful conditions and more time in times of fun and laughter?  Could it have ended differently if he would have gotten just 30 minutes more sleep each night?  What if he could have improved the quality of the sleep he did get?  Might the story have ended differently?

In most cases the answer is a resounding YES!

As a personal trainer, the people that actually pick up the phone and ask me a question about my services have already started to take ownership of the quality of their health and vitality.   In my opinion, they should be congratulated because they have taken the initial steps to address the healthcare crisis we all face.

For me, fitness was a portal, a gateway into the health and vitality arena.  Running was easy and natural.  We all tend to do the things we are naturally good at; running it for me.

Walk into any gym and you’ll see men doing bench presses and women banging away on cardio machines, abdominal machines and leg abductor (inside thigh) machines.  For the most part they are either doing the things they are good at or working the body parts they want to improve the aesthetics of the most.  Of course we all know there is no such thing as spot reduction… but let’s leave that one for another article.

When I used to run between 40 and 60 miles per week who had time for strength training?  Or flexibility training?  I’d rather spend my time pounding the streets.  At the time, strength training was against a runner’s religion.  And flexibility training was only to prevent injury.  So if you didn’t already have an injury, there was no reason to stretch because I was young and dumb and I could take it.  Or so I thought.

It wasn’t until I sustained a debilitating running related injury did I slow down and start incorporating strength and flexibility training into my programs.  And it wasn’t until I got injured due to my competitive strength and flexibility training methods did I bother to learn proper training techniques.

But what if you’re not fortunate enough to recognize something that you are good at enough to enjoy in the first place?  Does that mean you should ignore your fitness and health?  You can get away with it for a while but eventually it will come back and haunt you.  In this case, you will be best served if you find a fitness coach that can help you overcome your concerns about your ability to exercise safely and joyfully.

Now let’s go back to our priorities.  Here’s an experiment.  Go down to your favorite fast food restaurant around lunch time.  Find a cool shade tree to sit under and plan on spending 15-20 minutes there counting the number of $60,000.00+ cars going through the drive through window.  People that spend that kind of money on a car tend to take care of them.  They keep them clean.  They put high test fuel in them.  They have them serviced per the manufacturer’s specifications.

And when the new shine of the vehicle wears off they trade them in and get a new one…

So why don’t we spend the same amount of energy and financial resources to protect our most important vehicle, our physical beings?  Why are we putting low test (aka cheap food) fuels into our bodies?  Why are we running our engines at redline every day (high stress jobs, adrenal fatugue) and pay little regard to regularly scheduled maintenance (exercise)?

The true answer to the question is that we live in a materialistic, capitalistic society that places a premium value on such things.  And these are the things that we all strive for.

The crux of the issue is that our priorities, in the context of our health and vitality, are misaligned.

So here’s a little case study using the automobile as the protagonist of our metaphor.

Car MSRP:  $35,000

Monthly Lease Cost: $400/month

Lease Term: 4 years, 12,000 miles per year.  Add $0.20 for every mile over the lease limit.

Annual insurance: $600.00 / year = $50 / month

Weekly fuel costs:  $25 / week average * 4 = $100 / month.

Annual maintenance costs: $600/year (good luck on this one) = $50 / month.

Total monthly costs to “own” and operate this modest car:  400 + 50 + 100 + 50 = $600 / month, assuming you don’t go over the 12,000 miles per year.

How many people do you know barely spend $60 / month, 10 percent of their auto costs, on their health and vitality?  That’s a monthly gym membership, that many people pay but few benefit from because:

¨     They are not held accountable so they tend to stop going

¨     Do not follow through with their plan to get fit

¨     Do not know how to exercise correctly

¨     Get injured during the process of getting fit

¨     Do not know how to make lifestyle modifications such as proper hydration, nutrition, rest, and stress management to realize the benefits of their exercise efforts

For about half the price of the car scenario anyone can visit with a personal trainer two times per week, 30 minutes per session.  What happens during the sessions, in many cases, is less important than what you will learn and take away with you.  You WILL be held accountable; your exercises will be carefully chosen to match your needs and abilities; the challenge of your exercises will be incrementally progressed, not leap-frogged, reducing the risk of injury; you’ll be coached on proper foods and lifestyle choices.

Most of us will keep on driving our shiny cars.  And when the shine of the sheet metal wears off we’ll trade them in for a new model.  But we only get one personal vehicle, our bodies.  And when the luster of youth wears away and we’re left standing with a decrepit shell of a body, we can always rely on the pharmaceuticals to get us into the end-zone.

For an entertaining and convincing 5 minute movie on a similar topic check out the Town of Allopath mov.