The 1st Step

Now it doesn’t have to be the 1st decision, but it may the easiest one to control and start with. Your diet.

And what is this the first step for? Well, a healthier life. We are seeing a trend of people becoming more unhealthy and it all leads to what we eat and what we do(or more so, don’t do). If we traded in the grains we eat with vegetables and even walked 20 minutes a day, we would be healthier as a whole. But even doing this can feel like a tall task to start with for some.

So, my challenge to you would be to stay to the outside of the aisles at the grocery store while grocery shopping. Stick to the produce, deli, meat, and dairy sections. Of course you will probably need items from the aisles, but by just exchanging your snacks from the aisles to the outer boundaries of the grocery store will change your diet and state of health. And it is a choice that you can make. You are the only one who can make that choice.

In the 60’s, smoking was much more accepted and the majority of adults - “A survey of smoking habits for 1964‐66 showed that 52.4 percent of American men over 21 were smokers.” And only 4 years late in 1970, it dropped 10% and another 4% by 1975. Why? Because information about the dangers of smoking and what health risks occur from smoking was being shared as it was discovered.

If we know what the dangers of a bad diet are, as in high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, etc, then why don’t we do something about it. Yes, genetics can have a place in things like high blood pressure, but 47% of adults have issues with high blood pressure and those 112 million adults don’t struggle with their blood pressure because of genetics.

Please take that first step. Care for yourself and your health. Trade one snack from the aisles to the borders of the grocery store this week. Start a new habit. You can do it!

Article with stats on blood pressure - https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm

article with stats on smoking percentages - https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/16/archives/percentage-of-adults-smoking-cigarettes-declining.html