Take Control … of What You Can

By Michael Krueger

There are so few things in life that are under our direct control. It can be such an elusive thing that if you find something you can control you might want to hang onto it very tightly.

It has been said that when it comes to your health, 20 percent is genetics, 20 percent is luck, and 60 percent is lifestyle. While I’ll take that level of control any day, it also implies a lot of personal responsibility.

 

Lifestyle

I never liked the term “lifestyle” as it applies to health and fitness. The word seems to lack gravitas considering all it encompasses. It is nothing less than the sum total of everything you think, eat, and do. When it comes to your health and fitness, lifestyle is the only thing over which you have 100% control. You can’t do anything about the genetic implications of your grandfather dying of a heart attack at age 49 or your brother having diabetes at age 40, but how you live your life on a daily basis makes the most difference and is completely under your control.

What did you choose to eat today? Did you have lean protein, whole grains, and leafy greens or did you have coffee and a doughnut for breakfast; a greasy burger, French fries, and a Coke for lunch; followed by nachos and beer for dinner? What you eat is 100% under your control, and the decision is yours to make for better or for worse. You may have chosen well or you may have chosen poorly, but in the end you need to own that decision and accept the consequences.

So often people will abrogate their responsibility when it comes to food. I’ve heard all the excuses: “I didn’t have time to make a good breakfast.” “We all went out for pizza as a group, and I didn’t want to be a party pooper.” “Picking healthy food is too hard and expensive.” None of these excuses reflect the fact that no one is forcing you to eat anything you didn’t choose. Because people are so bad at self-policing their dietary choices, various government entities have stepped in and restricted some of the really egregious options like high fructose corn syrup, honking big drinks, trans fats, and other obviously garbage food choices. Whether this is the role the government should be taking (I don’t think it works) is open to debate, but it does show how poor we are at making good decisions for ourselves. Children have decisions made for them; adults should know better. Which one are you?

How about exercise? Did you work out for at least 45 minutes today? Did you do a combination of aerobic and strength training, or did you blow it off in favor of some other more appealing activity, like watching “American Idol”?

A sedentary lifestyle is on par with smoking and obesity when it comes to diminishing both quality of life and life expectancy. Everyone has heard this. The evidence is irrefutable, and yet the majority of us sit on our collective butts for the bulk of the day and then whine about weight gain, illness, lethargy, and the cost of insurance and health care.

You have chosen firefighting as your vocation, and a fine choice it is. Now what are you doing to prove that you are worthy to follow in the footsteps of those who came before you and to set a high standard for those who follow? Are you working hard to maintain a fit and healthy mind and body, or are you a poseur?

 

Commitment

I don’t like to use the word “must”; it’s an ugly word that tends to provoke little more than pushback from those to whom it is applied. A “must” freely chosen is a conscious choice to do what one knows to be right and which is undertaken without coercion or compulsion. This is the state of mind that indicates a free will and complete control for the individual. 

By freely taking on the responsibility for your own welfare, you absolve all others from any blame for you bad decisions. You also may take credit for all the good things that come your way as a result of those good decisions. This is personal control taken to an extreme.

Once you have committed to a fit and healthy life, you need to “walk the walk.” This is by far the most difficult aspect of fitness. You have no one to blame but yourself for your shortcomings. When you eat garbage, it’s your choice. If you don’t get enough sleep, that’s your choice. If you miss a workout, that’s your choice as well. The fitness life is a difficult life, but it comes with great rewards.

A life dedicated to fitness is one that gives its greatest rewards to the one who made the commitment to begin with. Sure, all those around you, from your family to your department to society at large, reap a certain benefit, but the bulk of the reward goes directly to you. You are the one who doesn’t need prescription drugs. You are the one who can hold up your end in any situation, be it work or recreation. You are the one achieving your genetic potential. You are the one who looks and feels good, and you are the one who is living life as it was meant to be lived.

 

Moving Forward

Whether you are 18 or 81, the life you live is the life you’ve chosen to create. You may choose to make poor decisions and blame others. You may encounter setbacks and then choose to find fault with the system rather than look inward. There are any numbers of ways you can slough off responsibility for your choices and then brood over the consequences.

If this is the life you choose, so be it. I can’t imagine it’s easy to reconcile the life of a firefighter with the attitude of a victim, but I’m sure some do it every day. If that is the way you have been living, even just a little bit, it’s time to change. This is your opportunity to take complete control of your life and make the most of the years you have ahead of you.

Commit to taking the next 90 days and making the changes in your health, fitness, and attitude that will give you the most benefit. Look at your diet, your sleep, and your exercise choices, and make some positive changes.

How, you may ask, do I do that now if I haven’t been able to do it previously? The answer is simple: Pick one thing in your life that you don’t like, and just change it. You may eat poorly–most Americans do–so make a single change. Perhaps you could eat one piece of fruit every day rather than a candy bar. Once you get used to that, build on it. Next time you go out for lunch, pick lean meat over fatty meat; start small and grow, and soon making better food choices just becomes your life.

You may be a late night television addict and that causes you to be sleep deprived. Push yourself to fall asleep a little earlier. Start by taking one night per week and just shut off the TV and go to bed. I’m not suggesting that you will change the habits of many years in one week; start out slowly, but start today. After a few days of one night per week, try another, then two in a row, then three, and so on, until you have switched over to a more healthful sleep pattern. Eventually you will notice how much better you feel and that you don’t really miss what this or that celebrity is up to. If you go into late night TV gossip withdrawal, there is always TIVO.

Lastly, look at your exercise and activity habits. Some people find this to be the easiest thing to change, simply because it’s something that you can do and be done with. Get in a 45-minute workout today, and you don’t even have to think about it until next time. It is very different from your diet, which requires constant monitoring, or your sleep, which may be disrupted by circumstances beyond your control.

Exercise is something that grows on you. A workout today leads to a workout tomorrow. Every week of success turns into a month of successes and every month to a year and every year to a decade; soon, you are a little perpetual motion machine.

All of these changes can be accomplished little by little. A misstep here and there isn’t the end of the world; you just pick it up again where you left off. If it helps, plan small cheat days. A sweet treat every few days won’t derail a healthy diet, nor will a late night with friends mess up a quality long-term sleep pattern. Missing a workout because you got a call or because you are on vacation isn’t the worst thing that can happen; reschedule.

 

Take Charge

You are most likely to die from an accident when you are in you teens and 20s. Once you hit 30 or so, there is a lull in mortality. Then when you move into your 40s and 50s, that is when the genetic time bombs may start going off. If you make it past 60, your past life choices start dragging you down. Diabetes, heart disease, joint dysfunction, and obesity begin taking their toll not only on life expectancy but on quality of life as well.

There isn’t anything you can do about the march of time, but there is a great deal you may do about the negative effects that they have on your body, mind, and spirit. Why live a life of disability, bitterness, and regret when you can choose to create a life of happiness, vitality, and contentment?

It’s not too late to get it right; start today.

 

Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.com.

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